Champagne Berry Coulis

Fancy up your Valentine’s dessert—or any dessert—with this unbelievably simple, low sugar, almost healthy-ish berry sauce.

The story

I love this recipe for kinda random reasons. It was one of the first things I made when I started down this baking blog journey. It was inspired by desserts I’d seen on various cooking and baking shows, because it sounded so fancy when they told the judges they’d made such-and-such with a berry coulis. Then I was overjoyed and also slightly humored to hear it’s ridiculously simple to make. Classically, just berries, water, and sugar.

My favorite is that I successfully substituted pink champagne for the water and created something new-ish and delicious that sounds just slightly fancier.

I did opt for a thicker consistency, but you can amend this by a shorter cooking time, adding more liquid, or straining the seeds. Tbh, I was mostly going for what would look cute, and that teeny little 2oz. measuring cup is just to die for. The types of berries I used also made a thicker sauce, mostly because I used blueberries, which don’t break down as much as other berries.

Tips for this recipe

Don’t burn the berries

This is my only real cooking tip. Don’t forget to stir occasionally and keep an eye on the time. Also, avoid turning up the heat if you’re trying to speed up the process, as it can create a burnt taste.

Water can be subbed for the champagne

The alcohol cooks out by the finished product, but if you’d prefer, water or lemon juice will work just fine, too. I chose champagne to go with the chocolate cake pictured and a little to go with Valentine’s Day. ❤️

Sub any berries you like

Personally, I think raspberries pair perfectly with the champagne. But any berry would be great. Most of these photos are of a coulis made with a mix of blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. It was pretty epic.

Straining seeds is optional

Obviously, I didn’t strain my seeds. I just rarely feel the need. And I didn’t mind a thicker, more textured sauce because I wanted this batch to have some holding power so that it balanced out a very rich, very dark chocolate cake. However, if you want a thinner sauce (which is what you’d usually find in a high-end restaurant), strain the seeds.

Use this with almost ANY dessert

As you can probably tell, I’m out of actual tips. But this is a quick sauce you can refrigerate for up to 2 weeks and pour over almost any dessert. Ice cream, chocolate cake, pie, donuts, vanilla cake, scones, brownies, oatmeal bars. Basically anything in the realm of sweet. Anytime you feel like brightening up a heavy dessert, adding a berry twist, or just zhuzhing up something plain, crack open a jar of this!

Champagne Berry Coulis

• prep time: 5 minutes
• cook time: 10 minutes
• total time: 15 minutes, plus time to cool (optional)

Yields: slightly less than 1 cup

Ingredients:

• 1 rounded cup (about 200-250g) berries (fresh or frozen—I used Trader Joe’s frozen fancy berry blend)
• 2-4 tablespoons (25-50g) sugar (optional—omitting sugar would be minimally sweet and tart)
• 2-4 ounces (56-112g) champagne (or water)

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Place over medium heat until liquid begins to bubble, then reduce to medium-low or low, keeping it at a simmer.
2. Simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent burning and to help mash down berries, until berries have broken down, 10-15 minutes. Blueberries and strawberries may not dissolve completely. Continue cooking 2-3 minutes if you want a thicker sauce. Remove from heat.
3. Either strain sauce through a fine mesh sieve or blend in a food processor or blender until smooth. Whisk in more liquid if too thick.

Enjoy!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.