The summer after I graduated from college, I lived in a rather squalid apartment with four other people, including a woman who loved to cook, but had many cooking phobias. One of her greatest fears was making bechamel, a basic white sauce used in French cooking. It consists of butter, milk and flour, plus a little salt. You have to heat the oil, add the flour, cook the flour, then add the milk and stir with a whisk until the sauce becomes thick. Not terribly difficult. Why was this so scary to my erstwhile roommate? The problem with bechamel is that sometimes the sauce won’t thicken, and you’re left with a watery milky mess you can’t use for anything except maybe to feed to your cat.
My roommate’s fear rubbed off on me, so I avoided making bechamel for years, worrying it required a delicate touch I didn’t possess. I tried making it a few times, but I was an inattentive cook in those days, so usually burned it or under-cooked or under-stirred it so it fell and failed.
I no longer fear bechamel. I use it for white pasta sauces and to make turkey gravy every Thanksgiving. My gluten-free, dairy-free version works every time. It requires close attention, but that’s the only secret. Mine has never turned into a watery mess.
I make it with any kind of fat or oil I happen to have on hand, including olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, chicken fat, bacon fat, etc. I eyeball the ratio of fat to flour, but basically I’m aiming for enough fat and flour to make a paste that’s neither runny nor dry.
There’s some debate in the cooking world as to whether or not you must cook the flour after adding it to the hot oil. I always cook it because the gluten-free flour mix I use most often contains garbanzo and fava bean flours, which I’m pretty sure taste better cooked. Cooking the flour to a nice light brown hue does give the sauce a brownish or very off-white color. If you want a lily-white sauce, you’d best skip cooking the flour. If you use almond flour or another darker flour mix, the “white” sauce will end up a light tan color.
It’s important to heat the non-dairy milk or chicken broth or whatever liquid you are using to just below a simmer before adding it to the oil-flour mix. I don’t know why, exactly, but it seems to work best this way, so I always do it. I’ve seen recipes that don’t require this extra step (and pan), but why mess with success? If you are using chicken broth, the sauce will be an opaque brownish color, but it will still taste great!
Once you’ve committed to making this sauce (fear not, it only requires half an hour at most), you must pay attention at every step. Keep a wooden spoon and a whisk close at hand and be prepared to use them. After adding the liquid to the fat-flour mixture, you turn the heat up to high, bring the mixture almost to a boil, while whisking constantly until the sauce thickens, and even then, keep whisking until you’re sure the sauce is thick and smooth. Take it off the heat, give it a whisk or two, add seasonings if you want, and it’s ready to use.
I usually add salt when I add the hot liquid (unless it’s salted chicken broth) and add other seasonings after it’s thickened. I always use the sauce immediately, but you can cover it and keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days, then gently reheat it and pour it over vegetables or use it as the basis for gravy or another sauce. To avoid letting a skin form on the sauce, you can press plastic wrap or parchment paper over the top of it before putting it into the fridge. I don’t trust plastic wrap not to leach harmful chemicals into my food, but it’s useful at times, so I use it sparingly and try to avoid letting it touch food for very long.
Basic white bechamel sauce requires three or four ingredients: flour, butter, milk and salt. This version uses gluten-free flour, any kind of fat, dairy-free milk or chicken broth, and salt. It's a foolproof recipe that requires a commitment of about half an hour. If you pay close attention to it at every step, it will never fail you. Pour the milk (or other liquid) into a small saucepan, cover and heat on medium-high. Keep an eye on it, and turn down the heat if it looks like it's going to boil. It should be steaming, but not simmering. In a medium saucepan (about 2 quart is fine), heat the oil on medium-high heat until it sizzles. Quickly add the flour all at once, and stir it into the oil with a wooden spoon until it has the texture of a thick paste. Add more flour if the paste is too thin. Cook the flour for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning. It should be a light-brown color. Pour the hot milk into the flour all at once, add the salt, turn the heat up high, and whisk continuously for 10-15 minutes until the sauce is very thick and smooth. It should stay at just below the boil, bubbling up occasionally as you whisk it. As soon as the sauce seems thick and stable, remove it from the heat, stir in additional seasonings as desired. If you set it aside or put it in the fridge, cover it with plastic wrap or parchment paper (probably less toxic) to prevent a film from forming on the surface. If a film forms anyway, whisk it through, and any lumps will dissolve. Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Bechamel (White) Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
Heat the milk for bechamel in a saucepan until it steams, just below a simmer:
Heat the olive oil until it’s hot and crinkles around the edge of the saucepan:
Add the flour all at once to the hot olive oil:
Quickly stir the flour into the oil with a wooden spoon until it forms a thick paste:
Pour the hot milk into the pan all at once:
Continue cooking and whisking the bechamel until it is thick and smooth:
The finished bechamel:
No Comments