Raspberry Compote

Raspberries are wonderful when they’re fresh, but we all know they are very quick to soften and mold, even in the refrigerator. If you have raspberries that you won’t use within a day or two you can freeze them, or you can cook them into a compote.

Making compote is a quick and easy way to preserve raspberries that doesn’t involve canning, pectin or any complicated procedures.

What’s the difference between fruit compote, preserves, jam and jelly?

• A compote is just fresh or dried fruit lightly cooked in a sugar syrup. Cooking the fruit and adding sugar helps to preserve it for a relatively short period of time. It should be consumed within a few days.
• Preserves have more sugar than compote so they keep longer, especially if you seal them in canning jars. Preserves are usually made with little or no added pectin so the texture is softer than a jam.
• Jams have a fairly high sugar content so they keep for quite a long time, especially if frozen or canned. Jams are made with more pectin than preserves so they are thicker and work nicely as a spread.
• Jellies are similar to jams except there are no chunks of fruit in a jelly.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

• Raspberries – Use fresh raspberries. Frozen raspberries do not work well for making compote since they’re already broken down from freezing. You can also mix in strawberries or blueberries for a mixed berry compote.
• Sugar – There’s just a hint of sugar in this compote. You can increase the amount of sugar up to 4 oz if you want a sweeter compote.

How to make Raspberry Compote

See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.

• In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Bring the syrup to a boil.
• Add the raspberries to the syrup.

• Cook until the raspberries begin to break down but some of the berries are still intact.
• Transfer the compote to a clean bowl.

• Allow the compote to cool to room temperature.
• Store in the refrigerator until serving.

• A dollop of raspberry compote is a nice topping for yogurt or ice cream.
• Serve compote in a small dessert bowl topped with sweetened whipped cream.
• Drizzle it over pound cake or sponge cake.
• Spread it on toast with cream cheese or butter.
• Mix it into a cocktail for a jolt of fresh flavor.
• Whip it into heavy cream or buttercream to make a delicious cake filling or frosting.

Storage

Raspberry compote will keep in the refrigerator for about 1 week and can be frozen for 2-3 months. After freezing any whole berries might break down.