Easy Cherry Compote
This sweet Cherry Compote is the best Instant Pot dessert sauce you can make for ice cream, cheesecake, sweet breads, and more.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This cherry compote is perfectly balanced—not too sweet and not too sour! Plus it’s mostly hands-off and comes together with just a few simple ingredients.
We love making all kinds of fruit compotes, toppings, and sauces in the Instant Pot pressure cooker!
It is a great way to use fresh and frozen fruit, plus it’s an easy way to dress up desserts like Instant Pot cheesecake or breakfasts like steel cut oats.
We’ve been making this cherry recipe for years, and we decided it was time to update it with fresh new pictures, tips, and tricks.
Once you try this easy recipe, you’ll always want to have a supply of sweet fruit sauce on hand.
Ingredients for Cherry Compote
Grab these ingredients to make Instant Pot cherry sauce:
- Frozen dark cherries. Look for dark sweet cherries if you can for the best flavor.
- Sugar. You can use regular granulated sugar to sweeten your compote.
- Lemon juice. Fresh lemon juice is the best for adding brightness.
- Cornstarch. This thickens your sauce right up.
- Almond extract. We love the combination of almond and cherry flavors, but you could omit the extract if you like.
How to Make Cherry Sauce in an Instant Pot
✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
This recipe is quick and easy to make. Take about half of the cherries and pour them in the pressure cooking pot. (You don’t have to measure an exact 8 ounces.) Then add the sugar and lemon juice. Cook at high pressure for 3 minutes. When the cook time ends, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release.
Next, make a cornstarch slurry, which is my favorite thickener for fruit sauces. Use cold water when making the slurry to make sure it combines smoothly with the cornstarch. Use the Saute button and bring the sauce to a simmer. Make sure to stir constantly until the cornstarch activates to thicken the sauce. Then gently stir in the remaining cherries and almond extract, if using.
Serve the compote warm or cool it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
I really love the warm sauce served over ice cream. However, I like to serve it cold when using it to top cheesecake or warm steel cut oats.
Important Tips for Making Cherry Compote
This is a straightforward recipe, but there are a few handy things to keep in mind:
- It’s important to bring the mixture to a full simmer after you add the cornstarch. Otherwise, your compote may taste like uncooked starch.
- Whisk constantly when bringing the mixture to a simmer after adding the slurry to avoid lumps of cornstarch in your compote.
- Adding some of the cherries at the end of cooking adds some nice texture to the sauce, but if you prefer a smooth compote, you can add all of the cherries at the beginning.
Frequently Asked Questions about Cherry Compote
No, if you’re not a fan of almond, you can omit the extract in this recipe. Or try replacing it with vanilla if you like.
We haven’t tested this recipe with fresh cherries, but if you’d like to use fresh instead of frozen fruit, we recommend adding about ¼ cup more liquid. This is because the fresh cherries may not break down quickly enough to release liquid to come to pressure. You could try adding half water and half lemon juice.
You can, but since the cherries are cooked when canning you can skip the pressure cooking process. We’d drain the water into a saucepan, sweeten it to taste, and then follow the recipe to thicken it with the cornstarch slurry.
Store the compote in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
How should I serve cherry compote?
The great thing about this recipe is how versatile it is! Try these favorite ways to serve cherry compote:
- Instant Pot Black Forest Cheeseake is delicious with dark cherry compote dripping down the sides.
- Dollop fruity compote on these Buttermilk Pancakes for a breakfast or brunch treat.
- Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats swirled with cherry compote is a healthy and delicious way to start the day.
- Instant Pot Mini Cheesecake Bites are the perfect party-ready dessert. Just add a dollop of compote to bring them to life.
- Pressure Cooker French Toast is great with sweet and jammy cherry sauce spooned on top!
- Swirl the compote into yogurt for a quick upgrade to a weekday breakfast.
- Spread it on toast or a slice of banana or zucchini bread!
More Instant Pot Compote and Fruit Topping Recipes
Try these other delicious fruit compote recipes to make in your Instant Pot:
- Fresh Berry Compote features a mixture of fresh summer berries.
- Blueberry Compote can be made with fresh or frozen blueberries and has a beautiful jewel tone.
- Triple Berry Rhubarb Sauce is sweet-tart and super easy to make.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
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Easy Cherry Compote
This Instant Pot Cherry Compote is a quick and mostly hands-off recipe that starts with frozen cherries and cooks at high pressure for just 3 minutes. It's the perfect topping for cheesecake, ice cream, and other desserts, breakfasts, and more.
Ingredients
- 1 package (16 oz) frozen dark cherries, divided in half
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Add about half (8 oz) of the frozen cherries, sugar, and lemon juice to the pressure cooking pot; stir to combine. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 3 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then with a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water. Add to the compote in the cooking pot. Select the saute function and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Stir in remaining cherries and almond extract.
- Put in a storage container and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 82Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 0gSugar: 19gProtein: 0g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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Can you easily double the recipe (by using the whole package of cherries) and doubling the other ingredients?
Hi David – yes, just double all the ingredients and use the same cook time. You’ll want to use a complete natural pressure release because it takes longer for the ingredients inside the pot to cool down when you double it. Enjoy!
I have a question. I couldn’t find frozen cherries (the Covid-19 frozen fruit shortage) so I got a can of tart cherries in water. Would you prepare them the same way? I’m using them with the Black Forest cheesecake.
HI Melissa – there’s probably no need to pressure cook the cherries. I would drain the water into a saucepan or the inner pot, sweeten it to taste and then proceed with step 2.
Of course it can be canned! Put the compot in sterilized jars an process as you would any canned goods.
Hi Judith – here’s a good post on hot water bath canning in the electric pressure cooker https://www.friedalovesbread.com/2017/09/steam-canning-in-your-instant-pot-part.html
Hi Barbara, do you have any suggestions on how to make this recipe with fresh cherries?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Sydney – I haven’t tried it with fresh cherries, but perhaps the only thing I would change is add a little more liquid since the fresh cherries may not break down quickly enough to release liquid to come to pressure. Maybe 1/4 cup – half water and half lemon juice? Let me know if you give it a try.
I couldn’t find frozen cherries at the grocery but did find a bag of froz mixed berries and sour cherries that I used in this recipe and it was terrific! Loved the almond extract addition, though next time will try a hit of grand marnier or amaretto… Yum. Thanks!
I thought you always had to have at least a cup of liquid in the pressure cooker. Confused on this one…is it ok to pressurize these ingredients without any liquid?
Hi Kelly – if you have ingredients that release a lot of liquid when they cook, then you don’t need to use 1 cup of liquid.
Kelly, yes. There is enough water solube juices geberated between the frozen cherries and the lemon juice.
The fresh cherry season is so short here during the summer that we take advantage of eating each and every one of them when I buy them. I seldom think of buying frozen cherries-that won’t be the case now. That compote looks so good….and I can’t wait to see the cheesecake that goes with it. 🙂
Sounds delicious and I will try it soon. Is that a Candlewick glass dish in the photo??
This looks delicious! I’m curious – I’ve been looking for something like this that can be canned for longer shelf life. How long does this keep?
Hi Mary – sorry, I don’t have any experience canning. You’ll want to use it within about a week. Here’s a good post from Frieda on hot water bath canning in the electric pressure cooker https://www.friedalovesbread.com/2017/09/steam-canning-in-your-instant-pot-part.html