how to make a cheese sauce with heavy cream

How to make a cheese sauce with heavy cream how to#

This sauce can easily be incorporated into recipes that call for condensed 'cream of' soups. If you're trying to stay away from processed foods, a white cream sauce is going to be your best friend! Try a little lemon, lime, orange or a little vinegar - other acids include wine, alcohol (liqueurs), tomatoes and buttermilk. Cheddar for macaroni and cheese, Parmesan for Alfredo sauce for pasta, or pureed tomatoes for spaghetti and lasagne.įinish the Cream Sauce with an Acid: Add an acid to your finished sauce to even further develop the flavor! Acids always go in the sauce last and use them sparingly. Other nice spices are: sweet and smoky paprika, ground cloves, allspice, mustard, coriander or cumin.Ĭheese Sauce (Mornay sauce): add any shredded cheese to the sauce after you've combined the milk with the roux. Spice-infused Cream Sauce: using a microplane, grate a little cinnamon or nutmeg over a white sauce. This gives a faint, but not overwhelming hint of garlic flavor to the Bechamel sauce. Garlic-infused Cream Sauce: cut a clove of garlic in half and rub the cut side around the perimeter and bottom of the saucepan. Some favorites are dill, sage, tarragon and rosemary. Add fresh herbs at the very end of the cooking time. Add dried herbs to the sauce right after you add the milk. Herb-infused Cream Sauce : Add herbs to a basic cream sauce and you've got a completely different flavor profile! Recall that dried herbs are three-times stronger than fresh. Derivatives of white (Bechamel) sauceĪ really good white sauce serves as the basis for many other sauces and gravies, as well as a thickening agent for soups, stews and casseroles. If you use more fat and flour, the sauce will be nversely, you can thin a thick sauce by adding more liquid. The texture (thickness) of the sauce is determined by the amount of fat and flour. Remember, the ratio of fat to flour is always 1:1. Use this chart as a proportion guideline. Note, heavy cream has a bit of a sweet taste to it, so if you don't want a sweet flavor profile in your white sauce, just stick with milk. You can use whole or 2% milk, half-n-half- or heavy cream (heavy whipping cream) in this basic sauce. Use ground black or white pepper just add it to taste but keep in mind that ground white pepper is stronger than black pepper so use white judiciously. I've found a stick of salted butter is enough salt for me in this sauce, but you might like a bit more! This recipe calls for salted butter but you can use unsalted if you prefer. Taste before adding salt: If you use salted butter, don't add more salt until the sauce is finished-you may not need more salt! Drizzle Bechamel sauce over steamed potatoes! Yum! (You want a white roux for the base of the sauce-not a blonde roux white cooks in about 1 minute blonde cooks in about 3 minutes.)Īdd milk with the pan off-heat: once the flour and butter are combined, lift the saucepan off the heat add the milk, then return pan to heat. The objective here is to not add cold milk to the hot roux this often results in lumps in the sauceĭo not overcook the roux: a quick 1-minute cook on medium heat should do it. Use room temperature milk: set the milk out of the fridge about 20 minutes before starting the sauce or, heat the milk in the microwave on low. Melt butter in saucepanĪdd milk and continue to whisk until smooth season to taste with salt and pepper Troubleshooting Bechamel sauce: This recipe yields 2 cups of sauce.įirst, you start by making a roux, which is equal parts of fat (butter) and flour. White sauce is relatively easy to make and takes about 8 minutes. There's nothing fancy going on here: Butter, Flour, Milk, salt & pepper.that's it! I recommend using 2%, whole milk or cream for best results.

A great substitute for canned condensed soups! Just add chicken bouillon!.

Base for many other sauces: Mornay sauce (cheese sauce), creamy herb sauces, Alfredo, and more!.

This quick 8-minute white sauce recipe will be your 'go-to' recipe for a million other sauces.

The simplicity of it is what makes it ideal for many recipes. This cream sauce base is perfect for thickening soups and casseroles and the introduction to many cream-based sauces.

How to make a cheese sauce with heavy cream how to#

Here, you'll learn exactly how to make a smooth, flavorful Bechamel that you'll be proud of everytime!īechamel is the base sauce for many other types! Once you master this easy white cream sauce, the sauce world is your oyster!

This Basic White Cream Sauce is one of the five classic French ' Mother Sauces', and is the base for many other sauces and gravies. 3-ingredient Basic White Cream Sauce (Bechamel sauce) is ready in 8-minutes! No more sauce paranoia!