A creamy white sauce poured over your grilled meat or vegetables, sounds delicious right? Here, we are making one such flavourful and divine French white sauce, which is popularly known as Béchamel Sauce.
Béchamel Sauce, a French white sauce which is also one of the mother sauces of French cuisine. It can be served on its own or can be used as the base to make other sauces too, just like another popular sauce, Mornay sauce, which is Béchamel with cheese.
So if your trying your hands on French cuisine, don’t forget to include this delectable Béchamel Sauce in your list. Learn how to make this quick and easy Béchamel Sauce which will get ready under 30 minutes. Here is how to make Béchamel Sauce.
What are the five mother sauces?
The five Mother Sauces includes Béchamel Sauce, Veloute Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Brown or Espagnole Sauce and Hollandaise Sauce. It is said that any other sauce can be made by modifying these sauces.
What is Béchamel Sauce?
Béchamel Sauce, is a simple and basic medium thick white sauce which uses all purpose flour, butter and milk as its main ingredients. You can add bay leaf and black peppercorn while boiling the milk, so that it gets that mild flavour from the spices and gives the sauce more flavour and aroma. Salt and Black pepper powder is also added at the end.
How to make Bechamel Sauce at home?
To make the Béchamel Sauce, melted butter and all purpose flour is cooked together on medium heat, which is called as Roux. Later, milk is added in this mixture and cooked till the thick consistency is achieved. The foolproof way to get that right consistency of the sauce is adding hot milk to the butter and the flour and whisking continuously till it becomes smooth and thick.
You must be confused about how hot milk should be? So, when you are heating the milk in the saucepan, switch the gas off when you see little bubbles forming on the sides of the saucepan. Next, you can add this hot milk directly into the roux.
How to make Gluten Free Béchamel Sauce?
To make the Gluten Free Béchamel Sauce, you can substitute All Purpose Flour with Gluten Free Flour or you can use the combination of Corn Flour and Rice Flour to make the sauce.
Also if your looking for Vegan Béchamel Sauce, then you can use Almond Milk or Coconut Milk instead of Dairy Milk.
What is the difference between Béchamel Sauce and White Sauce?
There is no difference between Béchamel Sauce and White Sauce. Béchamel Sauce is also called as White Sauce which is made from all purpose flour, butter and milk. But Béchamel Sauce is different from Cheese Sauce, as grated cheese is added to the Béchamel Sauce to make Cheese Sauce.
Is Béchamel Sauce same as Alfredo Sauce?
No, Béchamel Sauce is not as same as Alfredo Sauce. While Béchamel Sauce is a simple white sauce and uses only all purpose flour, milk and butter, Alfredo Sauce is made using Heavy whipping cream, butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese or cream cheese and milk are used in the place of heavy whipping cream.Béchamel Sauce with Eggs
You can also add eggs in your Béchamel Sauce. Once your sauce is ready, switch off the gas and add in the Egg Yolk one at a time.
Next, put the sauce back on heat and whisk until everything is well blended. Once it is blended, switch off the gas and keep it aside for later use.
How to make Béchamel Sauce smooth?
To make your Béchamel Sauce smooth, make sure that you use hot milk into the Roux, which is a mixture of melted butter and all purpose flour. If the milk is hot enough, you will get that perfect smooth consistency.
Also switch off the heat while mixing milk with the flour and butter and use a wire in vigorous motion for this process.
Can you freeze Béchamel Sauce?
You can store Béchamel sauce in the fridge for about 5 days in an air tight container and gently heat it again, when you want to use it next. But if you do not have any immediate use of the Béchamel Sauce, you can stash the sauce in freezer for later use in air tight containers or food bags.
Recipes with Béchamel Sauce
You can use Béchamel Sauce as a base to make various dishes such as Gratin, Lasagna Bolognese, Mac and Cheese, Oven Fried Croquettes, Baked Ziti, Fried Mozzarella Sandwiches, Chicken Pie, Moussaka, Roast Chicken, Grilled Salmon, Grilled Chicken Breast, Mushroom Lasagna, Penne With Roasted Butternut Squash, Cauliflower Cheese etc.
You can also use this Sauce to make Continental gravy dishes.
So what are you waiting for? Make this homemade Béchamel Sauce and let us know how you used it in your recipes.
Bechamel Sauce Recipe
Bechamel Sauce / White Sauce
Ingredients
- Butter - 4 tbsp
- All purpose flour - 4 tbsp
- Full cream milk - 750 ml Hot
- Bay leaf - 2
- Black peppercorns - 3-4
- Salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 tsp
Instructions
- Heat milk in a pan.
- Add bay leaf and peppercorns and cook the milk on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
- Strain the milk and discard the bay leaf and peppercorns.
- Heat butter in a pan.
- Add flour once the butter is melted and mix until it forms a smooth glossy paste.
- This is called Roux.
- Do not over cook the butter and flour mixture or the Roux.
- Keep stirring continuously.
- Add hot milk slowly and whisk continuously.
- Add salt and pepper and cook the sauce on low heat until it starts to coat the back of the ladle.
- Remove the pan from heat and cover it with cling film to avoid formation of skin over the sauce.
- Store the sauce in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Use the sauce as and when required.
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