Raspberry Sauce

The raspberries to make this sauce were picked just an hour prior. Using fresh raspberries makes this a refreshing and intensely flavoured sauce, but you can also use raspberries that have been frozen then thawed (raspberries that have been frozen might need a bit more icing sugar added for sweetness).

I have called this recipe a raspberry sauce, but it could be called a raspberry puree or coulis. Coulis is a French word for a strained puree, which this is, but I tend to think of a coulis being lightly boiled, strained, and returned to the heat and bottled so it keeps longer. Whereas this recipe is quick and easy, simply made from pureed and sieved fresh raspberries, with the sauce lasting for about 3 days refrigerated.

This sauce is very versatile. Here are some ideas :

• Add the sauce to a trifle;
• Drizzle the sauce over breakfasts – over cereal or a bowl of fruit;
• Make a raspberry mousse with the sauce;
• Swirl it through (or serve it over) plain ice-cream;
• Serve with poached pears;
• Serve with freshly poached peaches (add vanilla icecream and make it a peach melba), and luckily fresh peaches are ripening at the same time as raspberries;
• Of course the sauce is nice on its own for a fresh and refreshing taste of summer raspberries.
• Make a raspberry sorbet with the sauce – weigh the raspberries and add about ¼ of that weight in icing sugar, then puree, sieve, and freeze the mixture, stirring every so often as it freezes so it becomes a soft mixture.
• Or make a granita by leaving the sauce in the freezer to harden without stirring, making it icier and rougher textured than a sorbet.
• A similar sauce is used in Raspberry Semifreddo – see my recipe here: https://www.inthekitchenwithmum.com/2015/03/raspberry-semifreddo/
• Use the sauce as an ingredient to flavour ice-cream – see my recipe for Raspberry and Peach Instant Ice-cream using this raspberry sauce here: https://www.inthekitchenwithmum.com/2015/02/raspberry-and-peach-instant-ice-cream-also-known-as-trifle-or-peach-melba-ice-cream/
• Add raspberry sauce to French Toast (with cinnamon and custard and the flavours are excellent together) – take a look at my recipe here: https://www.inthekitchenwithmum.com/2015/01/french-toast-made-with-sourdough-bread/

RECIPE: RASPBERRY SAUCE

(The amounts in the recipe below are just a guide, as you can’t go wrong with this sauce by pureeing as many raspberries as you like, then adding icing sugar to taste.)

OPTIONAL: You can add the juice of ¼ of a lemon to the recipe, but I prefer it without.

Makes about 1 cup of puree

250g fresh raspberries

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1. Puree the raspberries and icing sugar in a food processor or blender (or crush the berries with the back of a spoon).

2. Strain the pureed raspberries through a fine mesh sieve (a pestle or a spatula are good for this job). Scrape the underside of the sieve to get the remaining puree off. Discard the seeds in the sieve.

3. Taste the puree and add more icing sugar if needed.

4. Chill the sauce until ready to use. This will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 days.

TIP: Make summer raspberries last longer and store some raspberry sauce in the freezer. I pulped 200g of fresh raspberries, but left out the icing sugar, and this made ¾ cup of sauce, ready to thaw when needed.

TIP : You can make this sauce with or without sugar depending on what you want it for.