Easy recipe for bread sauce?

[TheGoatSaysHello]

Just that really - and I don't have a food processor to blitz bread - I have a hand-held blender that I use for soups...would that do? (Disclaimer - I've never made bread sauce and also I've never tried it as it doesn't appeal but we have Christmas guests coming who love it!)

Buy a packet of Schwarz bread sauce mix - just add milk, I found it nicer than ready-made from Waitrose.

You can get away without a blender- just tear the bread up quite small and leave the crusts out.

I use the same spices as delia except all ground, and stick everything in at the same time. Also this means you don't have to fanny around with decorating onions with cloves . Loads of cream at the end 👍

Nan I was just coming on to say the Schwartz mix. It's not at all bad. If you don't have a processor to do the crumbs I wouldn't bother trying to make it from scratch OP. I don't know if panko/bought breadcrumbs would work either and it'd end up costing loads! I would go with the packet mix, or if you can make the crumbs somehow, the best/easiest recipe is Delia's, on her website. I love bread sauce, it's my favourite festive side!

RIP up chunks of old bread.

Put it in a saucepan along with half an onion (whole not chopped), studded with cloves.
Boil until the bread has absorbed all the milk and reached a nice soggy consistency. Add more milk as needed, or drain if you added too much.
Remove the onion.
Fluff up the sauce with a fork to break up any remaining last chunks of bread.

It's a good way to use up stale bread.

I prefer the packet mix. It's what I grew up on and it's how I expect bread sauce to taste.

Good plan NotDoing yes small pieces would just mush down wouldn't they.

Thank you so much!!
I'm not in the UK so can't buy ready-made otherwise I absolutely would!! Bread sauce is unheard of here

Good to hear that I can just rip the bread up.

When you have madethe bread sauce you can use your stick blender to whizz it a bit finer if it needs it - but do it in very short bursts as is easy to turn it too liquid.

Disclaimer - I've never made bread sauce and also I've never tried it as it doesn't appeal
I wasn't brought up on bread sauce and never bothered because it sounded slightly disgusting. I finally made it a few years ago ... and it is a floaty cloud of yummyness. I thoroughly recommend!
St Delia's recipe, of course.
To save stress, you can prep it ahead of time - do it all (except the butter and cream), freeze it and then finish off on the day.

Stud an onion with cloves. Put into a saucepan with some bay leaves and peppercorns and cover with milk. Bring to the boil then remove from the heat for as long as poss.

Strain the milk and put back into the pan. Tear up bread (crusts and all) and add. Leave.

Warm through. Add S+P to taste.

Delia's recipe. We all thought we hated bread sauce until we ate Delia's. Now we eat it straight out of the saucepan.

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/traditional-bread-sauce

I just grate the bread on a grater as no blender/food processor here either. And over the years have become increasingly lazy and chucked in crusts and all. Just changes the colour of the sauce a bit from pure white.

Finely chop an onion and sweat it off with plenty of butter, when translucent add milk, cloves and nutmeg plus salt and pepper and simmer for 20 mins or so. Remove the cloves. Add chunks of white bread (not crusts) and mash in. Whizz the whole lot with a stick blender until smooth. Check the flavouring and add more if wanted. If it needs to sit for a while then put a big knob of butter on top to stop skin forming. This is a real cheats method which I now use all the time. The flavour is so much better by leaving the onion in. There is only one drawback... by the time I have 'taste tested' it half a dozen times and daughter has done the same, there is very little left!

I make it every year even though I have never tasted it and never will. I use a nigella recipe and you just tear up the bread as far as I remember. You can make breadcrumbs by grating the bread if you need to. Bread sauce sounds, looks and smells revolting so I have no idea why you want to make it. The thought of it turns my stomach. I cannot imagine eating bread and butter pudding either.

Bread sauce is absolutely delicious!
I use brioche OP, which crumbles very easily by hand, but you can use any bread really. You can also use a cheese grater to make breadcrumbs.

I put a clove-studded onion in a pan with a bayleaf, and a carrot in a pan. Put milk in, bring to just before boiling then turn off and leave for an hour to infuse. Drain, pour over breadcrumbs, add nutmeg and cream to taste if desired. Yum!

Drain milk, pour over breadcrumbs

ignore last duplicate sentence

In case you hadn't gathered, OP, the important thing is time. As it is in most Christmas recipes.
Give the sauce time, so that flavours can mingle and develop (hence my 'prep ahead' tip. Do most of the work when you are not stressing out about a million and one other things that all need bringing to the table at the same time.)

Wow, feeling the love for bread sauce! Thank you so much everyone!