Enjoy our 3 Ingredient Instant Pot Strawberry Ice Cream Topping (aka Strawberry Sauce) – it’s the easiest strawberry sauce recipe ever!

Strawberries (fresh or frozen), sugar, and lemon juice is all you need for this fool-proof recipe. No pectin, no cornstarch, no artificial preservative, and no added color. This is such a lovely seasonal treat that can go with so many things, but why not add it to my favorite- ICE CREAM!

Strawberry Ice Cream Topping: Homemade vs Store Bought?

1. What I love about this homemade strawberry ice cream topping recipe is that I know what’s in it. I love that I have control of the ingredients I want to use to make my sauce. No artificial preservatives, sweeteners, or colors.
2. I like the sauce to be low-sugar and with this homemade strawberry topping I can control the amount of sugar I add without compromising the texture or taste.
3. It’s so much more cost effective to make strawberry sauce at home! Once you master the art of making this sauce you can make so many different variations and flavors of ice cream toppings. The options are endless.

What’s the best time to make Strawberry Ice Cream Topping?

Now! With Spring here and Summer approaching, it’s Strawberry season!!! The best time to make Strawberry Topping and Strawberry Jam is definitely spring April to June, when strawberries are abundant and go on sale.

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Ingredients and tools needed to make your own Strawberry Ice Cream Topping

1. 4 Cups Quartered strawberries
2. 1/2 Cup Sugar
3. 2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
4. Instant Pot
5. Fruit/Berry Masher

Steps to make Strawberry Topping

INSTANT POT INSTRUCTIONS

• Thoroughly wash the strawberries. Add the strawberries and sugar to the Instant Pot and stir. Allow them to marinate for an hour at least until the strawberries are juicy. Add in fresh lemon juice and mix well.
• Cover and lock the lip and pressure cook or use the manual button and adjust the timer to 1 minute. When the timer beeps, allow the pressure to naturally release until the float valve drops. This takes approximately 15 minutes.
• Then unlock the lid. Using a potato masher or blender, blend the sauce until the desired consistency.
• Press the Saute button on the pot and boil for 5 minutes or until the sauce reaches the desired gel state.
• Skim off and discard any foam. Ladle into hot, sterilized glass containers or jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace. Seal the containers or jars following the instructions that came with your canning jars.
• Allow to the sauce to cool and then serve. Store remaining mixture in an airtight container with a tight-fitting lid for up to a couple weeks in the refrigerator.

STOVE TOP INSTRUCTIONS

• Keep a saucer in the freezer before starting the sauce.
• Marinate the quartered strawberries and sugar for an hour in a bowl.
• Tip the mixture in a preserving pan or saucepan adding lemon juice to it.
• Cook on low heat until the sugar completely dissolves.
• Turn up the heat to start bubbling the jam and bring it to boil. The sugar must be completely dissolved before increasing the heat, otherwise, it will be difficult for the sauce to set.
• Boil for about 5-10 minutes and turn of the heat.
• Now spoon a little sauce on one of the cold saucers. Leave for 30 seconds, then push with your finger. If the sauce wrinkles and doesn’t flood to fill the gap, then it is ready.
• If not, turn back the heat on for a couple more minutes, and repeat the wrinkle test until ready.

What can Strawberry Topping be used on?

• A slice of bread or toast
• As a topping on your dessert, ice cream or custard.
• Decorate your yogurt bowl
• Use this delicious strawberry sauce on cheesecake!
• A scoop on your pancakes or waffle
• Fill it in your donuts
• Layer your cakes
• Eat it out of the jar with a spoon 😉

Helpful Tips!

• If you are using frozen strawberries just make sure to defrost the berries before you use them and then just add a minute of cooking time.
• Washing Berries: a 10 minute vinegar-water bath followed by pat drying the berries has given me the best results. 1 part apple cider vinegar & 8 parts water. The pH of the vinegar does the job of killing the bacteria and removing any residue. Bonus, it also helps your berries last longer without going bad for up to a week in the refrigerator. 
• When using Instant Pot: I marinate the quartered strawberries with sugar in my IP for an hour. The sugar helps draw juices from the strawberries so you don’t need to add any extra water in the recipe. Then I add the lemon juice which helps balance the sugar in the sauce and most importantly since lemon juice is high in pectin it gives the low pectic strawberries a boost. 
• To thicken the strawberry sauce: I boil it to my desired consistency and allow the mixture to cool after transferring it into containers or cans. That’s all you need to do. You can find the measurements and timing in the recipe card below.

Making Jam without sugar?

I personally haven’t tried this one, but apparently, you can replace sugar with honey or monk fruit extract in jam recipes. If you get around trying this, please don’t forget to drop in a comment below. I’d love to know how did it turn out and what were your thoughts on it?

Questions people are asking about Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream Topping

How to can strawberry ice cream topping Ladle the hot sauce into your hot sterilized glass jars leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Seal the containers or jars. If you prefer, you can follow the instructions that came with your canning jars.

How to thicken Strawberry Sauce? I personally do not use Pectin or Cornstarch to thicken my strawberry sauce – I am not against adding pectic or cornstarch but if I can achieve great results with natural ingredients why add an extra processed ingredient. Citrus fruits are rich in pectin, so the freshly squeezed lemon or even orange juice does the trick. Honestly, this strawberry ice cream topping turned out to be perfect after reducing the juices by boiling and refrigerating, which also help thicken the sauce.

How long does Strawberry Ice Cream topping last? If you are canning correctly it would last for up to a year in the freezer.  However, if you are refrigerating it, then mine lasted two weeks. Of course, it was all gone by the end of the second week. We did make enough extra to sell at our market and give some away as gifts!

Can I use other fruits or frozen berries to make ice cream topping? Yes, you can use frozen strawberries to make strawberry ice cream topping. To make variations of this delicious topping you can also use other fresh or frozen berries. Just make sure to defrost the berries before you use them and then just add a minute of cooking time. The rest remains the same.

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