A super easy bread sauce recipe, flavoured with onion, bay leaves, cloves, and nutmeg.
The perfect partner to turkey or chicken, it's one of those sauces you just can't stop eating...straight off the spoon!
This easy creamy bread sauce recipe is 100 times tastier than those packet bread sauce mixes you can buy from the supermarket!
Once you've tried this homemade version you will never go back, and best of all it takes only 20 minutes to make!
👩🍳 Don't forget to check out my homemade cranberry sauce recipe too!
Jump to:
✔️ Why should you try it?
- Quick and easy to make.
- Much tastier than shop bought.
- Can be made ahead and frozen.
- The perfect accompaniment to roast turkey at Christmas.
🥘 Ingredients
- Breadcrumbs- white bread left out overnight to go stale, and then pulsed into breadcrumbs in a food processor.
- Milk - use full-fat whole milk for a rich and creamy bread sauce.
- Onion - peeled and left whole for infusing the milk.
- Cloves - push the cloves into the onion.
- Bay Leaves - 2 bay leaves are needed for the recipe.
- Nutmeg - freshly grated is best.
- Salt and Pepper - for seasoning.
- Double Cream - for extra creaminess.
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
- Infuse the milk. Pour the milk into a saucepan, stud the onion with the cloves, and place into the saucepan along with the bay leaves. Bring the milk to a boil then immediately reduce the heat to very low and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
- Sieve the onion and bay leaves out of the milk (use a slotted spoon for this), then place back on a low heat and add the breadcrumbs, freshly grated nutmeg, and salt and pepper.
- Stir to combine then finish with the double cream before serving!
💭 Top tips
- White bread is best for bread sauce. Seeded and wholemeal bread do not work as well.
- If you've forgotten to leave your bread out overinght, just switch the oven on to low, lay the bread slices on a baking tray, and place them in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Allow the bread to cool before pulsing into breadcrumbs.
🍴 Serving suggestions
Traditionally bread sauce is served with roast turkey for Christmas dinner, alongside roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, sausage meat stuffing, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, honey roast parsnips and carrots, devils on horseback, and gravy.
It's good with roast chicken and slow cooker lamb too!
📖 Variations
- Reduce the calories by using semi-skimmed milk and omitting the double cream.
- For a more indulgent version, add 1 tablespoon of butter with the double cream.
- Prefer a chunkier sauce? Tear the bread into pieces rather than pulsing it into breadcrumbs in a food processor.
🥡 Storage
Store: The bread sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in the fridge. When you are ready to serve it, pop it back in a saucepan and heat it up gently. You may need to thin it out with a little milk.
Freeze: Bread sauce can also be frozen. Make as directed, allow to cool then place in a freezer-safe container. Defrost in the fridge then heat up as above.
❓ FAQs
Bread sauce should be the texture and consistency of thick porridge. It's a sauce that is generally spooned onto plates rather than poured.
A British classic, it's traditionally served alongside roast turkey at Christmas, but is equally good with roast chicken and other meat. Its origins can be traced back to the middle ages when cooks needed a way to use up leftover bread and found it could be used to thicken stews, soups, and sauces.
Traditional British bread sauce is made with milk, butter or cream, and bread crumbs, and typically flavoured with onion, cloves, and bay leaf.
😋Related recipes
More Christmas recipes from the Effortless Foodie kitchen!
Tried this recipe? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating in the comments!
Recipe
Easy Bread Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g Breadcrumbs made from stale white bread (see tips)
- 500 ml Whole Milk
- 1 Onion peeled and kept whole
- 6 Cloves
- 2 Bay Leaves
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Pepper
- 2 tablespoon Double Cream
Instructions
- The day before making the bread sauce, leave the slices of white bread out on the kitchen surface to dry out. If you forget to do this, don't panic! See my top tips for a quick way of getting stale bread.
- Tear up the bread into large pieces and pulse in a food processor until you get breadcrumbs. I like to keep my breadcrumbs quite chunky.
- Stud the peeled whole onion with the cloves and place in a saucepan with the bay leaves and milk. Bring the milk to a boil then reduce the heat to very low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Sieve out the onion and bay leaves (use a slotted spoon for this) then add the breadcrumbs, nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
- Stir in the double cream just before serving.
Notes
- White bread is best for bread sauce. Seeded and wholemeal bread do not work as well.
- If you've forgotten to leave your bread out overinght, just switch the oven on to low, lay the bread slices on a baking tray and place in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Allow the bread to cool before pulsing into breadcrumbs.
- Reduce the calories by using semi skimmed milk and omitting the double cream.
- For a more indulgent sauce, add 1 tablespoon of butter with the double cream.
- Prefer chunkier bread sauce? Tear the bread into pieces rather than pulsing into breadcrumbs in a food processor.
Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter to stay up to date with what's cooking in the Effortless Foodie kitchen! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too!
Claudia Lamascolo
I love that nutmeg additions it must smell heavenly also!
Sherry Ronning
I have been looking for a special recipe to make on Thanksgiving. Thanks to you, I have finally found this Easy Bread Sauce recipe that my whole family is going to love. I like that this recipe can be made a couple of days ahead of time and then re-warmed up when ready to serve. I can't wait to surprise my family with this awesome sauce!!
Shadi Hasanzadenemati
Love how easy this recipe is. It’s perfect for our family!
Caroline
My mum always made bread sauce at Christmas time but it wasn't one of the recipes I picked up from her, for some reason. Love that hint of nutmeg.
Alison
Super easy, and WAY better than store bought! I'll never get store bought bread sauce again!
Anthea
I want to try this recipe but I notice it has whole milk in the recipe - can I make it with soya or coconut milk?
Beth Sachs
Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend making this with coconut or soya milk.