Dessert sauce

Any sweet sauce served with a dessert to add flavor, moisture, contrast and color, from custard and caramel to fruit coulis and chocolate.

Dessert sauce: Three small white bowls of dessert sauce side by side: pale yellow vanilla custard sauce, glossy amber caramel sauce and smooth deep red fruit coulis, nothing else
  • Fillings, creams, frostings and sauces

Dessert sauces form a large family. Crème anglaise is a pourable egg custard cooked gently so it does not curdle. Caramel sauce is cooked sugar loosened with cream or another liquid, balancing sweetness with a touch of bitterness. Chocolate sauce combines chocolate with cream or milk and butter, and a coulis is an uncooked, strained fruit puree with bright color and pure flavor. Others include compote, fruit curd, hard sauce and sabayon.

A good sauce complements its dessert, such as a tart berry sauce alongside a rich chocolate cake. On the plate, sauces are usually set down in decorative pools, lines or dots rather than poured over the top, and flavor comes before looks. Many keep well, though a coulis can separate and is best made close to serving.

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Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. 3.2: Dessert Sauces, BCcampus Open Education via LibreTexts (Modern Pastry and Plated Dessert Techniques)