Blackberry Sauce (Low Sugar)

This seedless Blackberry Sauce is tangy, creamy and made without cornstarch or granulated sugar. It’s moderately sweet, perfect for breakfast, dessert or as a snack. Ready in minutes!

This 6-ingredient Blackberry Sauce involves cooking the blackberries briefly along with a handful of ingredients until soft, juicy and syrupy. This mixture effectively becomes a compote which is then strained for a perfectly smooth, velvety finish.

This blackberry sauce is creamy, rich, naturally sweetened (mostly) by the blackberries and made without cornstarch or water so it’s intensely fruity. It’s quick and easy to make and can be refrigerated for several days. It’s a truly delicious way to enjoy blackberries!

Blackberry sauce ingredients and substitutions

• Blackberries: use fresh or frozen.
• Maple syrup: use honey instead if desired.
• Balsamic vinegar: adds depth of flavour (and works in other fruit-based sauces, such as redcurrant).
• Prunes: add sweetness and thicken the sauce. They make a fantastic pairing with blackberries (blackberry coffee cake is another recipe where I’ve used this combination).
• Marsala: adds flavour. You can use port instead or omit the alcohol altogether.
• Lemon zest and juice.

Equipment you’ll need

• Medium sized saucepan.
• Potato masher or fork.
• Flexible silicone spatula (recommended) or large spoon.
• Fine-mesh sieve.
• Small jar or bottle for storing the sauce.

How to make blackberry sauce

1.Place all the ingredients (not the lemon juice) in the saucepan.

2. Cook blackberries: Cook over a medium heat stirring often until the blackberries start releasing juice, stirring often (approx. 3-5 minutes).

Continue cooking for a few more minutes until the fruit is softened and the mixture is bubbling away, stirring occasionally (3-5 minutes). Remove from the heat.

3. Mash blackberries: Mash the blackberries using either a potato masher (recommended) or fork.

4. Strain: Place a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl (not too shallow so there is plenty of space between the bottom of the bowl and the sieve).

5. Remove seeds: Pour the fruit mixture into the sieve and using a flexible silicone spatula (recommended) or large spoon stir until all the juice has collected in the bowl.

Do this step very thoroughly wiping the bottom of the sieve on the sides of the bowl to ensure none of the sauce gets wasted. Stir in the lemon juice.

6. Serve warm or chilled. If planning to serve it chilled cool your blackberry sauce completely then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to an hour (preferably) before serving. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Yields a little over 1 cup of sauce (250-260 ml).

How to use blackberry sauce

• For breakfast, drizzled over pancakes, crepes, muesli, waffles, french toast, porridge etc.
• As a snack with yogurt or cottage cheese. You could also make your own flavoured yogurt with it.
• For dessert, drizzled over cheesecake (especially vanilla and chocolate!), ice cream, chocolate mousse etc.
• Add it to a veggie smoothie or milkshake for sweetness and flavour.
• Turn it into a dressing – by combining with a little oil and lemon juice or red wine vinegar (I did something similar in this blueberry vinaigrette recipe). It would be delicious with blueberry zucchini salad or strawberry spinach salad.
• Serve it with savoury dishes, such as grilled chicken, roast duck or turkey – by adding a little soy sauce, black pepper, onion granules, thyme or rosemary, a spoonful of hoisin sauce, more marsala wine etc.

Top tips

• Use either fresh or frozen blackberries. If using frozen you’ll have to cook the mixture 2-3 minutes longer.
• It is important to finely chop the prunes (rather than use whole) so they soften along with the blackberries.
• Take your time separating the juice from the seeds so that none of the juice gets left behind and you collect some of the fruit pulp too (this will thicken the sauce).
• Adjust the amount of maple syrup to suit your taste (taste the mixture after you’ve mashed the fruit).
• The sauce will thicken as it cools.
• Serve either warm or chilled.
• Keep in a jar/bottle, refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.
• Freeze for up to 3 months.

What else to do with blackberries

If you are a keen forager looking for more blackberry recipe ideas you might like this delicious blackberry crumble – it’s ideal for breakfast as well as dessert.  Try also adding a handful of blackberries to apple crumble for a delicious flavour twist.

You could also use fresh blackberries in this refreshing fruit soup. When it comes to desserts this Polish-inspired blackberry coffee cake is one of my favourite summer treats!

Keep in touch!

If you make this easy blackberry sauce I’d love to know how you served it. Did you add your own twist to this recipe? Let me know in the comments below, thanks:)

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