Prepare homemade béchamel sauce easily and quickly at home, follow the step-by-step recipe with tips and tricks! With this recipe, you can also make a lactose-free béchamel sauce.

Béchamel is a very useful French sauce in cooking to make

Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very inexpensive
Rest time: 5 Minutes
Preparation time: 5 Minutes
Portions: 2
Cooking methods: Stovetop
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

234.40 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 234.40 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 18.15 (g) of which sugars 6.23 (g)
Proteins 5.83 (g)
Fat 16.16 (g) of which saturated 10.35 (g)of which unsaturated 5.63 (g)
Fibers 2.79 (g)
Sodium 389.73 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 150 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 cup milk
1.5 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)
to taste fine salt

Tools:

1 Pot 1 Qt
1 Spoon (or silicone spatula)
1 Whisk
1 Teaspoon

Preparation

Making a good béchamel sauce is very easy; the trick lies in preparing the base (roux) made of flour and butter.

Start by melting the butter; I advise cutting the butter into small pieces so it melts at a medium-low temperature without cooking.
The temperature is important for the final color of the béchamel, but it does not affect the taste.
As soon as the butter has melted, remove the pot from the heat and add the flour, mixing well.
To avoid lumps, I suggest sifting so you won’t find them in the béchamel.
Put the pot back on medium-low heat so the flour can cook, and let the batter cook for about 5 minutes on low heat.
What you have obtained is called Roux and it is one of the main bases for sauces in cooking.
Depending on the toasting/cooking of this sauce on low heat, you will have 3 types of roux:
– white (about 5 min of cooking)
– blonde (about 10 min of cooking)
– brown (about 25 min of cooking)
Once you’ve reached the desired level of cooking, you must pour the hot milk into the mixture.
If you use cold milk from the fridge, add it gradually to prevent lumps.
Cook on medium/low heat, continuing to stir to prevent the flour from sticking to the bottom.
After about 10 minutes, the mixture will begin to thicken; you can turn it off. The béchamel is ready.
It’s time to add pepper and nutmeg to flavor the homemade béchamel.
Use a pastry whisk and stir vigorously to achieve a more silky appearance for the béchamel.
In my version, you will find generous doses of pepper and nutmeg because I want a bold and spicy flavor; you can play with these ingredients as you like.
When cooling, homemade béchamel tends to harden, turn off when it is still a bit liquid.
The result should be thick but not too solid. If it thickens too much, you can “thin the béchamel” by gradually adding milk and mixing it well.
When you prepare Béchamel in advance, I suggest leaving it liquid. This way, when you reheat it, it will be easier to stir without lumps.
Your homemade béchamel is ready!