Easy Sugar-Free Cherry Sauce Recipe without Cornstarch (2024)
by Karla
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Sugar-free cherry sauce without cornstarch is SO easy to make and crazy tasty. My favorite cherry sauce recipe makes an amazing cherry dipping sauce, is perfect as a pancake or waffle topper (my FAV) or eaten by the spoonful (my 2 year old’s preference).
CHERRY SAUCE WITHOUT CORNSTARCH
I originally made this cherry sauce recipe to go on top of my coconut flour waffles, and now my children request it whenever I make the waffles.
I oblige because I love it just as much as them, and this easy cherry sauce is completely sugar free. I make this cherry sauce without cornstarch because I prefer to use arrowroot instead.
That makes this cherry sauce Paleo, sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free and sugar free (but still full of flavor!).
SUGAR FREE CHERRY SAUCE RECIPE
When I say this cherry sauce is sugar free, I don’t mean it has stevia or xylitol, or any other sugar substitute added.
I mean is that there is absolutely no sugar or sugar substitute in this recipe.
Most fruit and cherry sauce recipes have some type of sugar in them, but I have never understood why since fruit is nature’s candy! I find cherries to be plenty sweet on their own, so you won’t find ANY sweeteners in this recipe. We use this sauce as a topping for our coconut flour waffles instead of syrup for a completely sugar free breakfast that tastes like a treat. WIN!
The thing that makes this cherry sauce recipe so simple is that it uses frozen cherries instead of fresh.
Yes, fresh cherries would probably be even MORE delicious, but who has time to pit a bowl full of cherries when you are trying to get breakfast served to a gang (3 counts as a gang, right?) of hungry kids? Not me!
Plus, cherries are only in season for a few short months, but my family likes to enjoy this cherry dipping sauce all year.
CHERRY SAUCE RECIPE WITH FROZEN CHERRIES
I buy the giant bag of organic frozen cherries from Costco and they are amazing in this recipe. They are the dark, sweet variety – you want to make sure you use sweet cherries, not tart in this recipe.
(These frozen cherries are also amazing in smoothies, chopped and added to oatmeal, by themselves eaten straight from the freezer…..I could go on for days. We are super in love with frozen cherries around here).
You could also make this easy fruit sauce with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination of any of those.
I’ve used the exact same fruit sauce recipe with blueberries and it turned out wonderful. My family prefers the cherry sauce, so that is what I typically stick with.
THE BEST PALEO SAUCE THICKENER
I use Arrowroot as a thickening agent in my cherry sauce, and it works wonderfully! Arrowroot is a great paleo sauce thickener, and works for all kinds of gravies and sauces.
Arrowroot poweder is, in my opinion, far under-utilized in most kitchens! It has been getting lots of love from me lately as a thickener for sauces and in all of my grain-free baked recipes to enhance the texture of baked goods.
Cherry sauce is so easy to make! It is a simple reduction of cherries with a little liquid and a paleo friendly sauce thickener that comes together in just a few minutes. You will love this sugar-free version with no cornstarch – it tastes like a treat!
CHERRY SAUCE RECIPE
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Easy Sugar-Free Cherry Sauce Recipe without Cornstarch
This quick and easy sugar free cherry sauce uses only a few ingredients, comes together in minutes and is delicious on top of waffles, pancakes, ice cream or desserts.
Total Time5minutes
Ingredients
2cupsfrozen pitted sweet cherries
1/2tspvanilla extract
2tbswater
1tbsarrowroot powder
Instructions
Add frozen cherries and vanilla to a medium saucepan and heat over medium/high heat just until boiling and all cherries are defrosted
Mix arrowroot powder in a small bowl with 2 Tbs water until it is dissolved
Add arrowroot mixture to just boiling cherries
Stir sauce until thickened. This should happen very quickly if the cherries are boiling.
Remove from heat once desired thickness is reached and serve
Recipe Notes
makes about 1 and 1/3 cups finished cherry sauce. This is enough for 4-5 waffles for us.
Looking for a healthy recipe you can top with this cherry sauce? Try my coconut flour waffles – its the perfect combination.
Mix 2 tablespoons (16 g) of flour with 1/4 cup (60 mL) of cold water, then add to your sauce and stir over medium heat until it thickens. Alternatively, create a sauce-thickening roux by whisking 1 tbsp (15 g) of butter and 1 tbsp (9 g) of salt together, then adding the mixture to your sauce.
Cherries, pitted or with pits, may be frozen without sugar, in water or unsweetened fruit juice, or dry, but the texture will be softer when thawed. Sweet cherries may be frozen in a single layer on shallow trays before packing into containers or zip-type plastic bags to prevent them from sticking together.
Montmorency, Morello, and Balaton are all sour cherry varieties. They're usually soft, and smaller than sweet cherries. Some are sweet-tart, others are so sour your cheeks pucker. Use them to bake pie, crumbles, compotes, salsas, and to top yogurt.
Bring the water and sugar to a boil and stir continuously until sugar dissolves. Gently pour the hot water-sugar mix over the cherries, also leaving a half-inch of room at the top. Seal tightly and store in the fridge. Use within one month.
All-Purpose Flour. Yep, that's right — all-purpose flour is a very stable thickener. ...
Arrowroot Powder. If you happen to have this starch on hand, you're in luck: It has the same thickening power as cornstarch, and it creates a beautiful, shiny sauce. ...
Combine 2 tablespoons flour with every 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until smooth. Add the mixture to your sauce over medium heat, and continue to stir and cook until you've reached your desired consistency. Test with a spoon.
Good for: Smaller fruits like berries or cherries. Soaking them in a vinegar solution is an easier way to make sure they're completely clean. How to do it: Pour the vinegar solution into a large bowl or storage container. Add the fruit and make sure that all pieces are submerged in the vinegar solution.
One is to coat the fruit as it is cut with a solution of 1 teaspoon crystalline ascorbic acid or 3,000 mg crushed vitamin C tablets per cup of water. Another is to drop the cut pieces in a solution of water and ascorbic acid, citric acid, or lemon juice.
You can also try freezing without any sugar. Just boil the water, add the cherries, bring back to a boil and then ladle out when cool enough to work with. Freeze.
“Cherries contain sorbitol and xylitol, both of which are sugar alcohols,” Deborah Cohen, DCN, associate professor in the Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University, told Health. “When consumed in large amounts, they can have a laxative effect.”
Tart cherries are bright red in color while sweet cherries tend to be darker red and sometimes even purple. Sweet cherries are also larger than tart cherries. Now, you probably already guessed another difference, the taste! Sweet cherries are obviously sweeter, as they contain more naturally occurring sugars.
Cherries will last in the freezer for around 6 months but will be fine up to a year when properly frozen. This means you can enjoy the sweet taste of cherries year-round, even when the cherry season is over.
Cherries will keep in the freezer for 6 months, or up to a year in a deep freezer. I froze approximately 54 cherries, and that yielded one quart size bag of frozen cherries.
Fresh cherries last three to four days if kept on the counter and can last up to a week in the refrigerator. Only rinse cherries right before eating, as liquid will quicken the spoiling process. Cherries can last longer if frozen properly, keeping for up to six months.
All-purpose flour is an easy substitute for cornstarch; in fact you may see recipes for thickening pie fillings or soups with either. You'll need 2 tablespoons of flour for every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a recipe.
Use chia seeds: Chia seeds can be used as a thickener in fruit sauces. Simply mix 1 tablespoon of chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water and let sit for 15 minutes. Then, add the mixture to the sauce and stir well.
When it comes to pie fillings, all-purpose flour is the way to go. It's a pantry staple that's great for thickening, but it won't give you that same glossiness that cornstarch provides. You can also use tapioca starch if you have it handy.
Use a powdered, flavorless gelatin and stir it in with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes. Make sure you let it dissolve completely so that you can't see any of the powder left in your syrup. Flavorless gelatin won't change the taste of your syrup. You can find flavorless gelatin at most grocery stores.
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