Friday, February 6, 2015

Fresh Raspberry Sauce – Easy and Effective

As promised, here’s the fresh raspberry sauce we served with our recently posted chocolate decadence cake. While originally intended to be a companion video for that dessert, this stuff is so beautiful and delicious, you and your Valentine may not even need the cake.

Like I mentioned in the video, this will absolutely work even if you use frozen raspberries, but nothing compares to the flavor of the sauce if you can somehow find and use fresh raspberries.

Of course, that’s only half the battle, because the real key, besides the fresh fruit, is not overcooking the sauce.  We don’t want to boil and reduce this mixture. We’re not trying to make a thick heavy syrup, but instead a light, fresh, and vibrant pool of raspberry goodness.

This was perfect with our chocolate decadence, but would be equally as effective with pretty much any quality, store-bought dessert; in particular cheesecake, or vanilla ice cream. I’ve checked with the legal team, and even if you put this on something from the market, you’re still allowed to technically call your dessert "homemade."

By the way, if this gorgeous sauce doesn’t help you seduce the object of your desire this Valentine’s Day, don’t be too upset, as it probably wasn’t meant to be. So good luck, and I hope you give this fresh raspberry sauce a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for about 3 Cups Fresh Raspberry Sauce:
4 half-pint baskets of fresh raspberries (1.5 pounds), rinsed, drained
2 to 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1/4 cup sugar, or more to taste
*0 to 4 tablespoons water, depending on desired thickness

*Depending what you’re going to serve the sauce with, you may want to add some water before cooking the berries. If you want something a little thicker, to serve over ice cream for example, then don’t add any water. On the other hand, if you want and lighter texture like I did, toss in a few tablespoons of water before heading to the stove. Be careful; we’re not boiling and reducing the sauce, so we can’t cook out excess liquid.

23 comments:

Gretchen said...

EXpresso...heh heh

ScienceSusan said...

One million subscribers! Yay!

Dan and Hilary said...

Love it, have always wanted to know how to do this.

Quick question Chef John, do basically same rules apply for other fruit sauces like say passion fruit, blueberries, strawberry and such?

Could you also ask your legal team if it is legit for us home cooks to be cool and use those squeeze bottles for this sorta thing at home? My gut is saying yes.

Joanne said...

How well do you think this would work with strawberries instead of raspberries?

Unknown said...

But without a cake, what would you put the sauce on to share with your Valen-...ohhhh.

Unknown said...

Chef, is this gonna work with strawberries as well?

Unknown said...

Chef, is this gonna work with strawberries as well?

Chef John said...

Sure! Any berry would work. But you say have to adjust sugar/lemon.

Nick said...

Drooling already, but I think a cup and a half of this sauce each will be a little too much for us on Valentines night!! Will it freeze nicely (thinking in popsicle or icecube form)?

Chef John said...

Yes, or just make less! ;)

Anonymous said...

1 MILLION, CJ! Congrats!!!

Dr.Mauren Navarro said...

Chef John, I really enjoy the simple you show each recipe. I tried so many and all very successful
thank you so much

McShine said...

Made this with blackberries instead, because they were all out of raspberries at the grocery store. Still turned out beautifully, though raspberry probably would have been even better with the chocolate decadence (which really should be named 'death by chocolate' instead). Either way, I can't wait to try this again with some homemade panna cotta...mmmmh :)

Chef John said...

Yes, this will work with other fruits and berries the same way, except you may need to adjust the sugar depending on what you use. And yes to squeeze bottles! :)

Chef John said...

Yes, this will work with other fruits and berries the same way, except you may need to adjust the sugar depending on what you use. And yes to squeeze bottles! :)

Gripper99 said...

I had just left a message regarding Chef John's blueberry flaugnarde when this recipe popped up. I had a dinner party yesterday and all I had was blackberries and double cream in the 'fridge. As a group effort we stiffly whipped by hand the cream with powdered sugar and vanilla (a homemade extract of whole split vanilla beans in a bottle of vodka I had put up in 2009) with a pintch of salt. We used 1/2 of the berries for Chef John's coulis and left the other half whole. We only had a lime on hand for the citrus and I have to report that the sweet stiffly whipped double cream with the tart whole berries and the semisweet coulis was sensational. Thank you Chef John.

Dan and Hilary said...

I just made this with firm, crappy, out of season hydroponically grown strawberries and it came out awesome. You've done it once again Chef John.

Who knows, next time I'll use seasonal berries and a squeeze bottle and really blow some minds!

Adam Noyes said...

Somehow missed the lemon juice at the supermarket, so made do with a fresh squeezed orange and a splash of white wine vinegar. Served this after your lobster mac-n-cheese...which was pretty incredible. Everything was a hit, and my valentine(s) all loved it!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NahlaBee said...

Hi again Chef John!

Cannot tell you enough how happy I am for stumbling across your blog. You truly make things so less intimidating and very easy in the videos.

I made the chocolate decadence last night (along with the Scotch eggs!), and I'm going to make this raspberry coulis, but wonder how long will it keep?

Thank you!

Unknown said...

How long would this keep in the fridge?

Unknown said...

I just got mine done too!
The result is spectacular!!
Thank you chef John!!
picture

xsosdid said...

If I were, say, I guy who built robots for a living, I would be the Chef John of my automaton.