Make your own homemade strawberry compote from four simple ingredients in less than 15 minutes. Use this delicious strawberry sauce to in or on top of ice cream, pancakes, waffles, yogurt, cheesecakes, pies, or anything that pairs well with fruit. If strawberries aren't in season, use frozen, or change it up and use any berries you love!
1pound(454g) fresh or frozen strawberries1,2hulled and sliced into halves or quarters; about 2 and ½ cups once sliced
½cup(120mL) water
3Tablespoons(38g) granulated sugar
1 and ½Tablespoons(22mL) lemon juice3
1 and ½Tablespoons(15g) cornstarch
Instructions
Combine the strawberries, water, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a small saucepan.
Heat over medium heat, bring to a low boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes4 until liquid thickens.
Allow strawberry compote to cool a bit before using as a topping for warm food (like blintzes, pancakes, or French toast), or chill in the refrigerator until ready to use on cold foods (like ice cream, yogurt, or cheesecake). Store in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Compote freezes well, up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator.
Notes
Fresh or frozen strawberries: I like to use fresh the best, but out of season, frozen work just fine. Do not thaw. You may need to simmer the compote a bit longer to account for the added water from thawing.
Other berries: this strawberry compote recipe actually works for any berries. You can see in my cheese blintzes recipe that I used a mix of strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.
Lemon juice: it is best to use freshly squeezed lemon juice in compote, but you can use bottled if it's all you have available to you.
Simmer time: this recipe both halves and doubles beautifully. You may need to reduce or increase simmer time depending on how large your batch is. You want the juice to hold a thick coating on the back of a spoon when it's sufficiently reduced.
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.