How to Make Prickly Pear Syrup

Описание: This video is all about how I make prickly pear syrup. It is absolutely delicious and so nutritious. Prickly pears are considered a superfood!

Recipe:
1 lb of Prickly Pear Fruit
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Citric Acid
1/2 cup water (add when cooking down the prickly pears)

I was using 10 pounds of prickly pears, so I used approximately 10 cups of sugar and approximately 4 tablespoons of citric acid. I recommend tasting your syrup as you add the sugar gradually. You want your syrup to be to your sweetness. Do the same with the citric acid and add it according to your tartness.

Make sure when you go to harvest your prickly pears that you are wearing heavy duty leather gloves because those little prickers, called Glochid, will be sure to get into your hands. Never try and grab them barehanded.

I will burn the glochids off of my prickly pears over my stove top flame. I stick a skewer through the prickly pair so I don’t have to touch it while I’m burning off the glochids. I recommend having a clean leather glove on hand for handling the prickly pear. Once the glochids are burned off be sure to rinse your pears before cutting them opened.

Cut them into quarters and put them in your pot. You want to smash them with a potato smasher as they cook down, pour in your half a cup of water and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes to release all of the juices.

Once the juices are released you want to strain all of the seeds, pulp and skins. You will then strain it a second time with cheese cloth lining your clean strainer to make sure you get out any stray sediment that you don’t want in your syrup.

Now you want to allow your prickly pear juice to lose some water content, gradually add your sugar, Tasting it to get it to your desired sweetness. Leave your burner on low and allow the Syrup to cook down - don’t let it burn. Shut off the burner when the syrup is your desired thickness. It will be thinner than maple syrup, because it is a simple syrup.

With the burner off, you can now add your citric acid. I used approximately 1 teaspoon of citric acid per 1 pound of fruit. I will add a little more or less depending upon how tart my syrup is. Basically, season it to taste, you are looking for the perfect tartness that you like.

Be sure to clean your mason jars and have them warm when you are ready to pour your Syrup in them. At this point you can go ahead and store it in your refrigerator. If you have a ton of fruit like I did and want to be able to store it on your pantry shelf, then you’re going to want to do a basic 10 minute water bath canning.

Here is a great How To from Old Farmer’s Almanac:

 https://www.almanac.com/water-bath-ca...

Blessings and thanks for watching💚