Is Maple Syrup Keto Friendly?
Pure maple syrup is made from the sap of sugar maple trees. It’s high in sucrose, the same type of sugar in table sugar. Sugar is a carbohydrate, so it isn’t keto diet friendly.
Luckily, combining a healthier sweetener, like our Monk Fruit Sweetener, with a high quality maple extract, results in a syrup that you can drown your pancakes in guilt-free.
This homemade, sugar free maple syrup is perfect for sweetening salad dressings, for baking, and topping keto waffles or pancakes.
How to Thicken Sugar Free Maple Syrup
Sugar free sweeteners don’t have the same properties that allow it to melt into a syrup, so if you just use powdered monk fruit sweetener, water, and maple extract, the result will be a very thin (but delicious!) syrup. We use it like this when we just need a syrup for salad dressings or baking.
If you’re using it to top pancakes or waffles, you probably want your syrup to have a bit more body, so that it sticks to the top of your breakfast goods without quickly being absorbed.
We tested 3 options here: Xanthan gum, agar-agar, and gelatin. The good news is, all 3 options work. Once the syrup is done boiling, agar-agar and gelatin whisk right into the mixture. Xanthan gum can be incorporated by adding the mixture to a blender to remove clumps.
All of the options result in a syrup that will thicken after its cooled. But seriously, that’s not a problem when you consider that you’ve made a treat that satisfies your sweet tooth cravings with almost no carbs!
To return the mixture to a syrup, just reheat it. We just put the jar of thickened syrup in a bowl of boiling water, and in 5-10 minutes, it’s ready to pour again.
How to Make Keto Maple Syrup
Step 1: Mix powdered Monk Fruit Sweetener and water in a small saucepan. You can easily make your own powdered monk fruit sweetener by adding the granulated sweetener to a blender and processing until it’s a fine powder.
Step 2: Heat the mixture over medium heat until it’s boiling, and allow it to boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove it from heat.
Step 3: Add a maple extract. You can find high quality maple extracts online that will give your syrup a genuine flavor.
Step 4: Whisk in a thickener. We like using agar-agar, which is a type of seaweed and is a typically used as a vegan replacement for gelatin. If you have gelatin or xanthan gum on hand, both of those work as well.
Agar-agar and gelatin are not only healthier options, but they also whisk in well to the hot mixture. Xanthan gum should be avoided by anyone with a sensitive digestive system, but if you tolerate it, a small amount can be added to the syrup and then blended into a thickened mixture.
Keto Maple Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 cup ZenSweet Monk Fruit Sweetener powdered*
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon pure maple extract
- 1/4 teaspoon agar agar, gelatin, or xanthan gum optional, to thicken
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, add the powdered monk fruit sweetener and water. Heat over medium heat, bring to simmer, and allow to boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat.
- Add pure maple extract and whisk to combine.
- If thickening your syrup, add the agar-agar or gelatin directly into the pan and immediately start whisking to combine. If using xanthan gum, add the syrup into a blender, and then sprinkle in the xanthan gum while processing over a low speed. Do not over process or the mixture will become and stay foamy.
- Store leftovers in an air tight container at room temperature. The mixture will gel if you've used a thickener. To turn back into a syrup, just reheat the mixture and whisk, while thinning with a little water if necessary.
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