“Made with fresh strawberries and canned pineapple, this easy homemade strawberry topping is so delicious and will whip up in minutes. Use it on ice cream, cake, cheesecake, and more!"
1. Wash strawberries and cut into fourths. Place in a container with a lid. Pour sugar on top and toss around to coat. Put the lid on and place in the refrigerator for at least six hours or overnight.
2. Take the sugared strawberries out of the refrigerator. Some of the sugar will have liquified and some will still be granulated at the bottom of the container. Stir around to loosen the granulated sugar, scaping te the bottom of the container.
3. Add the strawberries with liquid and sugar to a medium-sized saucepan. Add the undrained crushed pineapple with juice, cornstarch, orange extract, and a pinch of salt to the saucepan.
4. With a hand/stick blender, blend together the ingredients in the saucepan until the cornstarch is blended in and there are only small chunks of strawberries remaining. If you don't have a hand blender, you can put the ingredients into a countertop blender and blend on low in starts and stops. You just want to mix together and break the strawberries down smaller. You still want some small strawberry chunks. You don't want to totally liquefy the mixture.
5. Turn the stove onto med/high and lightly stir until it comes to a boil. Turn down to medium and continue to stir and scrape the bottom of the saucepan for about two minutes. The mixture will be thickened and bubbly.
6. Remove from heat and pour into mason jars or something similar. The strawberry topping will continue to thicken slightly as it cools. You can serve warm or cold.