Make homemade strawberry topping sauce for your desserts or breakfast using fresh strawberries with this simple 10 minute recipe. When strawberries aren’t in season, use frozen strawberries instead.
After publishing no bake cheesecake jars, I figured a completely separate post for the strawberry topping sauce would be appreciated! I actually made a triple batch of it last week when strawberries were on mega sale and froze the sauce in freezer tupperwares. (Freezes and thaws like a dream!)
But this strawberry dessert topping has actually been an essential for years, pairing with everything like pound cake, cheesecake, ice cream, and berries & cream french toast casserole. I have plenty more suggestions below and yes, this stuff is totally acceptable at breakfast!
Why You’ll Love This Homemade Strawberry Topping
- 5 simple ingredients
- 10 minutes
- Nothing artificial
- No preservatives
- Made from real strawberries
- Supremely versatile just like lemon curd, raspberry sauce, and salted caramel
Isn’t this jar cute?!
What You Need
- Fresh or frozen strawberries: Hulled & halved.
- Cornstarch + water: You don’t need much, but you must dissolve the cornstarch in a little water before using. This is called a “slurry”; see raspberry cake filling an example. Without mixing with water, the cornstarch will leave white chunks in your strawberry sauce.
- Lemon juice + zest: Keeps the flavor bright. The sauce won’t taste like lemon, I promise!
- Sugar: Just enough to sweeten the sauce without taking away from the strawberry’s natural flavor.
I include a strawberry compote recipe with my brown butter pound cake. This strawberry topping sauce is almost identical, but I use a little less cornstarch here. Today’s strawberry sauce is on the thicker side, but it’s not quite as thick as the compote. The compote is closer to a jam consistency.
How to Make Strawberry Sauce
This strawberry sauce cooks on the stove in about 10 minutes.
- Mix the cornstarch and water together.
- Place everything, including the cornstarch mixture, into a medium saucepan. Mash the strawberries a bit with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. This helps the release the juices and cooks down the strawberries.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. The sauce will begin to thicken.
- Remove from heat and allow strawberry sauce to cool.
This is a chunkier style strawberry sauce, providing wonderful texture to no bake cheesecake, waffles, biscuits, and so much more. But the amount of strawberry chunks is up to you. For less chunks, mash up the strawberries a little more as the sauce cooks.
Prefer a chunk-free sauce? For no strawberry chunks, blend the finished sauce in a blender until you reach your desired consistency.
By the way, if you’re looking for a less jammy and more substantial strawberry topping, try this strawberry cream cheese pie or the filling from these strawberry shortcake cupcakes.
Endless Uses for Strawberry Topping!
- Cheesecake, lemon cheesecake, no-bake cheesecake, and cheesecake pie
- Mini cheesecakes and no-bake cheesecake jars
- Use as a topping for angel food cake and pavlova
- Serve with pound cake and whipped cream
- Filling for homemade crepes
- Topping for yogurt (for a healthier dessert recipe), oatmeal, buttermilk waffles, pancakes, and biscuits
- Layer in a trifle or parfait
- Use with strawberry shortcake
- Serve with strawberry cake
- Atop a Dutch baby pancake
What will you use it for?!
Print
Homemade Strawberry Sauce (Topping)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 1 and 1/2 cups
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You can use fresh or frozen strawberries in this versatile strawberry topping sauce. This topping is fresh, quick, & easy and gives desserts that little something extra!
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) warm water
- 1 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced in half (you can use frozen; don’t thaw)
- zest and juice from 1/2 small lemon (see note)*
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
Instructions
- Whisk the cornstarch and water together until all the cornstarch has dissolved. (I just use a fork to mix—very easy.)
- Place the cornstarch mixture, along with the rest of the ingredients, into a small saucepan over medium heat. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir the mixture as it cooks. Break up some of the strawberries as you stir.
- Bring it to a simmer and allow to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. After 5 minutes, remove pan from the heat and allow to cool. The mixture will thicken as it cools.
- You can serve the sauce warm before it cools completely if desired, or store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Strawberry topping will be thick after refrigeration, so microwave for 15 seconds or warm on the stove to thin out, if desired.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: After the strawberry sauce cools completely, freeze in a freezer-friendly container for up to 3-6 months. Thaw on the counter or in the refrigerator. Warm up in the microwave or on the stove, if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Small Saucepan | Rubber Spatula or Wooden Spoon
- Strawberries: You need a 1 pound carton of strawberries, which is 16 oz, 3-4 cups, or 450g.
- Other berries: You can substitute blackberries for the strawberries with no other changes to the recipe. Cherries work too—pit and halve them first. For other berries, try my raspberry sauce and blueberry sauce recipes.
- Lemon: Lemon brightens the flavor of the strawberry topping. You need about 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Feel free to skip the lemon zest if needed.
- Chunks: The amount of strawberry chunks is up to you. For less chunks, mash up the strawberries a little more as the sauce cooks. For no strawberry chunks, blend the finished sauce in a blender until you reach your desired consistency.
This is a great recipe but I need some help with my screw up. I added rhubarb and used a whole small lemon for the juice. It’s tasty but not sweet enough. If I heat up some sugar and water on the stove to make a simple syrup, could I add that make it more sweet? I didn’t compensate for the rhubarb and extra lemon juice. How can I make it sweeter? Adding sugar alone won’t mix with cold sauce and I’m afraid heating it again will make it even thicker. Any suggestions?
Your website is my go to for all my baking!! I truly appreciate having the grams for all the ingredients. It’s so much more accurate than measuring cups! Thank you for your wonderful recipes!!
Hi Victoria, we’re unsure how a simple syrup will incorporate at this point, but you can certainly give it a try. For next time, feel free to add a bit more sugar from the start, especially if you’re using rhubarb which can be quite tart. Thanks for giving this one a try!
Thanks, this was a good use of my garden strawberries
I want to add rhubarb to this to add to the top of cheesecake. Do you have any recommendations for how much to add and would I adjust sugar?
Hi Maegan, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but you could certainly try swapping some of the strawberries for rhubarb. You’ll like want to increase the sugar a bit, so feel free to give it a taste and add more to your liking. Let us know how it goes for you!
Also do you have a cherry sauce recipe?
Hi Lily, we do not have a specific cherry sauce recipe at this time, but you can swap the strawberries here with pitted and halved cherries. Enjoy!
Would this be good on a cheesecake?
Hi Lily, absolutely!
For me, this is the perfect “fruit sauce” recipe! After loving your “Perfect No-Bake Cheesecake” recipe 100s of times (I like the measurements of your “full size” cheesecake for individual cheesecakes) I used this recipe during our strawberry season and OMG it was such a hit at the party I decided to try other fruits I had bought frozen. The cornstarch makes a nice syrup but I let the fruit cool just a bit before running it in the blender – not quite “pureed” but blended enough to put it in labeled “squeeze bottles” so guests can “sauce or not sauce” their cheesecakes. I’ve used frozen fruits- black cherries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, blackberries, and a “mixed berries” so far – each blended enough to slightly chunky but dispenses from the condiment bottle (after cutting off the opening a little) works really nicely. I make the sauces a day or two ahead and refrigerate them in their bottle, then set them out about an hour before serving little cheesecakes and the sauce consistency is squeezable.
Just need an orange sauce and lemon sauce recipe as great as this one.
Delicious! Was great over my Pink Lemonade Pie. Also, over Angelfood Cake. We I’ll definitely make over and over.
Quick question, Do you have a cherry sauce topper for a cheesecake or is it possible to do the same topping as the strawberry topping, but with cherries that are pitted and fresh?
Hi Megan, we do not have a specific cherry sauce recipe at this time, but you can swap the strawberries here with pitted and halved cherries. Enjoy!
I love Sallys recipes BUT this was truly awful. It was WAY too cloyingly sweet. I actually was able to salvage it by rinsing the pan of berries under the faucet some and continue cooking, added a tiny bit more slurry and it was great after that. Americans typically like incredibly sweet things but I am not one of those people. Now, I like some sweetness, I get down with creme brulee and brownies but the sugar in this recipe overtook the strawberries and truly ruined it. I think this is a personal preference but I trust Sallys recipes and so I didn’t even think to not follow the recipe fully as I usually do with amazing results. This just wasn’t it for me. If anyone else out there doesn’t enjoy cloyingly sweet things, be aware of how naturally sweet your berries are and add sugar accordingly, don’t just blindly follow the recipe because it might be a mistake and with berry prices, that’s not a cheap mistake. I love this blog so much and have been making her recipes for years and this was my first negative experience.
Hi Julian, thank you so much for this thoughtful review. It will be very helpful to other readers who don’t want a super sweet dessert sauce. I appreciate you taking the time to leave it!
Can you preserve this like jelly?
We haven’t tested it, Stephanie.
This was a great recipe! I used it on a frozen yogurt recipe I made. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us!
Simple and delicious. I appreciate that it’s not too sweet and can be made with frozen strawberries as well.
This recipe came out amazing. It tastes so good and is identical to The Cheesecake Factory’s Strawberry Glaze.
This was so easy and so amazing!!!!
hi, so when i put this in the fridge on top of my cheesecake what can i expect to happen will it harden like a ganache
Hi Kenny, it will not harden. It is a saucy topping.
We made this recipe along with the Dutch Baby Pancake. We used fresh strawberries and both the juice and lemon zest. The sauce was very easy to make and turned out delicious. I loved the hint of lemon. We will be keeping this recipe to make again in the future to top ice cream, waffles, pancakes, etc…
Delicious!! Reminds me of a childhood dessert.
Thank you for sharing the recipe! I used this recipe with frozen strawberries for a topping on my chocolate torte cake and it was devine even with frozen berries!
What can be used instead of cornstarch?
Hi Erica, a few readers have tried using flour instead, but you’ll need to use a bit more to help the sauce thicken. We’re unsure of the exact amount.
Hi Sally! Can I use this as a cake filling.
Hi Joan, This recipe is a bit too thin to use between cake layers – if you do try it we would definitely make a dam of icing around the edges of the cake to prevent seeping. You can try reheating and adding more cornstarch, or even just letting it simmer for a bit to thicken more. For a strawberry cake filling we recommend using the strawberry filling from our strawberry shortcake cupcakes.
Can I take out the lemons and lemon zest or what can I substitute for both? I cant have lemons because i have terrible gerd and acid reflux!
Hi G, you can omit if needed, but the sauce may taste a bit flat.
I was given 2 pounds of strawberries that were past their prime. This recipe was the perfect way to salvage the strawberries. Because they were so doft they cooked down beautifully. The sauce is the best i have tried. It keeps its berry red color and the touch of lemon truly enhances the flavor. Definitely my new go-to recipe for berry sauces!
I asked about canning the strawberry sauce and you asked me to let you know if I tried it. I did and it’s so easy! I used 2 pounds of whole frozen strawberries, putting them into the pot with double the other ingredients. As they thawed, I broke them up with a wooden spoon and user a potato mashed at the end, making sure to leave some small chunks. I ladeled the sauce into sterilized four 8 ounce jars, wiping the mouths and securing caps and bands. I processed them in my canned for 10 minutes. All the jars sealed tightly, so now I have something new to make for my annual Christmas gifts! I also had a bag of frozen mixed berries, followed the same process and the sauce is amazing! Thanks for such an easy and delicious recipe! Anyone who cans should definitely try this!
Ellen –
Are you saying this is then shelf stable or does it need to be frozen? I’m looking for something that doesn’t take up freezer space. Somehow I still seem cautious of this I don’t want to make myself or anyone else sick months later. I have only made freezer jams before so not totally an experienced canner. Thanks for any tips.
Can I use canning jars and process for 10 minutes in my canner for extended shelf life?
We haven’t tested it, but let us know if you do, Ellen!
I have used this recipe quite a few times and love it. I usually use fresh strawberries, but recently had to use frozen since strawberries weren’t really in season. I did notice a need to cook them a little longer, due to them being frozen (just took a little longer to reach a simmer). Thank you so much and we love your recipes!
Used this sauce to make my lactose free vanilla ice cream into strawberry!!! I also did chopped strawberrys well and then topped it off. Yum