Quick, easy and honey sweetened, this strawberry sauce is a great topping for pancakes, cheesecakes and other desserts!
Like my homemade strawberry jam, this only uses a few ingredients and is much healthier than your average sugar-filled strawberry treat! This sauce tastes like strawberries and not like sugar with a side of strawberries. :)
If you want some really delicious strawberry sauce, I recommend using flavorful strawberries. I’ve used some pretty bad frozen ones thinking that the honey would somehow magically transform my strawberries into deliciousness, but… that was not to be. The honey helps a little but if your strawberries are flavorless, the sauce won’t be that great.
This homemade strawberry sauce was insanely good on these 100% whole grain pancakes for two but I’m sure any pancake recipe would do! And if you’re more of a mix person, this 100% whole grain pancake mix is the best ever!
I’m pretty sure you could replace the strawberries for another type of berry. My problem with that is that any other berry is just too precious to cook with. If I have fresh raspberries or blueberries, I don’t want to cook with them but eat them as they are. Now, if you have massive berry bushes or live somewhere with loads of blackberry bushes alongside the road – go for it! :)
There’s a little lemon zest in there but it’s completely optional. I definitely recommend it, though, as it adds a nice little zing! I don’t normally buy organic produce, just because it’s so expensive where I live, but lemons are one of the few things I buy organic (if I’m using them for their zest).
This strawberry sauce freezes very well. When I find myself with too many strawberries, I whip up a batch of this, or even double it, and freeze it for my next pancake breakfast. You can defrost it overnight in the fridge or gently defrost it in the microwave or in a pot on the stove.
So! What are you going to use this sauce on? :)
Honey Sweetened Strawberry Sauce
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 2 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 540 grams (about 3 cups mashed / 19 ounces) rinsed off, patted dry, and hulled really sweet strawberries
- 3 tablespoons (60 grams) honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- zest of two lemons (optional)
- 1-3 teaspoons cornstarch (or arrowroot powder / starch / flour for a grain-free / paleo version)
Directions
- Place the strawberries in a medium pot or large saucepan and smush with the bottom of a glass (being careful not to scrape your pan if you're using a non-stick pan).
- Add the honey, vanilla and zest, if using, and cook over medium for about 10 minutes. The mixture should have thickened just a little. To make it thicker, combine 1-3 teaspoons of cornstarch with the same amount of water. Use 1 teaspoon to make the sauce slightly thicker and 3 teaspoons to make the sauce quick thick, almost like jam. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the sauce and stir. Simmer for 1 minute and remove the pot from the heat. Do not let simmer longer or the cornstarch will break down, making the sauce runny.
- The sauce will thicken more as it cools. Store in the fridge for no longer than 5 days and freeze any leftovers.
Join over 12,400 readers and sweeten up
your inbox with new posts for free!
This subscription is free of charge and can be canceled at any time.
18 comments on “Honey Sweetened Strawberry Sauce” — Add one!
Cliff – If it was thick enough, cornstarch is totally unnecessary so good that you left it out. :) I bet cardamom was a really nice addition and I'll have to remember that for next time! I've never tried orange blossom honey so I'll have to see if I can find it around here. Thanks a bunch for your feedback and I'm happy that you liked it!
Hey, I'm back with a report. The sauce turned out great, but I haven't had any chance to apply it to my crêpes yet (thinking tomorrow night for dinner…yum).
Here are my mods:
1. I didn't have any lemons around for zesty purposes.
2. I was too lazy to bother with the corn starch slurry (my saucy wife would not have skipped that step). Seemed thick enough to me.
3. I threw in a pinch of fresh-ground cardamom.
4. I used orange-blossom honey (first jar I found in the pantry), which I didn't think would make a big difference, but I am pretty sure I can taste its undertones in the sauce (of course I had to try a pre-crêpe spoonful). Adds an interesting flavor!
Thanks for recipe!
Chung-Ah – It is easy! Although I love maple syrup, this stuff is just so much nicer on a summer morning. :)
I absolutely love how easy this is! Need to make this ASAP.
Dawn – Hehe. No problem! I just thought maybe you were used to explaining where Idaho is. A lot of people are really terrible at geography, so it wouldn't have surprised me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. :)
Sorry, Erin, when I posted I was tired and forgot that you are from Texas, lol, I was just thinking Germany. Please disregard.. ;)
Dawn – Do people really not know which part of the US Idaho is in? :( Good luck with your berry plants! My parents once went to Idaho on vacation and were overwhelmed with the delicious produce. They claimed it was way better than anything they could get in Texas! So I hope it comes at some point. Summer without berries just isn't right.
Erin – I am in Northern Idaho, Northwest part of the US. I actually picked the first berry off of my own plant (YAY) last week, so I am hopeful for lots more weeks of berries, although not many come off my own plants b/c I only have 6. :)
Miryam – Haha. Something like that. And all the strawberry recipes you saw and will see were made when we got home! My poor smooshed strawberries. :(
You should take a family trip out into the country! I bet it'd be nice. And maybe the fruit would be better? The ones we got were sweeter than any other fruit I'd ever tasted. Amazing.
At least your family is eating the nuts in a healthy way, right? Mine just adds sugar. Those almonds were a big cause of weight gain for me! Seriously. But I do hope you try them one day! :)
Yet another nice one fruity sauce …..I know you got like 1000lbs of strawberries a couple of weeks ago right? :-) Well it is the perfect way to use them all!! I wish I had a big amount of fruit like that so that I can experiment and do wonderful things with it. It seems like you guys are going fruit hunting this summer :-) It is actually the way to go. I need to go to some farms as well around were I live and get me some large amounts of fruit :-)
I love the fact that this has hardly any sweetener added, just perfect!!
By the way could you believe I got the almonds to make your recipe but they are almost gone :-( My family just can't handle nuts. I need to hide my baking ingredients some how :-)
Amy – Thanks! I hope you're enjoying yours. :)
Dawn – Where are you?! I thought we were the last to get strawberries. I'm happy that you enjoy the strawberry posts! I think almost everyone else is over strawberries at this point. I hope it'll be a great season for strawberries wherever you are. :)
I've been loving your strawberry posts! We haven't gotten full swing into strawberry season here yet, thank goodness, so I haven't made any of them yet. I am looking forward!
sounds delicious! happy weekend to you, friend!
Katrina – Thanks. :)
Cliff – Sounds like you have a delicious day ahead of you! I hope it turns out well and that you can come back to let me know how it turned out. :)
Glad my wife stumbled upon this post of yours this morning. We bought a kilo this morning at the farmers' market. Half of them are ending up in some homemade froyo, and I want the other half decorating some crepes for breakfast in the form of your sauce. Thanks!
This sauce looks unreal! I'm all over it!
Kathryn – Is strawberry season finished over there? I have a feeling it'll be over in a week or two week where I am. And there'll be no warning. Just POW! No more strawberries in any grocery store in the city. Just like always. :(
Lovely, I wish I'd done this with some of my execs strawberries!