Make delicious strawberry sauce from scratch with just a few ingredients. This quick and easy recipe transforms fresh or frozen berries into a flavorful strawberry topping that’s perfect on all your favorite desserts.
🍓 Fresh Strawberry Topping for Cheesecake & More
Bold claim time: you can improve almost any dessert with three ingredients and 20 minutes. For instance:
- Ice cream? Check.
- Cheesecake? Got ya covered.
- Tarts? You better believe it.
All of these things can be improved at least 37.45%* by adding an easy homemade strawberry sauce on top.
*Figures have not and will not be scientifically checked
This fresh strawberry sauce is the magic weapon you need in your life. It’s delicious, perfectly sweet, has a vibrant berry flavor, requires just three ingredients, and is so versatile!
It’s wonderful with fresh berries, but can also be made with frozen berries during off-peak months, so you can have a little bit of strawberry sunshine all year long.
How to Use Strawberry Sauce
Just like my Blueberry Sauce, you can drizzle it over breakfast foods like pancakes or waffles, ladle it on ice cream, use it in lieu of frosting for pound cake, or as a topping for cake or cheesecake. Heck, you might just want to eat it by the spoonful on its own. There’ll be no judgement from me! 😉
If you love this strawberry sauce recipe, you will also love my other berry desserts!
Table of Contents
🧾 What You’ll Need
Ingredients
Any recipe that just has three ingredients is a recipe I can get on board with! Here’s what you’ll need for this homemade Strawberry Sauce. Check the recipe card for full ingredient amouts.
- Strawberries: You’ll need one pound of strawberries to make 2 cups chopped berries. The recipe makes 1 1/2 cups of sauce, but if you need more sauce than that, you can easily double or even triple this recipe in a larger pot. The flavor is better when using fresh berries, but you can also use frozen berries–check the FAQ section below for information on how to use frozen berries in this recipe!
- Sugar: The recipe calls for 1/3 cup granulated sugar, but you can add more or less depending on how sweet your berries are, and your personal preference.
- Lemon Juice:Just a little lemon juice brightens the sauce and deepens the sweet berry flavor. Use freshly squeezed lemon juice if you have it, but bottled juice will work as well.
Equipment
All you need are a few basic kitchen tools to make this sauce!
- Saucepan: I use a 4-quart saucepan which is the perfect size for this amount of sauce. If you’re doubling or tripling the recipe, I recommend using a larger size.
- Juicer: You can squeeze the lemon juice by hand, but I recommend using a juicer. This makes it easier to get more juice out of the lemon!
- Spatula: You’ll want to use a spatula to regularly stir the strawberry sauce as it cooks so it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.
- Jars: You can store any leftover sauce in mason jars in the fridge.
Ready to Make This?
- Get the recipe below 👇👇
- Scroll below the recipe for step-by-step photos
- Read important FAQs and more
❤️ More Strawberry Desserts
Leave a Review!
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Strawberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh strawberries, (to yield 2 cups sliced)
- 2.3 oz granulated sugar, (1/3 cup)
- 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Prepare the berries. Wash the strawberries well. Remove the stems, and slice the strawberries.
- Combine the ingredients. Combine the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a 4-quart saucepan, and heat over medium heat.
- Cook the sauce. Stir regularly while the strawberries cook. Let them bubble and boil for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the berries are very soft. The longer the sauce cooks, the thicker it will get.
- Let the sauce cool. Remove the pan from the heat and let the strawberry sauce cool at room temperature. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Blend the sauce (optional). If you want a smooth strawberry sauce, you can use an immersion blender or transfer the sauce to a regular blender to puree it.
- Serving suggestions: This sauce is equally delicious when served warm or cold. It's wonderful on all kinds of desserts, but it especially shines on cheesecakes, pound cake, and ice cream.
- Storage instructions: Homemade strawberry sauce will last in the fridge for 4-5 days or in the freezer for 3-4 months. If it's been frozen, let it thaw in the fridge overnight, then enjoy chilled, or gently warm it in the microwave.
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
📸 Photo Tutorial: How to Make Strawberry Sauce
This homemade Strawberry Sauce comes together in less than 30 minutes! Here’s a quick overview of how to make it, and for full printable instructions, visit the recipe card above.
Prep Ingredients
- Juice a lemon. Use a juicer to squeeze fresh lemon juice. You’ll need 1 TBSP which will be 1/2-1 lemon, depending on the size. No fresh lemons? You can use bottled lemon juice instead.
- Wash strawberries. Wash 1 lb of strawberries well under cold water.
- Hull and slice berries. Use a knife to remove the stems, and slice the berries into thin slices.
Cook the Strawberry Sauce
- Combine ingredients in saucepan. Combine 2 cups sliced strawberries, 2.3 oz (1/3 cup) sugar, and 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice in a 4-quart saucepan, then heat on the stove over medium heat, stirring regularly.
- Boil and thicken. Let the mixture bubble for 20 minutes or until thickened to your liking. The longer it cooks, the thicker the texture will be, and the more concentrated the flavor
- Cool and enjoy! Remove from the heat, and let it cool a bit before serving. Strawberry sauce can be enjoyed warm or cold.
💡 Tips and FAQs
Make the most out of your homemade Strawberry Sauce with these helpful tips!
Yes! I typically find that ripe, fresh berries give a better, more vibrant flavor. But if berries are out of season or you only have access to frozen, you can swap those in instead. Let the frozen berries defrost in a colander so excess liquid will drain away, then proceed with the recipe as written. You can use the same quantity of frozen berries as fresh.
It’s important to wash them thoroughly before using them, then cut off the stems and chop up the strawberries. I usually slice medium berries into 4-5 slices, but you can chop them coarser or finer depending on your personal preference.
Bottled lemon juice contains preservatives that can make it taste almost chemical or stale. When possible, I recommend freshly squeezing your lemon juice to give this sauce the best flavor. But if you don’t have access to fresh, bottled is fine.
A coulis is a sauce that has been blended and strained. So while this is not a coulis, it is easy to make a strawberry coulis from this recipe! Here’s how: After cooking the strawberry sauce, blend it with an immersion blender or food processor until it is very smooth. Pour it through a fine mesh strainer to remove any seeds or texture, and you have a beautiful strawberry coulis!
There are plenty of ways you can serve fresh strawberry sauce! Here are some of my favorites:
Over cheesecake. Strawberry sauce makes a delicious topping for so many different cheesecakes!
With breakfast. Try it on over pancakes or waffles, on French toast cake, mixed into yogurt, or even in oatmeal.
Over ice cream. Try it with Lavender Rose Ice Cream or over strawberry lemonade ice cream pie.
On cake. You can drizzle it over a slice of cake, cupcakes, or pound cake to add a little something extra. I love it on chocolate pound cake, orange bundt cake, strawberry swirl bundt cake, or chocolate cupcakes!
Homemade strawberry sauce will last in the fridge for 4-5 days or in the freezer for 3-4 months. When you’re ready to enjoy again, it can be served warm or cold. If it’s been frozen, let it thaw in the fridge overnight, then enjoy chilled, or gently warm it in the microwave.
💭 Variations
This Strawberry Sauce is very customizable and forgiving. Here are a couple of things you can do to switch things up!
- Make another berry sauce. This recipe can be easily adapted to accommodate different berries. Try it with raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries. You can also use cherries, pitted and halved, to make a homemade cherry sauce!
- Adjust the sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar you use depending on the ripeness of the berries. Very ripe berries will need less sugar. Under-ripe berries will need more.
- Add another flavor. Some of my favorite additions are 1 tsp vanilla extract, a shake of ground cinnamon, or adding lemon zest in addition to the lemon juice. Almond extract is another fun flavor you can try if you think it will work with the other components of your dessert.
More Dessert Sauces
Loved this recipe, great flavour and simple instructions, will definitely make again!
Hi Sara! I am thrilled you found the instructions helpful! I appreciate your feedback 🙂
The strawberry sauce came out so rich! I loved the idea as soon as I saw it and had all the ingredients! The recipe is now part of my recipe’s arsenal!
Don’t you love when you already have all the ingredients!? So glad you enjoyed the strawberry sauce 🙂
Came across this recipe at the right time as we had a surplus of strawberries to use up. The sauce is so versatile!!! I made a big batch and frozen half of it. We’ve used it on porridge, with pancakes, on ice cream, and in a smoothie.
I love that you made a large batch and decided to freeze some for later use! I’ll definitely have to try it in a smoothie!
Made this as soon as I saw it—it’s so good! I put it on top of some brownies and it was a hit!
That is a GENIUS idea! I’ll be trying it on brownies ASAP. Thanks for your comment!
I’m drooling here. That looks even more lush than fresh strawberries. Yum!
Thanks Jacqueline! You can’t go wrong with strawberries + sugar + lemon juice 🙂
Enjoyed this over ice cream and it was a hit all around the table! Easy and delicious; my whole family loved it!
YUM! Ice cream sounds like the perfect way to enjoy this strawberry sauce 🙂 Thanks for sharing!