Butter Pecan Syrup

1. Gather the ingredients.

2. In a small saucepan, boil the water and add the sugar. Stir the mixture until sugar until it dissolves.

3. Add pecans and stir.

4. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes without stirring.

5. Next, add the butter pecan extract or maple flavoring and the butter and stir until well mixed.

6. Let syrup cool a bit, and serve it warm or cooled with pancakes, waffles, French toast, ice cream or anything else that would benefit from its fabulous flavor. 

7. Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Benefits of Making Your Own Syrup

Making your own pancake or waffle syrup lets you control what goes into the recipe so you won't have to worry about extra additives that might come in store-bought syrups.

With this base recipe for butter pecan syrup, you use your own ingredients—and just a few of them—to create a flavorful syrup. But you can play around with the ingredients in order to create an even healthier alternative.

Perhaps substitute a portion of another sweetener into a portion of the sugar to see how it comes out. Agave nectar can be a good alternative sweetener to play with when you are cooking. Honey also might be an alternative sweetener to substitute for the sugar. Try mixing half of the sugar with a cup of either of those. You might not need so much sugar and, instead, prefer the pecan or maple flavors to take over—that's the good part of being able to make the recipe yourself. Plus, you can probably tweak it as you are preparing the syrup.

Whether you deviate from the recipe or not, this pecan syrup recipe gives you the basis to create something delicious. And, if you grow your own pecans without pesticides, you can shell and use them.