White sauce secrets?

[blue22]

My BLW 8month old loves macaroni cheese, brocoli cheese etc, but I'm rubbish at making them - it's ok for her as it tastes alright, but I'm embarassed by my ineptitude.
Everytime I make a white sauce it's lumpy and horrid!! How do you make yours???? Any secrets I'm missing?

are you using a wooden spoon?

Are you cooking it for long enough?

Are you adding the milk very slowly, mixing it in thoroughly each time you add more?

Are you blending it with a hand blender if it DOES go wrong?

pan on the hob, melt 2oz butter and add 2 oz plain flour. Mix together until it makes a smooth roux.

You'll need about 1/2 pint of milk, add tiny tiny bits at a time to start with, gradually adding the whole amount, stirring all the time, ideally with a whisk.

HTH

Ah, I'm adding all the milk at once. I'll try the slower approach!

Much easier to put milk in a pan sift in the flour then put in butter - turn on low heat to melt butter then whisk with a balloon whisk for a couple of minutes. Once snooth bring up to boil and simmer for a couple of mins to 'cook' flour

(copyright Delia Smith)

snice, how do you do that without the flour clumping in the milk - i've tried it that way and it never seems to work for me [dunce]

snice - heathen! Melt butter, stir in flour until it makes a ball, then cook for two minutes, stirring, to cook off the flour. Remove from heat. Add milk a little at a time and keep stirring until smooth before adding any more. Return to a low heat and keep stirring until the sauce thickens - Roux

I always melt butter, add flour, then whisk in the milk slowly, and then keep whisking all the way through. Perfect everytime

one spoon of butter. melt.
one spoon of flour. whisk into the melted butter.
cook for 2 mins. whisk a bit more.

add milk bit by bit to required thickness. whisk all the time.

voila. perfect sauce.

you need to whisk/stir more than you think. this might just show my pathetic lack of strength but i always feel as if my arm is about to fall off by the end.

You can always use the cheats way?
(Heat milk and then add cornfour to thicken)

I never make a white sauce with a roux anymore, I blame my Nan.

using the above methods but use Carrs sauce flour