We at El Ciruelo are pleased to share with you the best recipes so that you keep enjoying cooking with our best fruits, as well as to share these new flavours and moments with your loved ones. After all, cooking is the best way to bring together the people we care about at our table. Today we bring you a sweet, traditional recipe that does not require much time, but we assure you that it will serve as a dessert, a decoration for pastries or as a healthy snack. Let us introduce you to grapes in syrup.
El Ciruelo grapes have a large amount of vitamins and minerals, not to mention fibre, which makes them a truly complete foodstuff, and a the perfect choice in our recipes.
What do we need to make the syrup?
– 4 glass or crystall jars measuring about 250 ml. in capacity (they may be a little bigger, just add more syrup and that’s it. However, we can also use a single litre jar).
– 2 bunches of grapes (about half a kilo per bunch).
– 1 litre water.
– Sugar: 350 grams
Steps for making our grapes in syrup:
Step 1. First of all, before cooking, we must sterilise the jars in which we will preserve our grapes. So, we will begin by ensuring they are completely clean by boiling them in a saucepan after washing them with soap and water, protecting the pot walls and the jars from breaking with rags. For years and centuries, this has been the conventional technique for removing viruses and bacteria from the jars that would preserve the canned food. Please do not set aside the rags to wash yet, you will need them later.
Step 2. Once we’ve choosen another saucepan we’ll make the syroup, by just add the water and the sugar, and then let them cook over low heat for 10 minutes or even more (as needed in order to melt the mixture perfectly and ensure there is no undissolved sugar left).
Step 3. Choose the best-looking whole grapes. In case you have chosen El Ciruelo grapes, we have already done it for you. We will wash them well with plenty of water and we will cut the stems with the scissors, without hurting the fruit, which should be intact, and we will then wash them.
Step 4. Place the grapes into the jars, but do not let them touch the lid, and fill the jars with the syrup to cover the grapes. Here we recommend that you do not fill the jars too full of grapes, since it is better to have more space than to lack space and not close the jars.
Step 5. Take the saucepan with the jars now full, and then wrap them in the previously used rags as protection while sterilising. The jars will be kept in a bain-marie, so that the water covers the jars, between 15 and 20 minutes. When finished, leave them to cool and then they will be ready to consumption.
This syrup will allow us to keep our grapes for many months ahead without spoiling them. There are only 90 kcal per 100 grams of drained grapes and it takes no more than 40 minutes to cook and is also ideal for making with children due to its simplicity.
