Julie Clark
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Strawberry Topping
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Fresh, sweet strawberries are simmered to make this sweet Strawberry Topping with a hint of lemon and vanilla that beats store-bought syrup any day. Serve on shortcake, pancakes, pound cake, ice cream….the possibilities are endless!
Do you have a strawberry patch in your garden? We planted a small patch of strawberries at our old house and ate them as soon as they were ready.
Eating strawberries fresh is my favorite way to eat them. Ok…that is a slight lie. If I had my choice, I’d eat this shortcake recipe with this homemade strawberry topping every day.
Table of Contents
- Why you’ll love this strawberry sauce:
- What is strawberry sauce made of?
- A Secret Ingredient
- How to Make Strawberry Topping
- Why is my strawberry sauce not thickening?
- What to Serve with Strawberry Topping
- Can I blend this to make a smooth strawberry sauce?
- How do you store homemade strawberry topping?
- Can you freeze strawberry sauce?
- Homemade Strawberry Topping with Secret Ingredient Recipe
Why you’ll love this strawberry sauce:
- made with fresh strawberries
- a light syrup
- ready in 20 minutes
- perfect topping for cakes and ice creams
What is strawberry sauce made of?
For this recipe you’ll need:
- Strawberries. This strawberry sauce recipe works with fresh or frozen berries.
- Sugar. To sweeten the sauce. I have not tried using any sugar substitute and prefer standard granulated sugar.
- Water. Water gives the strawberry sauce a base and allows the strawberries to soften on the stovetop without scorching.
- Vanilla. Vanilla extract adds a warm, familiar flavor to the strawberry sauce.
- Lemon juice. This adds flavor and complements the sweet strawberries.
- Cornstarch. Cornstarch is a thickening agent and helps the strawberry sauce not be too runny.
- Salted butter. Our secret ingredient. Read more ⬇️
A Secret Ingredient
What makes our strawberry sauce the best? Butter. After the sauce is done cooking you’ll add a tablespoon of butter to the sauce. This makes a deliciously rich strawberry sauce. Don’t skip it…trust me!
How to Make Strawberry Topping
- In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the strawberries, sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved. Heat the mixture to boiling, stirring often. Reduce heat and add the vanilla and lemon juice.
- In a small cup, combine the cornstarch and two tablespoons of water. Mix well.
- Pour this into the boiling strawberry mixture. Stir and boil over medium-low heat for 4 minutes or until the mixture has thickened a bit.
- Remove the pan from the heat.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter and mix until the butter has completely melted. Again…this is the secret! Don’t skip it.
- If you’d like your strawberry syrup to have a nice red color, add a few drops of red food coloring. This is completely optional.
- Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes, then add the last cup of quartered, fresh strawberries. This allows you to have nice chunks of strawberries instead of small strawberry pieces.
Why is my strawberry sauce not thickening?
What happens if your strawberry sauce is watery? Most often, strawberry sauce is watery when it hasn’t cooked long enough.
The easiest way to thicken strawberry sauce is to let it simmer for longer. As it cooks, water will evaporate and the cornstarch slurry will have time to thicken the sauce.
Here’s some other things to consider:
- Sugar. Don’t lower the sugar content or use a sugar substitute. These can both lead to a watery sauce.
- Strawberries. If you use frozen strawberries, allow them to thaw and drain before making the sauce. This will help you start off with less moisture to cook out.
- Cooling. The sauce may thicken slightly as it cools.
What to Serve with Strawberry Topping
The possibilities are endless, really. Serve on waffles, pancakes, Jell-O cake, shortcake, blend them with ice cream for a milkshake.
Whatever your desire, this simple homemade strawberry syrup recipe with a touch of lemon juice and a hint of vanilla is going to be one you want to save and share with your family and friends this summer.
Can I blend this to make a smooth strawberry sauce?
Yes! If you don’t want chunks of strawberries in your strawberry sauce, blend the sauce with an immersion blender (or regular blender) after cooking to the smoothness that you’d like.
How do you store homemade strawberry topping?
Store the strawberry sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Can you freeze strawberry sauce?
Yes! You can freeze the strawberry sauce in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Homemade Strawberry Topping with Secret Ingredient
Fresh, sweet strawberries are simmered to make a sweet Homemade Strawberry Topping with a hint of vanilla and lemon that beats store-bought syrup any day.
Servings 8
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups quartered strawberries
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- 1 additional cup of quartered strawberries
- red food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the strawberries, sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved. Heat the mixture to boiling, stirring often. Reduce heat and add the vanilla and lemon juice.
- In a small cup, combine the cornstarch and two tablespoons of water. Mix well.
- Pour this into the boiling strawberry mixture. Stir and boil over medium-low heat for 4 minutes or until the mixture has thickened a bit.
- Remove the pan from the heat.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter and mix until the butter has completely melted.
- If you’d like your strawberry syrup to have a nice red color, add a few drops of red food coloring. This is completely optional.
- Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes, then add the last cup of quartered, fresh strawberries.
- Serve over whatever dessert you’d like!
- Refrigerate the leftovers.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the recipe serving 8, with one serving being ⅛ of the recipe. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**
Nutrition
Calories: 106kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 13mg | Potassium: 79mg | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 120IU | Vitamin C: 28.2mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 0.2mg
I have a huge problem w/ making strawberry sauce for my cheesecake. It looked amazing and taste amazing. The only problem I had was after pouring it on the cheesecake and placing it in the refrigerator over night, it looked funky and old 24 hurs later. It didn’t look beautiful and delicious like it did after I made it. Can you plz tell me why. I’m very upset. I make amazing cheesecake but I can’t get the strawberry sauce right. I only used 1/2 a cup of sugar, 1 lbs strawberries. I cooked the strawberries for 15 mins w/ 1tea… Read more »
How long can you keep it in the fridge? Can you freeze it?
Excellent! Doubled recipe. Only used 1/4 cup sugar and 3 packets of Splenda.
This was so easy to make and absolutely delicious! I didn’t have lemon juice so I substituted with lime juice at 3/4 the amount. I made a triple recipe and froze half of it. My husband loved it so much that he took that container out two days later! We used it for strawberry shortcake. This is a recipe I will definitely be using many times!
I made this with Pyure, a Stevia blend sugar substitute, instead of sugar and it was wonderful! Blueberry is my favorite but strawberry is wonderful too. I’m just trying to cut back on sugar. I’m never going back to light or sugar free syrup. This is MUCH better on pancakes!
I had never made angel food cake, the sauce made the cake! They are even putting it on ice cream.
Cindy
Does this recipe turn out the same if you double, or tripple, it?
I buy strawberry glaze and toss strawberries with the glaze, the glaze is somewhat thick and then I use this for filling in cakes that I bake, would your recipe work for this? The glaze i purchase i about $3.00 for a 12 or 14 ounce container and it is getting expensive.
Do I use granulated or powder sugar?? Thanks!
Can I use flour instead of cornstarch? Just realised I don’t have any
Absolutely delicious! We just picked fresh strawberries today at a local strawberry patch. I just made this and it is AMAZING! I followed the recipe to a T and it came out perfect. Thank you for sharing!
Much better than store bought. Very rich taste!
So are we starting with just 1/2 cup of strawberries? And is it supposed to be 2 tablespoons of corn starch to 2 tablespoons of water? Your recipe says teaspoon for the cornstarch
This is seriously the best tasting thing I have ever made! Thank you so much! It is so delicious.
Excellent recipe! I chopped my strawberries small as I was using this recipe for mini little cheesecakes. I used the red food coloring and it looked gorgeous. But the taste was outstanding. I was curious about the butter and it worked perfectly. Followed the recipe to a T and would not change a thing. Making homemade topping such as this, blueberry, etc. is so easy and tastes so much better than the canned stuff.
I am SOOOO excited it is spring again and I can start making this AMAZING strawberry sauce yet again. I did try it off season with the frozen strawberries and it was still great in my opinion, but then again I’m a strawberry fanatic. Thank u SO much Julie for sharing this AMAZING recipe 🙂