Christmas Bread sauce – freezable

Creamy, gently flavoured with delicious spices and oh so warming this Christmas Bread Sauce will steal the show on Christmas day. There are four different spices in this Christmas Bread Sauce and 29 individual pieces of spice in total. Those along with the garlic and onion means that it’s full of gentle flavour. But it gets better, make it now, and pop it in the freezer and that’s another thing sorted for Christmas. Make your life easier and with just 5 minutes prep, pop this delicious treat in the freezer tonight.

Bread Sauce

To make this Christmas Bread Sauce, you first heat milk with lots of things which impart their flavour. The milk then sits and cools and the flavour deepens. You remove everything which was adding flavour and then add the bread, butter and some seasoning and that it’s done. It’s that simple.

Removing the flavourings is the only slightly faffy bit. To make it seriously easy just pour the milk into a jug over a sieve or use a slotted spoon to scoop out all the flavourings.

If you have only ever had packet bread sauce, oh my, are you are missing out? Homemade Christmas Bread Sauce just bares no resemblance to what you can buy in a packet. So if you think you don’t do bread sauce, why not try the real deal and you’ll be converted. Served with turkey or other poultry, it brings it’s wonderful bay, clove, spiced warmth to your plate.

Bread Sauce

Christmas Bread Sauce

This bread sauce can be made three days ahead of Christmas Day and sit in the fridge until it’s needed.

• Author: Holly
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
• Yield: 6

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 15 cloves
• 10 peppercorns
• 3 bay leaves
• 570ml/1 pint milk
• A pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
• 100g/3 ½ oz white bread with no crusts, chopped into roughly 1 cm/1/2” cubes
• 55g/2oz butter
• Salt and pepper

A sieve and jug, or a slotted spoon

Instructions

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the onion, garlic, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaves, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Heat the milk and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 2 hours to allow the flavours to transfer to the milk.
2. Pour through a sieve into a jug to remove all the flavouring. Pour the milk back into the saucepan and add the bread. Cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. The bread should mainly disappear into the milk forming a thick mixture.
3. If freezing, cool and pour into a plastic container or food plastic bag and freeze, otherwise jump to step 5.
4. Remove from the freezer on Christmas Eve and let defrost for 8 hours at room temperature.
   To reheat place in a saucepan and stir well.
5. Add the butter and gently reheat stirring in the butter as it melts.