What can I use instead of Aunt Penny’s White Sauce? The best ready-made white sauce substitutes for Aunt Penny’s White Sauce include Chef Béchamel Sauce and Knorr Béchamel Classic Sauce. In addition, the best alternatives include ricotta cheese, heavy cream, or yogurt. Lastly, consider making homemade white sauce.
Aunty Penny’s White Sauce is a ready-made white sauce that you can use whenever a recipe calls for a béchamel or cream sauce. White sauce – one of the five “mother sauces” of French cuisine – consists of butter and flour roux, milk, and a touch of seasoning.
Consider the following substitutes if you can’t find Aunty Penny’s White Sauce in the store.
The Best Aunt Penny’s White Sauce Substitutes
Chef Béchamel Sauce
Chef Béchamel Sauce is a close, ready-made substitute to Aunty Penny’s White Sauce.
Chef Béchamel Sauce is a top-selling brand of Parmalat. It is a ready-to-use UHT white sauce packed with flavor and made using natural ingredients.
Like Aunty Penny’s White Sauce, you can use Chef Béchamel Sauce in classic lasagna, other pasta dishes, vegetable gratins, pies, and more.
Once open, keep the Chef Béchamel Sauce refrigerated and consume it within 3 to 4 days.
Knorr Béchamel Classic Sauce
Another go-to ready-made white sauce alternative to Aunty Penny’s White Sauce is Knorr Béchamel Classic Sauce.
It is a classic French béchamel sauce perfect for pasta, chicken à la King, vegetables, fish, ham, and more.
In a saucepan, whisk the béchamel powder into 2 cups (500 ml) milk until well blended. Continuously whisk the sauce while bringing it to a boil over medium-high heat.
Lower the heat and let the béchamel simmer for 3 minutes, whisking frequently.
Sacla Vegan White Sauce
Salcla Vegan White Sauce is a delicious vegan-friendly alternative to Aunty Penny’s White Sauce.
A Salcla Vegan White Sauce can be the star of Italian dishes. The brand cleverly replaced milk with soya and flour with soya protein to create a gluten-free, vegan white sauce without compromising the flavor.
You can refrigerate Salcla Vegan White Sauce for three days after opening.
Ricotta Cheese
You can replace Aunty Penny’s White Sauce with ricotta cheese. You can quickly transform ricotta cheese into a silky-smooth white sauce for pasta.
The key to using ricotta cheese as a béchamel substitute is fresh, thick whole milk ricotta. The skim milk variety is thin and watery.
In a large bowl, whisk ricotta cheese, salt, and pepper. Then, add a splash of water and blend the ricotta cheese until creamy. You can adjust the quantity of water to reach the desired consistency.
Soft cheeses like cottage cheese, buffalo mozzarella, mascarpone, and quark make lovely white sauces.
Heavy Cream
Heavy cream is another excellent Aunty Penny’s White Sauce substitute.
Cream offers a slightly richer and more neutral flavor than white sauce. However, it lends an equally soft and velvety texture while binding other flavors just as effectively.
You can serve heavy cream over pasta, fish fillets, chicken, veggies, and more. Like béchamel, you can use heavy cream as a base or binder sauce in pasta, lasagna, and casseroles.
For a thicker consistency, boil the heavy cream or add flour, cornstarch, or gelatin.
Yogurt
It may seem a little strange that yogurt’s acidic flavor can emulate Aunty Penny’s White Sauce’s delicate flavor. However, yogurt is a lighter, healthier alternative, perfect for lasagna or baked pasta.
You can also use yogurt to thicken other sauces. However, it lacks the fat of cream and milk. So, you’ll need to add starch to keep the yogurt from curdling.
Whisk in a tablespoon of flour or two teaspoons of corn starch for one cup of yogurt before mixing it with hot liquids. Whisk the yogurt as it simmers and thickens, and ensure never to let it boil.
Homemade White Sauce
Fortunately, mastering the art of a basic white sauce takes a little time. However, it places a world of delicious recipes at your fingertips.
Start by making a roux using roughly equal parts butter and flour. Then, season the roux with salt and pepper and stir in the milk until it thickens to your desired consistency.
The trick to avoiding a lumpy white sauce is to keep stirring! In addition, avoid pouring all the milk in at once; instead, add gradual amounts while continuously stirring.
Lastly, ensure you control the heat to prevent scorching.
Note: The amount of milk required and cooking time depends on what the recipe calls for, ranging from thick and almost spreadable to thin and pourable.