Homemade Orange Syrup

I bought a big bag of those cute little clementines a few weeks ago, and for some reason, never got around to eating them. Last week, I thought, what am I going to do with these stupid oranges? So I decided to make clementine juice.


After squeezing fifteen or so teeny little oranges, I had about a cup of orange juice. Not nearly enough to bother drinking. So what else could I do with it? I decided to make something that would keep for a while, and be useful in desserts--orange syrup!

I got ideas from other recipes, but the final version is all my own. Check it out under the jump!

Clementine Syrup

1 C fresh mandarin/clementine juice

½ C granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla*

1 T butter

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and stir to dissolve the sugar. When sugar is dissolved, lower temperature and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the juice is reduced to a nice syrupy consistency. Cool to room temperature, and then transfer to a glass jar or bottle for storage. Refrigerate.

You will need to reheat the syrup for 30 seconds in the microwave before you use it, because it does harden some in the fridge.

Put it in plain yogurt instead of sugar or honey, serve over pancakes, or use as flavoring for frostings and glazes. I suspect it would also pair nicely with ice cream or other plain desserts like custards and panna cotta. It has a very strong mandarin flavor, not like regular oranges, and the vanilla also comes through nicely.

*It would probably also be really good with almond extract, but I didn't have any on hand. Someone should try it with almond and let me know how it goes.