These are sauces we make to pour over pancakes or French toast.   They would also make exceptional ice cream toppings!

Hot Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Pint of blueberries

Zest and juice of a large orange

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 Shakes of cinnamon

1 Teaspoon almond extract

Pinch salt

Put all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and boil on med-high flame stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes, you will see the blueberries pop and it will quickly change from a pile of blueberries into a sauce (reminds me of how quickly cranberries turn into a sauce after adding sugar and applying heat).  Serve once it looks like a chunky sauce, if your kids are really picky you can push it through a fine mesh sieve to take out the chunks (but the skins are a good source of fiber)

Strawberry Sauce

Cut the hulls off of 8 strawberries and put them into a mini prep Cuisinart or into a blender.  Add 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, pinch of salt and the juice of a lemon.  Pulse until a sauce is formed.

My son made this today and used apple juice instead of lemon and threw in a handful of cleaned raspberries and a little bit of strawberry jelly.  It came out great!  Another time my son added a few frozen cherries and raspberries….still amazing!

Tip:  Sauces are a great way for the kids to experiment with new flavor combinations.

Pecan Sauce

Toast 1 /4 cup of chopped pecans in a 350 degree oven for 3-4 minutes.  Once you can smell the pecan flavor they are done, don’t overcook them.  Warm up a half cup of pure maple syrup in a small sauce pan and add the nuts, just warm them through for 5 minutes and add a pinch of freshly ground salt.  This also would work nicely with chopped walnuts.