Buttermilk Syrup

Buttermilk syrup. Sounds weird/maybe gross. Ohhhh noooo. It is the best thing you will ever eat! The first time I tried this it was at a Memorial Day breakfast at our Bishop's house last year.  His wife is an amazing cook and she had a little pourer full of this weird, pale, foamy syrup.  I was a little apprehensive because I love normal maple syrup and I hate change.  I decided to pour a little on the side of my plate and try it.  Well, after I sat down and ate my first bite of pancake cautiously dipped in the buttermilk syrup it was like in one of those cartoons or cereal commercials where your head kinda explodes and your eyes get all big and out of your head and you see stars and hearts all around you.  I then proceeded to stand up, walk back into the kitchen, and drown my pancakes in the buttermilk syrup. So ya. Its good.  I had her write down the recipe before we left and have treasured it ever since.  I brought the recipe home last summer and I think we made it 3 or 4 times.  (This was before we were gluten free.  We ate A LOT of pancakes, french toast, waffles, anything that can be smothered in syrup.)

Well, school just ended for me (I teach 2nd grade) and today I woke up feeling hungry. For syrup. I was excited to have the time to actually make a nice breakfast on a weekday because its summer! So I whipped up a batch of Natalie's lemon poppyseed pancakes and had the best intention of serving them with fresh fruit or yogurt like she so healthily did.  But, with the buttermilk sitting there on the counter taunting me to make the buttermilk syrup, I caved and made it.  Here is the recipe:

Buttermilk Syrup (Holiday Syrup)

Above the pot you can see my two bowls:
one with vanilla and one with almond

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. extract (vanilla, maple, or almond)

Cook the sugar, butter, and buttermilk over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat for 1 minute then add the baking soda and the extract. Mix to combine.  Serve warm.

When you add the baking soda it gets all foamy and frothy.  Its really fun :). I have made it with the vanilla extract every time and it tastes like melted cookie dough. Today I couldn't decide between the vanilla and almond so I took two bowls and added 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract to one and 1/2 tsp almond extract to the other and then poured in the syrup and had both! It was a good idea.  The pancake with the almond syrup seriously tasted like an almond poppyseed muffin from Costco.

As I sat there, eating my delicious breakfast by myself, I was like OMG why is no one here to taste this with me! It's so unbelievably good I want to share it with everyone! So here I am, typing this to you with the taste of buttermilk syrup still in my mouth.