Toasted sourdough bread sauce

Before you start

Why it’s the best bread sauce
Steeped in flavour: Bread sauce is essentially a bowl of cream thickened with bread – but it’s the aromatics that give it that comforting warmth. By heating the cream with onions and garlic (for sweet savouriness), cloves and peppercorns (for a touch of spice) and sage, thyme and bay (for herbaceous brightness) and leaving it to infuse overnight, you’ll be rewarded with a highly flavoured sauce that offers so much more than richness.

Go for sourdough: The type of bread you use in your is key to its flavour. Standard white bread is bland; brown bread is a little too robust and nutty. White sourdough is the perfect in-between, providing plenty of flavour without too much of that wholemeal taste and helping lift the richness with a subtle sour tang.

Toast to success: That sourdough bread is a delicious as is, but to really tease out its flavour you should toast it. Browning the bread gives it greater depth of flavour, which then infuses into the cream as it’s heated through (and softens the breadcrumbs once again).

Added crunch: Save some of those toasted breadcrumbs for when you serve your sauce – these can be scattered over the top. Not only does it look nice, it adds a little bit of crunch for a nice contrast against the creamy sauce below.

Make ahead: You can make the bread sauce up to 3 days in advance, keep it covered in the fridge, then gently reheat with an extra splash of milk.