Do those gorgeous pallets of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries that are in just about every stall at the farmers market during the summer entice you as much as they do me? They are so pretty! I just get all dizzy with fantasies of mixed berry tarts and sundaes and pies, oh my! But tarts and pies take forever, and lets face it, we’ll probably be too drunk from our sippy-sippy while we cook to finish anything that delicate and time consuming. Am I right? Well, that’s why the good lord invented compotes. Great on sundaes, waffles, pancakes, sponge and pound cakes, or as a side to dip your butter cookies in, the reasons to make a compote are endless. And it’s ok if you are drunk by the time you pour it over pancakes at 10 am. No judgement!

Seasonal Berry Compote

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 cups mixed spring or summer berries
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (which is approx. 1/2 medium lemon)
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 tbsp butter

Prep

• In a small sauce pan, bring water and sugar to a boil.
• Reduce heat to low and add in the remaining ingredients, except the butter.
• Return to a boil and stir a few times. 45 seconds boiling, tops.
• Turn off the heat and add in butter. Stir until fully melted and combined.
• Using a potato masher, crush berries until you have a nice lumpy sauce. Don’t over crush, just make sure all berries are broken down.

Now that you have your delicious compote, what you pour it on is up to you! It’s lovely served warm on ice cream, pancakes, waffles, etc, but you can also store in a jar in your fridge for a week or so and add to milk shakes and smoothies. It can also work well as a jam on toast and scones, or you can get a little freaky and make a squishy ice cream and compote cookie sandwich with Nilla wafers. Heck if you need to get fancy, make cream puffs, also known as profiterole, and fill them up. We’ll all be impressed.

~Nom your sweet tooth on