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Any Berry Sauce

This easy make-ahead berry sauce is perfect for pancakes, oatmeal or yogurt any time of year.
Kid friendly
A serving bowl of Any Berry Sauce is shown with a plate of 3 pancakes that have sauce spread on top and a few fresh berries on the side.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Makes: 2 ¼ cups
Nutrition Facts: View label

Ingredients

¼ cup cold water
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
⅓ cup sugar
4 cups berries, fresh or frozen (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, sliced strawberries or a mixture)

Directions

  1. Wash hands with soap and water.
  2. Rinse or scrub fresh fruits under running water before preparing.
  3. In a medium saucepan, mix together sugar, cornstarch, water and 2 cups of berries. Mash berries if desired.
  4. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sauce starts to thicken.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in remaining berries. Mash if desired.
  6. Serve over pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, or yogurt.
  7. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

Notes

  • Serve with Favorite Pancakes or Applesauce French Toast.
  • Leftover sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.
  • To freeze the sauce, replace the cornstarch in the recipe with Clearjel or Clear Jel, a special type of cornstarch. 

Comments

This berry sauce recipe is very simple to make and so versatile! I've used it as a topping on crepes and ice cream.

I love how easy this recipe is to make and how delicious it is! I like using frozen strawberries and blueberries together and putting it on pancakes, oatmeal and yogurt. This is a recipe I keep making again and again!

I have made this recipe with many classes, its so easy, always 100% thumbs up. We've used a wide variety of berries, often mixing several varieties. It's really delicious!

My family loved this recipe with blueberries. We used this on pancakes and French toast in our house. This is easy and a fun way to spruce up pancakes for my picky eater. We will continue to make this!

This is great! Have made many times with different fruits. Our favorites are all strawberries, or a mix of strawberries/blueberries. We like it warm or cold. This tastes fresher than jam/jelly from the store.

I agree. It is fresher and you know you're really getting a serving a fruit when you eat this not so much sugar from jars of jam.

Awesome sauce recipe!!!  If you would like to freeze this sauce, just substitute Clear Gel for the cornstarch  

You are correct!  Clearjel or Clear Jel is a modified starch from corn.  It is usually substituted in equal amounts for cornstarch.  Foods that are thickened with Clearjel will still be thick after freezing and thawing.  It is clear after cooking so it lets the fruit color show through. It is not the same as gelatin or pectin.  Other starches vary in their ability to thicken and remain thick after freezing.

It can be a little difficult to find.  The other easy option is to freeze the berries.  Then you can make the sauce from frozen berries and enjoy the fresh fruit flavor any time.

Leftover sauce would be best if used within about a week.  It could be re-heated but it will not freeze well because of the cornstarch.  If you need a smaller batch, half the recipe makes a generous cup of sauce - and takes less berries!  Here's the ingredient amounts for half the recipe:

2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons cold water

2 cups berries

Follow the directions above.

SO GOOD!  Only made half a recipe and still enough for leftovers.  We put it on the Food Hero Gingerbread Pancakes, everyone LOVED it!  http://foodhero.org/recipes/gingerbread-pancakes.

Update - keep making this again and again, the kids just love it!  Top it on pancakes and homeade rolled oats in the morning.  We had been using blueberries, and tried strawberries today which were also amazing!

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