Strawberry Sauce

This Strawberry Sauce requires just 3 ingredients and takes less than 10 minutes to make! It’s perfect to spread on toast, top cheesecake or a yogurt bowl and of course, eat by the spoonful! 

It started with cheesecake….this classic cheesecake to be specific. I wanted to make a quick strawberry topping to pair it with but I didn’t have pectin to make jam. But should a lack of pectin cause you to be deprived of delicious strawberry goodness? NO! 

That’s why this strawberry sauce is possibly the easiest spread you can make with supporting ingredients you likely already have on hand! 

So grab your strawberries, sugar and a lemon and let’s make strawberry sauce! 

 

How to make Strawberry Sauce

Step 1: Rinse your strawberries and roughly chop them.

Step 2: Add strawberries, sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice to a saucepan and stir over medium/high heat for 5 minutes, it will thicken and break down a bit.

Step 3: Reduce the heat to low and stir for another 2-3 minutes, making sure to break down some of the larger chunks. 

I prefer to leave a few larger chunks of strawberry in my strawberry sauce but that’s up to you! 

Step 4: Remove the strawberry sauce from the heat, allow to cool and serve as you like, it’s THAT easy! 

 

If you make this strawberry sauce recipe be sure to let me know what you think here or DM me on Instagram or TikTok @karisscorner and let me know how it turns out!

Can baking be therapeutic?

I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you!

When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.

Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.

When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean. 

So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…

Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.

How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?   

How to make baking therapeutic…

1.  Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.

 

1. Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.

 

1. Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away. 

After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference! 

By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do! 

I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”

 

Additional suggestions:

*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours

**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience

And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!

Happy Baking!