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How do you make an authentic béchamel sauce at home, one of the great staples of French cuisine? I'll give you all my tips for a gourmet sauce that's easy to make and guaranteed to succeed! And you'll see, it's not that difficult...
Table des matières
🤔What is a béchamel sauce?
A classic of French cuisine, béchamel sauce is a white sauce made from a roux (a mixture of butter and flour), mixed with milk and prepared in a saucepan.
💙 Why you need this guide
- I give you precise quantities
- Here are some tips on how to make an easy-to-make béchamel sauce
- I'll give you some customization ideas and tell you which recipes you can use it in.
✅ Vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free version
- To make this recipe vegan and dairy-free, replace the butter with margarine and the cow's milk with the plant milk of your choice.
- To make this recipe gluten-free, replace the traditional wheat flour with cornflour.
Please note: quantities may vary depending on the substitutes you use for your diets.
✨How to use béchamel
- A lightly spiced and cheesy béchamel in this delicious mac and cheese
- A classic béchamel sauce these ultra-melting spinach and goat cheese croquettes
- Another classic béchamel for cauliflower and broccoli gratin with cheese
- Eggs Florentine
- A croque monsieur
- Lasagne
🥰 Chef's tips
- As European, I'm used to working in grams and milliliters. To make the best béchamel sauce, I really recommend using a digital scale, which is much more precise. That way, you'll be sure to succeed with your recipes.
- When you mix your roux (the mixture of butter + flour), don't let it darken, add the milk. Otherwise you'll have to throw it away
- Once the milk has been added, stir constantly to obtain a smooth, lump-free mixture.
- Don't put all the milk in at once. My Mum's trick for making a good béchamel sauce is to let the mixture thicken, add a little milk, let it thicken, add a little more milk, and do this three or four times in a row.
- Be sure to use a whisk and scrape down the sides of the pan as you mix.
- Don't be too heavy-handed with the nutmeg: it will flavour your béchamel (no good béchamel without nutmeg), but it can also kill it if there's too much...
💡 Frequently Asked Questions
If you've kept to the proportions I've given you below, it's simply because you didn't let your béchamel cook long enough. Patience, everything comes to those who wait 😉
If you're sporty, you can try mixing it very vigorously with a whisk. If not, go faster and use a hand blender.
It's probably because there's too much flour or it's overcooked a little. But don't panic, add a little milk while stirring, and it will become more liquid.
On the contrary, if your béchamel is too liquid, add a little flour and mix vigorously to avoid lumps.
❄️Storage
It's best to use it as soon as it's ready. But you can keep it for 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Some people say you can freeze the béchamel, but I don't recommend it. The texture will have changed, it will be more liquid, and the taste will be distinctly blander...
If you make this béchamel sauce, it would be so nice to leave me a comment and rate the recipe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. You can also tag me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or Tik Tok, or even send me a photo, I love seeing my little dishes in your homes!
📖 Recette
How to make the best bechamel sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (60g)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (60g)
- 1 cup milk (212ml)
- 1 pinch nutmeg optional
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper or to taste
Instructions
The roux
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
- Once melted, add the flour all at once and mix vigorously with a whisk.
Adding the milk
- Add a quarter of the milk. The trick to a successful béchamel is to let the mixture thicken (stirring constantly with a whisk to avoid lumps), add a 2nd quarter of milk, let it thicken, add a 3rd quarter, and finish with the last quarter of milk.
Final cooking
- Keep stirring until the sauce thickens. At the end, the texture should be smooth and creamy, but not liquid. Remove from heat, add nutmeg if you like, and salt and pepper. Mix one last time and use the béchamel in the recipe of your choice.
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