This mixed berry compote is ready in 10 minutes and creates a wonderful, flavorful berry juice but is not overly sweet (though you can adjust the sweetness to your taste). A lighter topping for waffles, pancakes, yogurt, ice cream, and oatmeal. Keep it for a week in the refrigerator or freeze it.
A lighter topping
A fruit compote is your answer.
This recipe with mixed berries is even simpler than the strawberry compote and the blueberry compote.
What is a fruit compote?
A compote is a preparation where the fruit is briefly cooked in a simple sugar syrup. It's a step short of a sauce or topping.
It requires 2 ingredients: fruit and sugar. Or some other type of sweetener like honey, maply syrup, agave, or similar.
Compote recipes are great if you want a less sweet breakfast, as they are lower in sugar than most fruit sauces.
How to use a compote?
These sweet mixtures are used mostly as toppings.
- Pour it on buttermilk pancakes, waffles, or shortcakes, and let them soak up the berry juice.
- Use it with yogurt and granola, baked oatmeal, french toast, porridge, chia puddings, and other morning dishes.
- Cakes and cheesecake: build a more elegant dessert by topping a pound cake or angel food cake slice with a dollop of whipped cream with this simple sauce. Or let it drip down a cheesecake slice.
- Fast & easy: it's a very simple recipe that comes together in 10 minutes.
- Keeps well: you can store it for a week or maybe two in an airtight container. After that, you can freeze it for a month.
- Lighter sauce: it's the perfect choice when you want a lighter and more fluid (less sugar and no cornstarch) sauce with your breakfast dishes.
- Berry mixture: as long as you respect the total amount specified in the recipe card, you can combine berries however you want when it comes to the amount and type of each that you want and whether they're fresh or frozen. It's a great way to use up leftover berries you might have in the freezer.
Ingredient Notes
- Berries: fresh summer berries are my first choice when available, but you can use frozen mixed berries or a combination of both. I like blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, but other wild types of berries work really well. As do cherries. In short, use your favorite berries (that can also include fresh strawberries, though I don't mix them).
- Sugar: use regular white, granulated sugar (as shown below) or brown sugar, coconut sugar, organic, muscovado sugar, any type works. Keep in mind that they sweeten differently, so you might want to increase or decrease the amount accordingly.
- Optional flavorings: use citrus juice or peel (lemon juice and orange peel go wonderful for this compote), a touch of vanilla or pinch of cinnamon.
Quantities are listed in the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
How to make a compote
It's very, very easy and takes 5 minutes.
- Reducing the berry syrup: if you like a more concentrated juice, transfer the cooked fruit to a large bowl (image 3) and let the red syrup reduce for a few minutes to thicken (image 4).
- Let mixture cool down: the reduced syrup is added to the fruit in the bowl and then refrigerated or used once it cools.
Start with a simple syrup: this means that you need to heat sugar and water in a saucepan until it comes to a boil
Add the berries: whether you're using fresh, frozen, or a mix, berries are added all at once to the syrup. Stir a few times until they come to a simmer. We don't want to boil them rapidly so they don't disintegrate. That said, frozen berries will not stay whole.
For a more concentrated, syrupy juice: transfer the berries to a large bowl.
Reducing the berry syrup: let the red syrup reduce for a few minutes to thicken slightly and add it back to the bowl with the berries.
Berry compote with frozen fruit
The way of preparing a compote with frozen berries is the same as with fresh ones. However, some berries tend to disintegrate more and not hold their shape as much.
- Reduced berry juice: frozen fruit can be more watery, so the extra step of reducing the juice after you remove the berries from the syrup is usually needed.
- Thawing the fruit: it's not necessary per se, but you might want to do it if the berries have been frozen too long and have a large amount of ice around them.
Kitchen notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
- Amount of sugar: adjust it depending on your sweet tooth. Add or remove 1-2 tablespoons of sugar from the total amount. But a fruit compote recipe uses less sugar than a jam or thick topping with cornstarch.
- Amount of liquid: the compote might be too thick after a stay in the fridge or freezer. Simply add a bit of water at a time until you have the desired consistency. Keep in mind that the sweetness will be diluted a little with each addition. Or make a simple syrup (cook ½ cup of water with 2 tablespoons of sugar over medium heat until it boils) and add it to the compote.
- Storage: keep the compote refrigerated in an airtight container or a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap. It keeps for a week. For longer storage, freeze it for a month (in a freezer-safe container) and let it come to room temperature before using it.
- Other sweeteners: you can add honey or pure maple syrup (or another sugar syrup) to the saucepan with the berries and the water.
- Flavorings: citrus can be used to flavor this easy fruit compote recipe. Add some orange zest or lemon zest at the beginning and/or a few drops of vanilla extract (or orange liqueur for a more sophisticated flavor). Use orange juice instead of water; half lemon juice and half water for a sharper flavor. A little ground cinnamon or ginger goes well with it too.
- Other berries: check out homemade strawberry compote and easy blueberry compote.
Related recipes you might like:
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Berry Compote (2 ingredients)
Ingredients
- 1 pound mixed berries, fresh or frozen without thawing (I use blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)
- 3 tablespoons sugar, see Notes if you like it sweeter
- 3 tablespoons water, see Notes if you want to add lemon juice
Instructions
- Wash 1 pound mixed berries if using fresh and reserve, no need to dry them. Or have ready frozen berries.
- Put 3 tablespoons sugar and 3 tablespoons water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves, and lower the heat.
- Add the mixed berry mix and stir lightly to coat in the syrup.
- Cook on low heat until it comes to a slow simmer stirring a few times until the liquid starts to thicken and the berries soften slightly. You can cook them more or less depending on how soft or not you want the berries. Being small and watery, they do soften quickly.
- Transfer the fruit to a bowl leaving the syrup in the saucepan. Using a skimmer or fine mesh colander for this step makes it very easy.
- Cook the juice a minute or two more so it thickens further and add it to the fruit.
- Let the mixture cool down completely and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or put it in an airtight container or glass jar before refrigerating it. It lasts a couple of weeks in the refrigerator and a month in the freezer.
- Use it cold, at room temperature, or warm, it's really up to you depending on what you serve it with.
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