Enjoy sweet and smooth maple syrup without all the sugar or calories with this quick and easy to make homemade sugar free maple syrup!
The inspiration behind this recipe is a deep love for pancakes. That and a deep desire to save money. Before I developed this simple yet tasty recipe, I was using Nature’s Hollow’s Sugar Free Maple Syrup. And, yeah, I still keep a bottle or two of Nature’s Hollow syrup on hand for times when I am super busy and don’t have time to make my own. But mainly I just whip up a batch of this easy and equally delicious homemade maple syrup.
In this recipe, I made a point to use xanthan gum as the thickener. If you like glucomannan as a thickener, you can use that istead. I personally do not like either the flavor nor the consistency that glucomannan (or gluccie as we Trim Healthy Mamas call it) creates.
Oh and something neat about this recipe. Want raspberry syrup? Ok, just swap the maple flavoring with raspberry flavoring. Want banana syrup? Swap the maple flavoring with banana flavoring. You get the point, just swap the maple flavoring for whatever flavoring you like!
Sugar Free Maple Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold filtered water, divided
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ⅓ cup xylitol, erythritol, or equivalent sweetener
- ¼ teaspoon mineral salt
- 1 tablespoon maple flavoring
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix ¼ cup cold water with xanthan gum.
- Mix remaining water, sweetener, and salt together in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
- While whisking, mix in the xanthan gum water.
- Stir constantly until it begins to thicken.
- Remove from heat and add in maple flavoring and vanilla.
- Mixture should thicken more as it cools. If you'd like it to be thicker, add more xanthan gum a pinch at a time.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
I just tried making this recipe this morning and I was very disappointed!! I don’t know if I did something wrong – I followed the directions to the T – but it tasted horrible!!! I hope that store bought sugar free syrup will taste better! I always made my own homemade maple syrup before my son was diagnosed with diabetes so this is a great disappointment!! I don’t know if it is the erythritol or if I could use Stevia instead.
Hi, Betty. So sad it didn’t work out for you! That is a risk with any recipe, but especially healthy ones it seems. Yes, it may be the erythritol as some people just don’t like it (though I do recommend trying it again in the future because as you get used to non-sugar sweeteners, you start acquiring a like for things like erythritol). One sweetener I’ve recently been loving a lot lately is monk fruit, so that might be a better option for this recipe.
Another thing that might be contributing to a bad flavor is maple flavoring. Some flavorings are not as high quality as others and can cause an unpleasant or chemically flavor.
If you want to keep it healthy (like a syrup that does not have artificial sweeteners) for a manufacturer bought version, I recommend Nature’s Hollow’s maple syrup or ChocZero’s maple syrup.
Thanks for your feedback, Betty!
My was awful also
Sorry to hear. 🙁 Unfortunately recipes are hit or miss for each unique person. I’m sad it didn’t work for you.
Hi….superb syrup recipe!!! would you be willing to share your pancake recipe as well? Your photo is to die for…lol
Hi, Linda! Thank you! This is one of the pancake recipes from the original Trim Healthy Mama cookbook I believe. It’s available on Amazon here. Keep in mind, I major babied them so the picture would be pretty so in real life I do NOT put forth the effort to make them that lovely usually lol. I also don’t eat that many. 😉
I’m loving this recipe!! Thank you SO much! I had been making a sugar free syrup recipe since starting THM last year, and it wasn’t that great. This syrup is the closest I’ve found to real maple syrup. SO good!! Thanks again, and blessings! 🙂
It is so nice to find a gooooooood syrup recipe. This has topped my pancakes with that good maple syrup taste at last. I added a little more then 1/8 of a teaspoon of xanthan gum and mixed it into Swerve Confectioners sweetener that I used. The only maple flavoring that I had was from a
cake supply store. It is called maple oil, and is stronger than flavoring. I think this made it have a better maple flavor. This recipe was even better than store bought syrup! Thank you for sharing it with us.😊
Are you sure 2 cups water and only ⅓ cup xylitol? And only ⅛ xanthum? I use xanthum all the time. All I have is lightly sweetened water…
And it is clear.
It should darken when you add the flavoring. If you add more flavoring, the darker it gets/stronger flavor. Some maple flavorings are lighter in color.
Yes. Some xanthum you might need more (it loses thickening ability as it gets older and some brands don’t thicken as well as others). If it’s not thickening, you can try adding a tiny bit as time till it get where you want it. It also thickens more as it cools. As for sweetener, if you like it sweeter go ahead and more of that until it’s just right for you.
Mine didn’t thicken, even after it cooled for quite some time. The taste isn’t bad…it’s almost like the store bought sugar free syrup, but it’s just still water-thin. Any suggestions?
Hi, Chris. Sometimes xanthan gum loses its thickening ability when it gets old and sometimes a certain batch or brand might not work well. Overcooking it can also cause it to lose its thickening power about as much as undercooking it. You could try adding a bit more to it or using gluccomannan instead. Reducing it might even help. Idk if any of that helps lol. It seems it’ll work for one person but not the next and I have no idea why.
There’s isn’t a full nutritional list here.. I need a carb, fiber/ net carb for keto. So apparently I cannot even try to make this!
Hi, Bri. Most of the values are zero which is why the only things showing up are the calories and carbs. Net carbs would be zero since it’s using xylitol/erythritol (my recipe creator doesn’t yet have a slot for sugar alcohols, hence the reason that number isn’t shown). So basically, this recipe is pretty much a zero straight across the board. Hope this helps!
what is the serving size for the nutritional value you have on the post? thanks!
2 tablespoons.
Thanks for posting, using fresh ingredients it’s a good sub for real Maple Syrup.
I’m not keen on spending $9.99 on a bottle of the same thing.
How long will this last when it’s refrigerated?
Probably a couple weeks. I’d keep an eye on it, it will likely starting molding when it’s time is done.
I have trouble working with xanthum gum (it never seems to work as it is supposed to) could I substitute gelatin?
Hi, Dee. Gelatin wouldn’t really make a good substitute. You can use gluccomannan instead or try a different brand of xanthan gum. Sometimes xanthan gum loses its thickening ability when it gets old and sometimes a certain batch or brand might not work well.
Been stirring about five minutes and still thin and liquidy. Reread instructions several times. Any idea what could be going wrong?
Hi, Charli. Could be a bad batch or old batch of xanthan gum. You can try adding gluccomannan instead or try a different brand xanthan gum. Also, sometimes, if you overheat xanthan gum, it’s thickening power goes away.
Hi there. I’m just wondering about how long it should take to thicken once I add the xanthan gum mixture. Thanks.
A couple minutes. It thickens more as it cools too. Both xanthan gum and gluccie can be picky too, if you overheat them they can lose their thickening ability.
Thanks!