Quick · One saucepan · A sundae topping

Cherry Sauce
for Ice Cream

Name: Cherry Sauce for Ice Cream
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 340 g sweet cherries; 50 g granulated sugar; 15 ml lemon juice; pinch salt; 6 g cornstarch; 15 ml cold water; ⅛ tsp almond extract

Fifteen minutes on the stove for a glossy cherry sauce you spoon warm over cold ice cream — the warm-on-cold contrast is the whole point. Forgiving, scalable, and just as good cold over yogurt.

~15 min total 5 min prep 8–10 min cook ~1½ cups makes

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VeganGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Pull it off the heat while it still looks a little loose. Cornstarch sets firm as it cools, so an over-reduced sauce turns gluey on cold ice cream. You want it to just coat the back of a spoon — no more.

Easier, if you like

Use a cherry pitter for fresh cherries — pitting by hand is a stained, sticky slog. A cheap handheld pitter does the job; a spring-loaded or multi-cherry model is worth it if you cook cherries often.
Frozen pitted cherries skip the only real chore — the pitting. Don't thaw them; cook straight from frozen, add a couple of minutes, and bump the cornstarch to about 8 g, since frozen fruit sheds more juice.

Method

Cook's notes

About 340 g cherries is ¾ lb / a generous 2 cups once pitted. Pit over a bowl — the juice is flavor.

Like every cherry recipe here, it leans on a hit of acid — the lemon — to keep sweet, low-acid cherries from tasting flat. Don't skip it.

Tart or sour cherries (Montmorency) need more sugar: start around 70 g and taste.

Keeps about a week in the fridge. It sets firmer cold and loosens when rewarmed — a few seconds in the microwave, or a splash of water over low heat, brings it back. Also lovely cold over yogurt, oatmeal, or pancakes.