Okay, do you ever find yourself in Costco [I can only dream] or Sam’s Club around this time of year and see those GIANT flats of strawberries for, like, $3? And you think to yourself, “Self, that is an awesome deal on strawberries, but after the novelty wears off with my kids and my husband and myself and I make strawberry shortcake and strawberry jam and some strawberry smoothies, what will I do with the remaining 14 pounds of berries?” Well, I have your answer. This strawberry sauce has about a million uses, is freezer-friendly, and is so much better than that jar of Smuckers strawberry sauce that you’ve had sitting in your fridge since that time you made banana splits 1 1/2 years ago.
Wash strawberries and remove stems. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can roughly chop the berries,
but I say you’re already feeling ambitious enough by making your own strawberry sauce. So don’t sweat it either way.
Combine berries, sugar,
and extract
in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.
After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). Or use an immersion blender, which is a delightful tool to have in your arsenal. When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. (I adore my Blendtec.)
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of large chunks of mystery fruit, so I like it smooth, but you can do it however you want.
Wanna know what to do with it?
–Make banana splits with this and Sara’s hot fudge sauce
–Drizzle over plain cheesecake
–Spoon over these Light and Crispy Waffles (which are the best waffles you will EVER eat!)
–My proudest use of strawberry sauce: mix a couple of tablespoons (depending on the size of the glass and your own personal taste) with this fresh-squeezed lemonade for strawberry lemonade. So so so so good…
—Chocolate waffles, anyone? If that’s not your thing, you could put them on your favorite French toast, waffles, or pancakes. Speaking of French Toast- try this one!
–Drizzle over angel food cake and add a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.
Strawberry Sauce
- Yield: 1 pint
Description
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
- 1 pint strawberries
Instructions
Wash strawberries and remove stems. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can roughly chop the berries, but I say you’re already feeling ambitious enough by making your own strawberry sauce. So don’t sweat it.
Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.
After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. You can also use an immersion blender, which makes things super easy!
Notes
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.
Questions & Reviews
I'm making this for father's day! And do please tell where you found that cute pitcher?? I want to know, too!!
Where did you find that cute, cute pitcher? I've loved it in every single post I see it in!
vlaizure–I can't say for sure, but I don't think I'd keep it longer than 2 weeks.
Hope that helps!
this is a bit late, but how long does this stay good in the fridge?
crackedupkitchen.blogspot.com
Is there a way to make this thick enough to put on one of Sara's scones? Or should I just stick to jam?
Okay we tried this on chocolate waffles and with lemonade and it was amazing – but then I thought of another use for it I wanted to share…I added it to unsweetened plain applesauce to make strawberry applesauce! It was sooo yummy and my kids loved it too! Thanks for all the awesome recipes:)
Riddle Girl, um, yeah, no commenting on posts that are off the main page! TOTALLY kidding–we'll take comments whenever we can get them!
I'm so glad you loved it–let us know how it goes with the lemonade!
I hope it is ok to come back to older posts and post MUCH later. I just want to try the yummy recipies before I can comment.
This one we have used twice now and OH MY GOODNESS-YUMM! We will be trying it in lemonade tonight. But on waffles it is PERFECT!
Keep rockin ALL of the great treats!
I don't think I will ever buy another cookbook. I have just been printing off many of these and created my own Best Bites binder! (I have yet to try one that is not great!)
Thanks! I love recipes with 3 or FEWER ingredients!! I just bought some strawberries today, so I’ll be making this tomorrow.
Um… Yum! I love almond extract in cherry pie and peach pie. Never thought to put it in strawberries.. why didn’t I think of that?!?!?!?
We were invited over to some friends’ house today for crepes and I made this as our topping contribution. I had frozen strawberries and blackberries, so I did some of each and it was delicious! Everybody raved about the amazing berry sauce, so thanks for the recipe!
(BTW… strawberry sauce + nutella = perfection!)
This sounds great! If there’s one thing I can’t pass up at the store, it’s strawberries! I’m definitely going to use some of this for lemonade. Maybe I’ll freeze them into ice cubes and use that to cool the lemonade down…
awesome. i want to go to costco tomorrow.
hilarious description at the beginning by the way kate.
I keep reading suggestions for what you could do with pesto. I would like to know what your pesto recipe is like.
Wow! What a colorful post! Cute!
Yey! just in time, I just bought a flat of strawberries yesterday! strawberry lemonade sounds soooo good right now. i also plan on adding some to homemade yogurt so i can have strawberry flavored! You could probably make some awesome virgin strawberry daquiris with it too – Put 2 C strawberry syrup,4 C ice, and 1/4 C lime juice (Fresh squeezed of course!) in the blender and blend away!
Yum! Where was this last week when I accidentally bought a whole flat of strawberries from the little spanish-speaking man on the corner and they were moldering on the counter? LOL.
This is a great recipe to have as it is easily adaptable for use with other berries.
Btw, almond extract rocks! 🙂
~ingrid
Yum, this is the kind of thing I could just drink! By the way, I made your chili-lime steak salad for dinner last night and it was the best salad ever!!! What an awesome recipe. My family devoured it and even wanted seconds! I have a feeling I’m going to be making this baby just about every week now! Thanks for the wonderful creation.
Look how pretty! I love all things strawberries.
Hey great! I still have 2 pints of strawberries left after making two batches of jam, strawberry bread, strawberry muffins, strawberry-rhubarb pie, and strawberry shortcake. This will be perfect for those last two pints. One batch for the freezer and one batch to use on ice cream tonight.
-Abby
No new wonderful ideas here, but I’m loving the strawberry lemonade one!
Make chocolate cups (or bags) by melting dipping chocolate blocks and painting onto the inside of a cup-cake foil, then refrigerate. Make white chocolate mouse (any recipe will do). Pour a tiny bit of strawberry sauce in bottom of the chocolate cups. Break up an ice-cream sandwich into bite sized pieces and add. Top with white chocolate mousse. Drizzle more strawberry sauce. Fight everyone in the room to see who gets to eat the most.
mmmm….delicious! Strawberries are a fave of mine
oh yum! I’m needing some for strawberry lemonade right now! and then a cheesecake, and then banana splits and then …I will stop there.
…or you could do what I did last week: attempt to make strawberry freezer jam, but instead of actually making jam, it is more like strawberry syrup because you didn’t cook the pectin long enough.
This looks much easier, and much yummier (and much less frustrating). Thanks!
Bunny–yeah, it definitely freezes really well. This way, you can have the taste of strawberries all year! 🙂
Ok first I’m jealous that you can by a flat of strawberries for $3!! We don’t have any of those stores around here. This syrup will come in very very handy this summer and you said you can freeze it too??
This looks and sounds so good! I’ll have to try this. We all love strawberries!
Great idea. This would be good for smoothies in the morning – or added to yogurt for breakfast.
Hmmm…I’m thinking either a straw or a spoon would be a good way to consume this, lol. Yum!
Since I’m trying to lose a few pounds I’m making my sauce with Splenda for sugar and crystal lite for the lemonade. Yummm. I’ve been missing the strawberry lemonade.