Raspberry Sauce is a sweet and tart dessert sauce made with real raspberries, sugar, water, and cornstarch. Make it in under 10 minutes!
Easy, 4-ingredient Raspberry Sauce makes the perfect finishing touch for your favorite Dessert Recipes. Add it over French Vanilla Ice Cream or No-Bake Cheesecake for a sweet and tart addition to the creamy desserts.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Raspberry Sauce Recipe
You can make this flavorful sauce in just a few easy steps, and you’re sure to love the results! All you need for delicious Raspberry sauce is a mixture of sugar, water, and cornstarch. Prepare that base mixture in the saucepan, then add fresh or frozen raspberries to cook into the thick and sweet sauce.
After cooking for a few minutes, you’ll have a sweet, fresh-flavored berry sauce perfect for topping cakes, brownies, ice cream, and other popular dessert recipes. You could even use it as a filling for layered cakes or brownies. Or slather the sauce over some toast for a sweet breakfast treat.
This recipe is quite similar to our popular Strawberry Sauce because there are chunks of real berries remaining in the recipe. If you prefer seedless sauce without the fruit chunks, you can always run this recipe through a mesh strainer before serving.
Ingredients
- Sugar: Use 1 cup white sugar to sweeten the berry sauce. As you cook the mixture, the sugar will dissolve into the water and fruit juice. It helps to flavor and thicken the sauce into a syrupy consistency.
- Cornstarch: Add 3 tablespoons of cornstarch along with the water. The cornstarch thickens the sauce, so it’s not runny.
- Water: You’ll use equal parts cornstarch and water to make a cornstarch slurry at the base of this simple sauce recipe.
- Raspberries: Lastly, add the real raspberries. As the raspberries cook down, the berries soften and release juice to make a delicious red sauce. Be sure to rinse and dry the raspberries before cooking to remove any dirt or pesticides from the outside of the berries.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Medium saucepan: You don’t need a lot of equipment for this recipe. But you will need a sturdy saucepan to cook the raspberry sauce in.
- Whisk: Use a wooden spoon or heatproof whisk to mix the sauce ingredients into a cohesive mixture as they simmer on the stovetop.
How to Make
Time needed: 10 minutes.
- Prepare Sugar Mixture
Add the water, granulated sugar, and cornstarch to a medium saucepan. Whisk the ingredients well and turn the stovetop to medium heat.
- Cook Raspberries
Add in raspberries and bring to a simmer. Continue to cook for 2 minutes. This will cook down the berries and release the fruit juice to make a rich sauce.
- Cool and Serve
Remove from heat and let the Raspberry Sauce cool completely before serving. You can spoon the sauce directly from the pan over your dessert or pour it into a shallow bowl or sauce pitcher to serve with your dessert recipe.
Can Raspberry Sauce be made ahead of time?
Yes! This berry sauce is best served cool, and it can last in the fridge for up to 1 week. So it’s a great option to make in advance and then store until you have a dessert dish you want to use it on. Cook the berries with the sugar and cornstarch mixture as usual. Then, wait for the sauce to cool before pouring it into a mason jar or another airtight container to store in the fridge for later.
Nutritional Facts
Cooking Raspberry Sauce Tips & Tricks
Achieve the perfect texture and flavor for your Raspberry Sauce with these helpful tips!
- Mix ingredients thoroughly
- Be sure to completely mix together the simple ingredients. This is important to make sure that the sugar is evenly distributed throughout the sauce and that the cornstarch blends into the mixture.
- Add more water if needed
- Depending on how much water is in your berries, the sauce may turn out thicker than you want. You can always mix in an extra tablespoon of water at a time to get the consistency you want for homemade Raspberry Sauce.
What to Pair With Raspberry Sauce
Cakes: There are many different desserts that this raspberry topping can add a bright, sweet, fruity flavor to. Spoon Raspberry Sauce over Homemade Cheesecake, Angel Food Cake, Chocolate Cake, or Pound Cake.
Ice Cream: Raspberry Sauce also makes the perfect topping for ice cream. Vanilla Ice Cream is a classic choice, but you can also get more creative by adding it to Chocolate or Peach Ice Cream.
How to Store Raspberry Sauce
Store: Wait for the Raspberry Sauce to completely cool. Then, use a funnel to pour it from the saucepan into a mason jar or another airtight container for storage. Kept sealed, the Raspberry Sauce recipe can stay good in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Serve: You can serve the leftover sauce chilled or let it come back to room temperature before spooning over your favorite dessert recipe.
Freeze: You can also freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. Transfer the sauce to a freezer-safe airtight container with enough headspace to expand. When you’re ready to serve, let it defrost in the fridge overnight, and remix the sauce in case of any separation.
Ideas to Serve Raspberry Sauce
Let the sauce completely cool, then spoon a serving of the red berry sauce over a slice of cheesecake or other dessert recipe. Add fresh raspberries and a fresh mint leaf or lemon zest to garnish.
Frequent Questions
Yes, you can make this sauce recipe with fresh raspberries or frozen raspberries. Frozen raspberries are an especially great option if you want to make this dessert topping when the berries are out of season. You’ll add the frozen berries to the sugar and cornstarch mixture the same way you do fresh, it just takes a bit more time to cook.
Raspberry sauce is a broad term that could refer to a variety of different raspberry mixtures. But coulis specifically refers to a thin, pureed vegetable or fruit sauce. This Raspberry Sauce recipe is more thick, with real berry chunks in the mixture.
Absolutely! You can follow the same basic steps to cook down other types of berries and fruit to make a sweet and delicious dessert sauce. Scroll to the variations section for more flavor inspiration.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons water
- 12 ounces raspberries
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan add water, sugar and cornstarch.
- Whisk well, then turn heat on to medium.
- Add in raspberries and bring to a simmer.
- Cook for 2 minutes, remove from heat and let cool completely.
Nutrition
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Raspberry Sauce Variations
Smooth Raspberry Sauce: If you don’t like fruit pieces in your sauce and prefer a smooth sauce, then you can strain the Raspberry Sauce before serving. Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl. Then, pour the Raspberry Sauce through the sieve to remove seeds and clumps. You can press down on the berries to let as much of the juice out into the sauce as possible. You could also use a cheesecloth to strain the mixture or run the sauce through a food processor to smooth it out.
Mixed berries: You can add to the raspberry mixture by incorporating different kinds of fresh berries. Try adding blueberries, pitted cherries, sliced strawberries, cranberries, or blackberries to the saucepan and cook the berry mixture down for a new variety of fruit topping.
Lemon and Raspberry Sauce: You can enhance the natural flavors in the raspberry topping by mixing fresh lemon juice in the saucepan with the sugar and berry mixture. Finish the lemon and raspberry sauce with a touch of lemon zest for extra citrus flavor. You could do the same thing with orange juice and orange zest for another citrus option.
Flavor additions: There are lots of other mix-ins you could try to lightly alter this recipe. Try adding a hint of vanilla extract, a dash of salt, or even mixing in a little butter to enrich the Raspberry Sauce.
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