![]() The Hebrews fleeing Egypt weren’t, after all, told “Take what you have and scarper, there’s no time to let your bread rise, oh, unless you’re making babka or something, that would be awesome, oh, good work on the pyramids btw”. We were inundated with literally several letters pointing out that the babka is yeasted, and a traditional Passover, one might say, tends to skew towards the unleavened. You might remember that one of us (okay, it was me) declared it to be an excellent treat for either Easter or Passover, whichever was your preference. Our version adds fontina cheese to the béchamel with adds to the earthy richness.īefore we get into this week’s recipe, I want to make a clarification about last week’s post: the chocolate babka. Summarizing all what’s above, here’s a general recipe for any bechamel sauce.With a crunchy top and a creamy center, Lasagna Bolognese is the king of baked pastas. The principle is very similar to the effect used to make choux pastry. The butter helps to disperse the flour through the milk. Once the liquid (milk) is added, the flour particles have been ‘protected’ by butter and that way you prevent the formation of lumps. For making a bechamel the ‘inventors’ have found that using butter greatly helps here.īy first melting butter and mixing in the flour, the flour gets covered and coated with the butter. So, when making bechamel (or any other sauce using flour as a thickener) you should prevent this thickening of flour, before you have had a chance to mix it in properly. The swelling of the starch will prevent water to travel to the inside of the flour lumps. However, since the starch starts swelling as soon as it get hot it can be hard to mix the two when the liquid is hot. As long as water and the liquid in which you disperse it are cold, it is easy to mix the two. These lumps occur if flour has not been disperserd properly when it’s heated. But when using flour there’s often a risk of lump formation. ![]() So it’s the flour that gives bechamel the thickness. Making bechamel – importance of the order of steps & preventing lumps You heat the flour so long while it’s a roux that it loses this thickening power. This is what happens when making a dark roux. If you keep on heating or cooking your flour, it will lose the thickening power. What’s important to know here, is that this thickening power of flour can actually be reduced over time. That’s exactly what we discussed when making the choux pastry for profiteroles as well. The thicker granules prevent water from flowing freely and thus it thickens. It’s this swelling of the starch that gives flour its thickening power. At higher temperatures the starch will absorb moisture and start swelling. When flour is mixed in water and heated the power of flour sets in, more specifically, the starch. It’s the starch that does the magic here, starch is one of the components of flour. In the case of a bechamel sauce, flour thickens the bechamel sauce, giving it the characteristic thick, gooey texture. In some cases the gluten of flour is what we’re looking for, in other cases, it’s the carbohydrates and sugars. It can be used to give gumbo tons of flavour in a dark roux, thicken your pie filling, make choux pastry and of course is the basis of bread, scones, biscuits and tons of other baked goods. The flour does most of the work in the bechamel sauce, but do not be fooled by the importance of butter! Flour powerįlour is a super versatile ingredient in our kitchen. So what is a bechamel sauce? It is a thicker gooey white sauce, pretty neutral in taste actually, made with only three ingredients: butter, flour and milk. But, if used in a good ratio, it can enrich a lasagna and I’ve come to quite like it. In other words: I always thought it was a cheaper version of lasagna. In cheap lasagna there tends to be a lot of bechamel sauce whereas I always preferred the tomate sauce. The advantage of using homemade pasta dough is that it’s a lot more flexible and easy to assemble! Since we discussed pasta dough before, let’s discuss the bechamel sauce (especially since the tomate sauce isn’t as sciency).īefore I realized bechamel sauce ‘belongs’ on a lasagna I didn’t really appreciate it too much. None are hard to make, but when doing it yourself you can do it to your own taste. Lasagna is made best (I find) with home made pasta dough and sauces. Nothing better than a lasagna coming out of the oven, bubbling like crazy, with a perfect light brown cheesy top. Even though there are loads of ways to make a lasagna, our favorite remains one with tomato sauce and a creamy bechamel sauce on top.
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