Raspberry Puree Sauce

This past Wednesday, our weekly dinner gatherings started up again following our summer break.  It was wonderful to catch up with everyone and hear about their trips to Europe, California, and, of course, the beach.  My assignment -- as it always is when we have dinner at Architect’s house -- was dessert.  Foodie reminded me of the time I almost set her house on fire making Brandied Bananas.  No fire involved this time, but I did gussy up bakery bought lemon bars with homemade raspberry puree sauce and fresh raspberries.  Easy-peasy, kind of swanky, and so delicious!

Anyway, following a delicious dinner of chicken roasted on the grill, roasted sweet and Yukon gold potatoes,

a delicious field green and plum salad (served in the lovely traveling salad bowl) and a bottle of FrancisCoppola red wine (I think it was a Cabernet Sauvignon…regardless, it was good!) we enjoyed lemon bars drizzled with fresh raspberry puree sauce.

Raspberry Puree Sauce

allrecipes.com (adapted)

Ingredients

1 pint fresh raspberries
¼ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup cold water

 Directions

Whisk the cornstarch into the cold water until smooth. Add the cornstarch mixture, raspberries, sugar, honey, and orange juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the desired consistency is almost reached…the sauce will thicken as it cools. Once cooled, puree the sauce in a blender then strain through a sieve to capture the seeds and liberate the smooth, velvety raspberry sauce. You can serve this warm or cold…I served it cold.

This sauce would be perfect served warm on ice cream, cheese cake, pancakes or even to give a salad a little zip.  Brownies would definitely steal the show with a bit of this sauce incorporated.