Make handmade raspberry sauce (aka raspberry coulis) for your desserts or breakfast using fresh raspberries with this uncomplicated 4-ingredient recipe. When raspberries aren’t in season, you can use preserved raspberries. If you’re seeking to fill a layer cake, use my rich raspberry cake filling instead.
This raspberry dessert sauce is fantastic to have on hand, because you can use it to complete so many recipes, like cheesecake, brownies, pound cake, lemon cupcakes, or chocolate mousse pie. A homemade raspberry sauce can even transform a simple serving of vanilla ice cream into a guest-worthy delicacy. And don’t neglect brunch like crepes, waffles, porridge, or yogurt!
Grab These Ingredients
-
Water & Cornstarch: Cornstarch faintly thickens the sauce. You don’t need much, but you must combine it with a little water before using, otherwise you’ll have masses of powdered cornstarch in your completed sauce. Cornstarch is typically blended with water to create a “slurry” before using in condiments; see strawberry sauce and blueberry sauce as an example.
-
Fresh or Frozen Raspberries: You’ll appreciate that you can make this sauce up in the summertime when berries are fresh in season, or in the midst of winter as the snow accumulates outside. I genuinely enjoy this sauce with frozen raspberries because they’re typically frozen at their optimum ripeness and flavor. Same scenario with my ultra dense raspberry cake topping. And I only use thawed fruit in these raspberry sweet pastries.
-
Sugar: Too much sugar can obscure the natural berry flavors, so stay with only 1/4 cup (50g) in this recipe. If your raspberries are exceedingly bitter, increase to 1/3 cup (67g). This isn’t marmalade, so we don’t need an inundation of sugar.
-
Lemon Juice: The sauce requires *something* to balance the flavor and sugar, and lemon juice provides that hint of freshness. Do not leave it out or the sauce will taste fairly bland. You can also add a dash of vanilla extract once the sauce comes off heat. (Vanilla is optional, but delicious!)
Just 4 Steps to Make This Raspberry Sauce
This raspberry sauce boils on the cooktop in just under 10 minutes. It’s similar to the swirl recipe we use in these white chocolate raspberry cheesecake bars.
-
Combine ingredients together on the griddle.
-
Boil mixture while stirring occasionally.
-
Optional: Press the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, to remove the seeds.
-
Let settle.
Read Also: Prepare a Nutritious Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie
How to Make Raspberry Sauce
This simple recipe is very similar to our homemade strawberry topping. Here’s how you make it:
-
Place 1 ½ cups raspberries in a saucepan with sugar and water. Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture is at a gradual simmer. Reduce the heat and add vanilla.
-
In a small cup, combine the cornstarch and water. Whisk this together until it is smooth. Don’t just toss the cornstarch into the raspberry mixture or you’ll end up with little flecks of white cornstarch in your attractive crimson raspberry sauce. And nobody wants that. Mixing the cornstarch with water first allows the cornstarch to completely blend in.
-
Once the cornstarch and water are blended, add it to the raspberry sauce. Cook and stir this mixture until it is slightly thickened. Maybe 3-4 minutes, depending on how heated your mélange is.
-
Then remove the pan from the flame and add butter. The butter is our secret ingredient that lends a delectable richness to the raspberry sauce.
-
Let the mixture cool, then add the remaining raspberries (from the original 12 ounce container) and incorporate gently.
Uses for Raspberry Sauce
There are so many methods to savor this raspberry confection sauce, and here are many suggestions:
-
Enjoy drizzled on scones, crepes, pastries, buttermilk waffles, whole wheat blueberry pancakes, or a Dutch baby pancake
-
Stir into yogurt, cottage cheese, or oatmeal
-
Use as a filling for lemon cupcakes or lemon blueberry cupcakes
-
Use as a topping for cream cheese pound cake, ice cream, angel food cake, or pavlova
-
Serve with chocolate delights like brownies, chocolate cake, and flourless chocolate cake
-
Drizzle on choux pastry or cream dumplings
-
Top cheesecake, lemon cheesecake, no bake cheesecake, and cheesecake pie (pictured below)
-
Spread on homemade biscuits, croissants, and toasted English muffins
-
Stir a few spoonfuls into whipped cream or whipped frosting and use as garnish on desserts
