What is a Coulis?
If you want to look like a gourmet chef and impress all your friends at your next dinner party, try whipping up this classic raspberry coulis (pronounced koo-lee) and using it to take your dessert course to the next level. You can drizzle or spoon the jewel-red sauce over the top of most desserts, or get creative and pour it into a squeeze bottle to pipe dots of raspberry sauce around the perimeter of individual dessert plates. Or just create a pool of raspberry coulis on each plate to set the dessert in! Another technique is to pour a tablespoon or so of raspberry coulis into a circle on the plate, then use the back of a spoon to drag the sauce out into a swooping design. Who can resist that bright red, sweet-tart flavor of delicious raspberries? Be sure not to miss our favorite Raspberry Pretzel Salad, Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and Raspberry Streusel Muffins if you love raspberries too!
What to put this Raspberry Coulis on
We love how simple and easy this raspberry sauce recipe is and serve it with our Classic Instant Pot Cheesecake, Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes, and Thick, Fudgy, Chewy, Ultimate Brownies. Or drizzle it over pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, or french toast for a breakfast treat! It’s also delicious over vanilla or chocolate ice cream,
How to make Raspberry Sauce
- Combine fresh or frozen raspberries in a pan with sugar, a little water, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Technically a coulis isn’t cooked at all. You would just combine fresh raspberries with a simple syrup, blend, and then strain out the seeds. But I almost always use frozen raspberries to make this raspberry sauce recipe since they are picked and frozen at their peak of freshness and typically cost less than fresh raspberries. It also means I can have raspberry coulis anytime I want it since I almost always have a bag of frozen raspberries in the freezer. So we’re going to gently heat things up just enough to help things along.
- Cook over low heat just until the raspberries break down and the sugar is dissolved. The point isn’t to actually cook the raspberries, but just to allow them to break down and release their juices and help the sugar dissolve so it isn’t gritty in the finished coulis. They don’t need to turn into total mush. You just want the berries to start to look a bit syrup-y.
- Blend into a sauce. Use a low to medium speed and cover the blender with a dish towel. It only takes a few seconds for the already juicy berries to be blended into a smooth sauce. In fact, don’t blend too much or the seeds can actually break down and make the raspberry coulis gritty.
- Strain well through a fine mesh strainer. Normally I have nothing against raspberry seeds and actually like the little crunch they give. But not in a raspberry coulis. Just pour the blended raspberries into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl (or the pot that you used to cook the raspberries in if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to dirty another dish). If you are making a double batch of raspberry coulis or don’t have a very large mesh strainer, you may need to work in batches to get all the puree through the strainer. Use the back of a wooden spoon the press the raspberry sauce through the strainer, stirring and pressing for about 5 minutes to work it all through. This is the most labor intensive part of the process, but it really only takes about 3 minutes until you are left with just the seeds on top and a lovely, vibrant raspberry coulis below in the pot or bowl. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the strainer with your spoon so none of the delicious sauce goes to waste!
- Transfer to a container and chill well before serving. Remember that the raspberry coulis will thicken slightly in the fridge as it chills.
How do you thicken raspberry coulis?
Typically, raspberry coulis isn’t a very thick sauce since it isn’t thickened with a cornstarch slurry. But if you feel like your raspberry coulis is on the thin side, you could actually thicken it up by letting it simmer a few minutes on the stovetop to evaporate some of the liquid. If the sauce it seems too thick, you can thin it slightly be adding a little water to get it to your desired consistency.
How to store this Coulis Recipe
This raspberry coulis recipe can be made up to a week in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Or it also freezes well for up to about 6 months in the freezer. Just leave a little space in the top of your container for expansion before freezing. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.
More of our Favorite Dessert Sauces
Homemade Marshmallow Sauce Irish Apple Cake with Warm Custard Sauce (aka creme anglaise) Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake with Toffee Sauce Peanut Butter Ice Cream Topping
Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce
Blueberry Pie Filling
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