Enjoy fruits of your labour

QThanks to a wonderfully productive garden last summer, my freezer is full. I’d be grateful for some quick and easy ways to turn the frozen berries and fruit into delicious desserts.

A: Converting the garden’s fruits and berries into sauces is almost effort free and the sauces are easily varied from batch to batch with the use of different sweeteners (honey, sugar, syrup), spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger) and flavourings (vanilla, almond extract). Lemon, lime or orange zest adds interesting taste notes to a fruit or berry sauce.

Uses for the sauces are many. They can become cheesecake toppings, fillings for breakfast or dessert crepes or jams. Serve them over pancakes or waffles or turn them into an instant dessert spooned over ice cream or yogurt.

To make a fruit or berry sauce, place a frozen package of fruit or about two cups of berries into a heavy saucepan with about a third cup of water. Heat and add a desired sweetener if necessary along with spices and flavourings.

I usually let the fruit simmer long enough to thicken naturally, but if I’m in a rush, I’ll cook the sauce more quickly and thicken it with one or two teaspoons of cornstarch stirred into a little cold water before being added to the fruit. Cook until thickened.

My favourite sauce is blueberry, to which I add cinnamon, cloves and a little honey.

Another easy way to use fruits and berries is in cobblers. These standby desserts are made simply by putting fruit or berries in a buttered baking dish, sprinkling a mixture of flour or oatmeal with sugar and butter on top and baking.

My preference is to serve cobblers with some sort of custard or sweetened yogurt mixture to complement the fruit.