Honey-Sweetened Blueberry Compote

Blueberries are one of my favourite summer fruits, and can often be found growing in the wild in Northern Europe. We pick wild blueberries every year in late summer to freeze, eat fresh, and turn into this honey-sweetened blueberry compote. Frozen berries work just as well.

If you have an excess of berries, or want a delicious topping for desserts, blueberry compote is a great way to use them. It freezes well and can be made while the berries are available and tucked away for winter. Serve over pancakes, waffles, or anything you think you’d like with blueberries.

You need just a handful of ingredients for this recipe. It’s sweetened with maple syrup or honey and has a slightly more rounded flavour than might be typical in a compote, but it’s very good.

I first shared this recipe in 2021. It’s been updated with improvements to the recipe instructions and slight improvements to the recipe, new photos, including step-by-step photos, and more helpful information.

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Ingredients You’ll Need and Why

Think of this as a beginner recipe that you can add to and adjust based on how you plan to use it. There are add-in suggestions below. These are my notes from recipe testing and you can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Blueberries: use fresh and frozen, wild and cultivated berries interchangeably. With frozen you may need to cook slightly longer if there’s a lot of liquid in the pot.
• Honey: use maple syrup if preferred but note that it adds a strong maple taste. Sugar can be used in a pinch to replace the liquid sweetener. The recipe is minimally sweetened so you may want to increase slightly to your taste.
• Lemon: lemon juice adds an acidic counterbalance to the sweetness of the blueberries and honey, for a balanced compote.

How to Make Blueberry Compote

It really is as simple as placing everything in a pot and cooking it down. Unlike jam, compote doesn’t use any thickening agent like pectin to set it, and it stays a runny sauce.

Step 1: add all ingredients to a small saucepan. Don’t worry about mixing now if you’ve used creamed honey, it can be mixed once it starts to melt.

Step 2: bring to a low boil then reduce the heat and cook for about ten minutes and use immediately or store for later. The compote will thicken slightly as it cools but it won’t be as thick as jam.

Expert Tips for the Best Compote

• Try add-ins: vanilla and cinnamon are both delicious additions if you want to make things a bit more interesting. It depends on how you plan to use your compote, but spices can certainly be added.
• Add the zest: try adding the zest from the lemons you’re juicing for a brighter citrus hint. As always, don’t over-zest or you’ll have a bitter taste from the pith (the white of the lemon rind).
• Cook uncovered: we retested this recipe and found the texture was better when the compote was cooked uncovered for the full ten minutes so that it could thicken more effectively.