This 4-ingredient homemade, easy strawberry sauce beats anything purchased you've ever tasted! It's sweet but not cloying, is a snap to prepare and is ready in 20 minutes. It has a great balance between sweetness, freshness, and strawberry flavor.
Though fresh summer strawberries give you the best results, it works just fine with frozen ones. It's the perfect topping for cheesecake, pound cake, waffles, ice cream, and so much more!
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Much better than store-bought!
Few recipes are easier than homemade berry sauces, and the results are exceptional. Truly fantastic. And it has only 4 ingredients!
I highly suggest you take advantage of strawberry season, buy those perfectly red and juicy fresh strawberries and make this sauce, or topping, or even pie filling, depending on how you're using it. It's easy to trump anything you buy at the grocery store.
And you can swirl it into cheesecake ice cream. A new dessert level unlocked, I know.
To say it's easy to make is an understatement. This is a great recipe that comes together in 10-15 minutes and keeps well in the refrigerator for a week.
Uses for strawberry sauce. My favorite way is as a topping for cheesecake and waffles, but it can double as a sauce for ice cream, even French toast or croissant pudding if that's your type of breakfast. Use it for desserts like the strawberry trifle or as a bottom layer in the strawberry cheesecake mousse.
Just like the cherry sauce I immediately make when they hit the market, this is a recipe that you'll also want to make again and again, especially with cheap, seasonal strawberries.
This is different than a strawberry compote, which is less sweet and less syrupy; a lighter option.
Testing notes
Strawberries: this is the perfect recipe to use those overripe berries. You can cut them small or just in half, depending on what you'll be using it for. If using frozen strawberries, cook them all together from the start, because you won't have fresh pieces to add at the end.
Citrus: I love lemon for this recipe, but lime and orange go very well with strawberries. So choose your favorite. And also, you can use a few tablespoons of frozen lemonade or strawberry lemonade directly from the container, and then add the water stated in the recipe.
Sweetness: you can add up to ¼ cup more of sugar if you have a sweeter tooth.
Syrup: if you like to go heavy on the syrup, double the amount of ingredients except the strawberries.
Make ahead: it can be kept in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for a month, always in a container with a tight-fitting lid. If you need to use a large amount of strawberries, consider making a double batch and freezing it in portions. It thaws well at room temperature or in the refrigerator the day before (at least).
Thicker topping: if you use it as a strawberry topping and want it to be firmer, consider adding 3-4 tablespoons of a good strawberry jam. It will add more consistency. I've done it several times, especially when using it for cheesecakes.
Serving it: as a topping for cheesecake and waffles, or our buttermilk pancakes, as a sauce with ice cream and French toast. And with cake, especially if making strawberry shortcake. I love a slice of angel food cake with this sauce on the side. Another favorite dessert around here is a thick slice of lemon pound cake, strawberry sauce on top (at room temperature), and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Smooth sauce: if you're the type of person who doesn't like a chunky or thick sauce with pieces of fruit (beats me, but hey, who am I to judge, I love reheated pasta), you can process it or use an immersion blender or the regular blender and turn it into a puree more than a sauce.
Ingredients
Quantities are listed on the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
- Strawberries: are the star of this recipe, of course, and the more seasonal they are, the better the flavor. This is a fresh strawberry sauce, and, though we always aim to get sweet strawberries, it is especially good for using those not in their prime, and also works with frozen strawberries. The flavor might not be as deep.
- Light brown sugar works very well with strawberries. But you can use white with excellent results.
- Lemon juice: fresh is always better.
- Cornstarch: is needed to thicken the sauce and create that syrup we want to eat with a spoon because it's so delicious!
Steps to make this strawberry topping
This easy sauce is a snap to prepare! You simply put a few ingredients in a saucepan and cook it until it thickens and becomes syrupy, add more fresh strawberries and then let it cool down.
Strawberries
Wash, hull, and slice or dice strawberries. You can also leave them whole or cut in half and mash them lightly with a potato masher (directly in the saucepan) when they're soft. The texture will be different and more irregular, and some large chunks might remain.
Put them in a medium saucepan and add sugar. Mix with a wooden spoon.
Liquids
Add the lemon juice and half the water, and cook on the stove over medium heat. After a few minutes, it will start to simmer as the strawberry juices (the natural liquid in the strawberries) are released.
Thickener
Dissolve the cornstarch in a small bowl with the rest of the water. When the strawberry mixture foams, add the cornstarch slurry and constantly stir as you cook it for another minute so that it loses some of its starchy flavor.
Final step
The sauce will be thick. Add the rest of the chopped strawberries and mix lightly. Taste and check if you want to add more lemon juice or a few more tablespoons more water, depending on how much syrup you want.
Finished sauce: is shiny, sweet, bursting with flavor, and oh so delicious!
Variation: use raspberries or blackberries instead of strawberries. I like to use the raspberry sauce as a topping for these cheesecake squares when I can't find strawberries.
Flavorings: besides the citrus, you can add other ingredients to flavor the sauce, like a few drops of vanilla extract, pure almond extract, a pinch of ground cinnamon or some other spice or extract you like paired with strawberries.
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Quick Strawberry Topping (sauce)
Ingredients
- 1 pound whole strawberries, fresh or frozen (about 2 ½ cups strawberry pieces)
- 4 tablespoons water, divided
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, or white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Wash, hull, and cut the strawberries into bite-size pieces or chunks.
- Put ½ of the strawberry pieces in a medium saucepan and add ¼ cup light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water. Cook until it boils and foams, stirring occasionally.
- Dissolve 1 teaspoon cornstarch in the remaining 2 tablespoons water and add the cornstarch slurry to the strawberries in a thin stream. Stir constantly and cook for 1 minute.
- Remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and add the remaining ½ of the strawberry chunks or pieces. Stir and let cool.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to a week in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid or other type of airtight container. It can also be frozen for a month and thawed at room temperature.
Shelly says
This is a great recipe. I made it to accompany a strawberry poke cake I made for Fathers Day. It was a huge hit.
angiesrecipes says
Save this for the coming berry season! My husband is going to love this for the summer desserts.