Never fear, our easy no-fail white sauce recipe is here! This is the quickest, easiest, and most fuss free way to make a quick roux béchamel sauce base at home with just 3 ingredients.
In This Post You’ll Learn
Why We Love This
There are no special techniques required for this easy homemade white sauce, just your trusty whisk to stir, stir, stir.
Deliciously smooth and perfectly thick, use it in your favourite dinner recipes like tuna mornay, cauliflower cheese, lasagne or moussaka!
Adapt the recipe with your favourite seasonings, or keep some on hand in the fridge or freezer as a quick pasta sauce for macaroni cheese or pasta bake.
Related: Potato Bake / Japanese Curry Roux
4 Common White Sauce Issues and How to Fix Them
Once you’ve added the milk to your butter and flour mix, it should thicken quite quickly. You’re looking for a white sauce that’s thick, but still easy to pour over your cauliflower. Here’s some common things that may occur, which are super easy to fix:
Sauce is too thick: Add more milk, and whisk, whisk, whisk it in to achieve your desired texture.
Sauce is too thin: Add another 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch at a time, whisking it through thoroughly on low heat and waiting a minute, until it thickens to where you want it.
Sauce is lumpy: Take it off the heat and make sure you’re using a whisk. Whisk it quite fast, making sure to scrape those edges and bottom of the pan! In no time, you should be back to an ultra smooth sauce. It may also be too thick, so add a splash of milk!
Sauce is burnt on the bottom: Get it off the heat, it was too high! It may still be salvageable. Have a quick taste, and if it doesn’t taste burnt, go ahead and pour over the cauliflower and just try not to touch the bottom with your whisk or scraper.
What is White Sauce?
White sauce, also known as béchamel, traditionally starts from a white roux of flour cooked in butter until it thickens and loses its ‘flour-y’ taste. Milk is added to make it extra creamy and smooth.
Roux based sauces can get a bad rap for being a bit tricky or fiddly to make, or easy to burn and ruin the flavour. But today we’re sharing Sarah’s quick white sauce version that skips the trickiest steps to make it super easy to make while keeping all the delicious flavour!
The basic white sauce recipe is quite bland on its own, so it’s often seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg. See our ingredients section for our favourite seasoning ideas.
What You’ll Need
For the basic white sauce:
- Flour – You’ll need just regular plain flour / all purpose flour. Avoid self raising flour if you can as the added bicarb soda can affect the flavour in the finished sauce. If needed, you can use cornstarch / cornflour instead of plain flour.
- Milk – We use full cream dairy milk, but you can use skim milk if you like. It’s possible to use plant based milks such as soy or oat, but we haven’t personally tested it. If you try it, let us know how you go!
- Butter – Salted or unsalted butter are both fine, we generally use salted for extra flavour.
Seasoning suggestion:
- Spices & Stock – Along with the classic salt, pepper and nutmeg, we recommend adding chicken stock (sub vegetable stock or dashi powder) for extra flavour.
- Cheese – We love adding a mix of Parmesan and grated cheddar (tasty cheese in Australia) to make it extra thick and flavourful, similar to mornay sauce. You can also use a pizza cheese blend.
How to Make White Sauce
First, gather your ingredients: See recipe card below for measurements.
- Pop the butter, plain flour / all purpose flour and milk in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Keep whisking until butter has completely melted and the sauce has started to thicken, around 3 minutes. Whisking will help to avoid any lumps forming, so you have a super smooth white sauce base!
- Note: This is unflavoured and will be very bland at this stage. Add your favourite seasonings now, or follow on for our flavouring suggestion
Optional: Season Your White Sauce
- Add in the grated cheese, parmesan, chicken stock, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Keep whisking until the cheese has completely melted and everything is well combined. Allow to heat through for a minute or two, then switch off the heat.
Wandercook’s Tips
- Keep Whisking – Our biggest tip when making white sauce is to whisk, whisk, whisk! This will ensure you have that perfectly smooth sauce with no lumpy bits.
- Storage – White sauce will last for 2-3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
FAQs
Yes you can, it freezes really well for around 2-3 months, but we don’t recommend freezing it for any longer as it can affect the texture and flavour. If you’re making a batch specifically to freeze, it’s best not to season it! Freeze the basic sauce first, then season once you’ve defrosted it.
First, defrost the white sauce in the fridge overnight. Reheat in a saucepan over low heat and whisk well to fix any separation that may have occurred. Then you’ll be ready to add any seasonings or cheese and use in your favourite recipes.
Try it as a creamy sauce for homemade pizza with spinach and sun dried tomatoes. Serve with steamed or baked veggies. Depending on the seasonings you use, it pairs especially well with chicken or fish!
Variations
- Extra Creamy – Add a swirl of thickened cream / heavy cream to the finished white sauce and whisk through for an extra creamy sauce.
- Other Seasonings – Stir in a splash of Worcestershire sauce or a spoonful of your favourite mustard. You could even flavour it with onion powder, garlic powder or mustard powder, or season with your favourite dried herbs. For something completely different, try seasoning it with cayenne pepper or curry powder!
- Make it Vegan – Use soy milk, oat milk or almond milk, and olive oil instead of milk and butter.
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★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Equipment
- 1 Whisk
Ingredients
For the white sauce base
- 100 g butter 3.52 oz
- ½ cup plain flour / all purpose flour 50 g / 1.76 oz
- 3 cups milk 750 ml / 26.4 fl oz, full cream
Seasoning suggestion
- 1/3 cup parmesan
- 1/2 cup cheese grated, tasty, cheddar or shredded pizza cheese mix
- 2 tsp chicken stock sub vegetable stock or dashi powder
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the basic white sauce
- Pop the butter, plain flour / all purpose flour and milk in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.100 g butter, ½ cup plain flour / all purpose flour, 3 cups milk
- Keep whisking until butter has completely melted and the sauce has started to thicken, around 3 minutes. Whisking will help to avoid any lumps forming, so you have a super smooth white sauce base!
- Note: This is unflavoured and will be very bland at this stage. Add your favourite seasonings now, or follow on for our flavouring suggestion.
Optional: Season Your White Sauce
- Add in the grated cheese, parmesan, chicken stock, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Keep whisking until the cheese has completely melted and everything is well combined. Allow to heat through for a minute or two, then switch off the heat.1/3 cup parmesan, 1/2 cup cheese, 2 tsp chicken stock, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, Salt and pepper
Video
Recipe Notes
- Keep Whisking – Our biggest tip when making white sauce is to whisk, whisk, whisk! This will ensure you have that perfectly smooth sauce with no lumpy bits.
- Storage – White sauce will last for 2-3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Extra Creamy – Add a swirl of thickened cream / heavy cream to the finished white sauce and whisk through for an extra creamy sauce.
- Other Seasonings – Stir in a splash of Worcestershire sauce or a spoonful of your favourite mustard. You could even flavour it with onion powder, garlic powder or mustard powder, or season with your favourite dried herbs. For something completely different, try seasoning it with cayenne pepper or curry powder!
- Make it Vegan – Use soy milk, oat milk or almond milk, and olive oil instead of milk and butter.
Nutrition
4 Comments
Anonymous
01/03/2023 at 2:11 pmThis recipe for white sauce is a lifesaver! As someone who isn’t the most confident in the kitchen, I appreciate how easy and fuss-free it is to make. Plus, I love how versatile it is and how I can adapt it to suit my tastes. Highly recommend giving this recipe a try!
Wandercooks
02/03/2023 at 5:20 pmYou’re welcome and thanks for the kind words. 🙂
Anonymous
23/02/2023 at 5:15 amNice recipe. Can we freeze pasta with white sauce?
Wandercooks
23/02/2023 at 12:17 pmHey, yes you can. Just pop it in an airtight container, and it’ll be fine for a month or two. We’ve done this heaps when we’ve made it into tuna mornay or a creamy pasta sauce. It reheats great. 🙂