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, brioche French toast, 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi, can you top a 9 by 13 version of your strawberry cake with this sauce or will it mess up the cake frosting?
Hi Nick, I would add the sauce right before serving. YUM!
Loved your recipe. I had some Strawberries that got pushed to the back of the refrigerator and needed some love. This recipe was just perfect to give them a second chance. I love that the sauce wasn’t that sickly sweet stuff you get from a jar. We enjoyed it over ice cream and some on waffles. Going to make more….thanks
Wonderful recipe using the bounty of fresh strawberries! The sweetness of the strawberries is enhanced–not overpowered–by the lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar.
I am wondering if I would get the same result if I used frozen strawberries.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Ive used frozen. But I thaw to get the extra liquid out
I LOVE this recipe!!! Made it twice this week so far. I really like citrusy flavors so I added another teaspoon of lemon juice, and it is absolutely perfect for waffles. Thank you so so so much!!!
This was so easy to put together and tasted great both warm and cold! My 7 year old and I poured this sauce on our muffin tin Dutch babies. The Dutch baby recipe may have said it was 4-6 servings and, thanks to this amazing sauce, we did not have any leftovers. Thank you! My son has requested that I make this sauce for everything from now on! 🙂
Great recipe!! Didnt realize it was so easy to make. My husband use to buy these strawberry cups (frozen) from Costco but one day…no more! He used it on my oatmeal in the mornings. This guy does not cook one bit! I taught him how to make it and since hes up earlier than me he makes it and I enjoyed not making breakfast. Ever since, the cups were gone so were the oatmeal in the mornings! 🙁 Now I can make my own strawberry sauce Im getting him to make breakfast again haha! But after I made batches of this sauce we have been using it on everything but oatmeal….milkshakes, ice cream..etc this is just adding to my quarantine diet..
okay, just made this last night. so so so good! instead of 1/4 sugar i did 1/8 splenda because my parents are diabetic and i wanted them to enjoy! also, didn’t have a lemon so I used lime juice. Easy and tasty!
Did it turn out with the same sweet flavor, but minus the bad effects on diabetics? My dad is also diabetic, and I was wanting to put this on my daughter’s birthday cake which my dad wouldn’t be able to eat normally. Thanks for this idea!
I used these for crepes! It tasted very good. BTW I love the beautiful pictures!
Sally, this recipe is amazing and so easy to make! I have some strawberries that I grow lately in my greenhouse, fortunately I have it so I can grow what I want and whenever I want! I have grown tresca variety, do you think that it will be also good for making this sauce? I grown it from seeds that I bought. They are quite sweet so I think that even there is a small amount of sugar I will limit it a bit. Thank you again for this recipe, it is amazing!
That sound amazing to grow your own in your greenhouse! If you enjoy eating a particular type of strawberry, then you will enjoy it in this sauce. You can absolutely reduce the sugar if they are already super sweet. Enjoy 🙂
Tried this with some pancakes and it was delicious. Probably put too much lemon juice in it so it was SLIGHTLY sour but still wonderful. I have some saved in the fridge
Used this as a topping for your no-bake cheesecake recipe. Yum! Strawberries are not yet in season but the sauce is still good, albeit a bit sour. Tasted a bit too sweet while cooking but afterwards it got less sweet and more sour. Really really good and easy recipe!
This is excellent and so easy! Think the lemon juice and zest really enhances the strawberry flavor. Great recipe and helpful tips.
Sally,
Are there are substitutions for the corn starch? I stay away from corn products.
Hi Nancy! You can try arrowroot starch.
I love your channel and have made many of your recipes with great success. I’m wondering if you can (sometimes) give half measures for those of us not wishing to have so much excess. I read many different measure conversions that say a pound of strawberries equals 2 2/3 cups of the fruit where you say its 3-4 cups. Strawberry measure is wholly relevant to size of the berries, but, when chopped, they’re not. I’ve reduced portions in many recipes and it just doesn’t turn out the same! However, with only 1 1/2 cups of chopped strawberries in my fridge, I’d love to make this recipe work! Any ideas?
Hi KayKaye, halving recipes usually works, especially sauces and toppings. For your 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped strawberries, I suggest 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1 Tbsp water, 1 teaspoon lemon juice (you can skip the zest), and 2 Tbsp sugar.
I tried this recipe as a strawberry sauce for french toast. Sauce came out perfect! it was delicious. I will be using this recipe again. Loved it.
This sauce is fabulous. I’ve just made it, even though strawberries are not at their best yet as it’s only early Spring here, the smell as it cooked was just beautiful.
I’m going to make jars for my friends Christmas packs, by late December the fruit will be at its best.
Thank you
Been wanting to make this and soo happy I did. I had froze a bunch of strawberries so the process was even faster and easier! I love it when recipes are versatile: frozen or fresh. Followed recipe as is, just doubled the batch because one batch is never enough when we use your recipe (cookies, soft oatmeal raisin granola bars (8 batches every 4 weeks or so ). Thank you for all these yummy recipes, Sally!
Next up, homemade vanilla extract. Can’t wait! Vanilla beans are sooo expensive!
Super easy and fast! My friend decided to have a last minute BBQ today and this was the perfect treat to bring. Made 8 different flavors in 4oz jars.
Thanks again Sally!
Can this be put through the canning sterilization in the jars process and stored in the pantry rather than freezing? I see it can be kept in fridge for only 1 week. Looks delicious, and strawberries are such a bargain right now! Thank you, Sally….. you, and all you do!
Hi Pat! I haven’t personally tried canning this strawberry sauce, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t be successful. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks Sally! It was a small batch, 3 cups, so I just froze in cup servings. It tastes yummy, but sauce was cloudier looking than pictured after refrigeration; not nice and clear. I simmered as instructions state. Any ideas, or is that expected?
Made this today using cherries and it came out perfectly! I just added a 1/4 tsp of almond extract at the end. So good! I’m using it to top a panna cotta tart.
I doubled the recipe and used the zest and juice from a whole lemon… It was definitely more than four teaspoons and the whole thing now tastes like strawberry lemonade! Note to other bakers – follow Sally’s note about it being only two teaspoons of juice per recipe! (Unless you want a very tangy strawberry lemonade sauce :))
Hi Sally,
I noticed someone also asked about substitution of fruit…..however, I was thinking of peaches! We have so many and wondered if your recipe would work?
Thanks!
Yes, definitely! 1:1 substitution for the peaches. Feel free to slightly reduce the sugar if the peaches are extra sweet.
I made your strawberry compote as my topping for the no-bake cheesecake jars and thought that the compote was absolutely delicious, but also thought it was just a little too thick. I will definitely make this recipe from now on!!! I also think it deserves its own post
Yes, that recipe is a little bit thicker! I hope you’ll try this one 🙂 Thanks for participating in July’s baking challenge!
Hi Sally,
It’s apricot season here in New Mexico any recommendations for substituting apricots for strawberries in this sauce? Are there any other recipes from your blog that you think would work well with apricots?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Kristy! I’ve never made apricot topping, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work here. Chop them up and use as a 1:1 substitution for the strawberries. I think apricots taste better in a baked dessert, though. You should try them in place of the peaches in my frangipane galette.
Looks perfect for adding to my “overnight oats”.
Great idea!
Can this Strawberry recipe be stored in caning jars ? If so please tell me how to do this .
Hi Judy! I’m sure it could be, but I haven’t tried canning this yet. Let me know if you do!
I just made some strawberry compote last week…so yummy! Question…in that recipe your slurry is 1-1/2T cornstarch to 4T water. Here it’s 1T cornstarch to 3T water. Isn’t the cornstarch:water ratio the almost the same? Wouldn’t the consistency for both sauces be just about the same? Sorry to nerd out on you, but I’m curious…you know I love your recipes! 😉
This looks so delicious. Biscuits, waffles, pancakes…..
Can you use this recipe with other fruit as well? I have a ton of cherries. The strawberry milkshake is a wonderful idea as well.
Yep absolutely! See recipe note.