dessert - fruit sauce
t=teaspoon T=tablespoon
These recipes are for your personal use only and may not be added in any form to archives or other works.
Fruit Sauces
Sometimes all you need to perk up a simple dessert is a real fruit sauce. Try to avoid using thinned marmalades, which will always
taste just like that...thinned marmalade!
The amount of pulp and juice released from the various kinds of fruit depends on its ripeness
and character.
approximate amounts for 4 servings of 2 T each:
2 small baskets (ca. 250 g.) of raspberries, blackberries blueberries or mixed berries (try
red,black white currants and raspberries)
or
250 g. of pitted
cherries, cut into halves
or
200 g. strawberries
or
200 g. chopped mango
1-2 T. sugar or honey
Cook fruit over medium heat with the sugar or honey until juice is released. (Make sure the sugar
is dissolved.) This takes but a few minutes at which point and using a small wooden spoon, start
mashing the berries. This will shorten cooking time even further.
Allow to bubble and stir occasionally for 5 minutes or so without covering. It will reduce slightly.
When the seeds separate from the fruit (which should still be distinguishable and not already
pulp-like) then it is just right.
Remove immediately from heat. Place a metal sieve over a small bowl and rub/mash the berries
with the wooden spoon. Alternately mash the pulp and scrape the seedless pulp from the
underside of the sieve into the juice. Stir well and set aside for use later.
Note: a sauce is drizzled over. A pool on which a dessert is presented, is a coulis. If using mango or apricots, you may
have to thin the pulp a little. A little orange juice is wonderful for this. For these fruits, I do prefer a thick honey as
sweetener rather than the sugar. Adjust sweetness according to taste. For chocolate mousse or pudding, I
much prefer a raspberry or cherry sauce rather than strawberry. The slight tartness of these fruits are a perfect
compliment to the chocolate.
Grandma used to boil the life out of her fruit sauces with exorbitant amounts of sugar. As
with (over) cooked vegetables of her day, much of the flavour was lost. It was believed that to preserve fruits and marmalades etc. pounds of sugar were necessary. (Sorry
Granny!) Today, we use much less sugar, and delight in the real fruit taste! (What to do with the berry seeds you strained away? It’s a great fibre eaten with a little yoghurt, followed by a glass of mineral water!
Also wonderful as a facial scrub—with or without the yoghurt!)
All recipes are excerpts from "Welcome to My Kitchen" - The Epicurean Table and are copyright of the author. Recipes are not to be
added to any form of archive or other works of any kind. Contact the author for further information.
The Epicurean Table © Patricia Conant