This Three-Ingredient Whipped Sauce Is As Beautiful As It Tastes
Creamy, salty sauces get all the attention, but dipping one food into another doesn’t have to be limited to a savory snack. Dessert sauces make fruit more fun and somehow even easier to prepare than onion sauces. All you need is cream cheese and some kind of electric mixer.
In its simplest form, a creamy dessert sauce can be composed of a single ingredient. Just take a soft, flavorful goat cheese – like Trader Joe’s honey cheese or something with cranberries in it – and beat until soft enough for the strawberries to slide through. If you only have cream cheese, that’s fine too; whisk it with a tablespoon of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of almond or vanilla extract, or a little cocoa powder. (Or a combination of any of the above.)
They will all taste pretty good, but if you want to make a sweet and creamy sauce that will delight your eyes as much as your tongue, grab some freeze-dried fruit. After chopping in a food processor – toss a handful into it and let it spin until you get the find powder – just a tablespoon of freeze-dried berries gives a tart flavor and vibrant color to anything you add. To make a cheesecake-like dessert sauce, you will need:
- 8 ounces full cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon freeze-dried fruit, chopped (blueberries and strawberries are my favorites).
Place everything in a bowl and beat with a bench or hand mixer until the mixture is soft, rolls easily and is uniform in color. Serve with fruit, pretzels, cookies, and a smile (or frown; never let anyone tell you to smile).