The 2-Ingredient Dessert Sauce You Can Make Starting With Leftover Buttermilk

Buttermilk is one of those foods you mostly pick up at the store for a specific recipe rather than keeping as a refrigerator staple. Then you're left with the rest of the carton and no idea what to do with it — and it doesn't stay fresh for long once it's opened. Fortunately, there are plenty of sweet and savory ways to use up leftover buttermilk, and one of the easiest is a two-ingredient dessert sauce.

The sauce requires just buttermilk and sugar and is a snap to make — simply stir the sugar into the buttermilk until it dissolves. Adjust the ratio to your liking, then scale it up if you need a larger batch. For easier dissolving, try warming the buttermilk in a saucepan before adding the sugar, but keep the heat low — it can curdle at high temperatures. Remove it from the burner as soon as the sugar is incorporated. Strong stirring can also lead to curdling, so don't be too heavy-handed when mixing.

The finished dessert sauce will be sweet and creamy with a tang from the buttermilk. It also has some body to it, creating an appealing mouthfeel thanks to buttermilk's thicker consistency compared to regular whole or low-fat milk.

There are many ways to use buttermilk sauce to add rich creaminess and flavor to your desserts. Pour it over berries, stone fruits like peaches and nectarines, or bananas. Drizzle it on pound cake, bourbon-spiked bread pudding, ice cream, or irresistible homemade cinnamon rolls. Flip the script on perfectly made pancakes and golden brown waffles by using the sauce instead of maple syrup. Try dunking cookies, squares of chocolate cake, or salty pretzels into it like a dip, or blend it into a smoothie with berries. You could also freeze the smoothie in popsicle molds to make creamy ice pops.

The sauce is delicious as is, but you can experiment with deeper, more complex flavors by swapping out the sugar for another sweetener, such as brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey. Choose based on how you plan to use the sauce — maple syrup pairs well with pancakes and waffles, while lighter honey complements fruit. You can also add a third ingredient for extra flavor: try a little vanilla, almond, or rum extract, cinnamon or nutmeg, or a sweet liqueur like Baileys Irish Cream or amaretto for a boozy treat with ice cream.