Béchamel Sauce (White Sauce)
Serves: 500 ml or 2 cups
A quick and easy recipe for béchamel sauce (or white sauce) with step-by-step photos.
Ingredients
- 60 g (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 40 g (¼ cup) plain flour, (all-purpose flour)
- 500 ml (2 cups) milk
- 1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
- nutmeg, freshly grated
- sea salt
- white pepper, freshly cracked
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan.
- Sprinkle in the flour.
- Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon and cook for 1-2 minutes until it browns a little in colour.
- Slowly whisk in the milk and keep whisking until there are no lumps.
- Add the bay leaf.
- Use a wooden spoon or whisk to stir the sauce frequently over medium-high heat until the sauce is thick and smooth.
- The sauce is generally ready when a few bubbles start to rise to the surface, and the sauce is a consistency of thickened cream. If you coat the back of the wooden spoon with the sauce and run a line through it, the line should remain.
- Take the sauce of the heat and generously grate in some fresh nutmeg.
- Taste for seasoning.
- The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.
- If you need to thin the béchamel sauce, simply whisk in some milk until you have the right consistency.
Kitchen Notes
- ADDITIONAL FLAVOUR
Depending on what you will be serving with this béchamel sauce, you can add more flavour as follows:
* stir in 1 to 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard with the flour
* add 1/2 chicken stock cube (or vegetable stock cube) with the flour - OVEN & STOVE TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website have been tested on an induction stove and/or with a conventional oven (i.e. an oven without fan). All recipes on this website use temperatures for a conventional oven, unless otherwise mentioned. Convection ovens (i.e. fan-forced ovens) are typically 20°C/70°F hotter than conventional ovens, but please check your manufacturer’s handbook. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.