Easy, Creamy, Lump-Free Sauces and Soups

Do you have trouble making roux based sauces and soups without lumps?

Then this may be for you!

In German recipes, something called “Mehlbutter”, which literally translates into “flourbutter”, has shown up more and more recently.  And it works!

So what is it?

It’s a nifty way to get your soups and sauces smooth and creamy, without lumps (!) and without having to do a roux (melting the butter, adding the flour, letting the flour cook out,  whisking in the liquid, etc.) first.

And it’s really simple, too!

Mix and equal amount of flour and softened butter, divide it into balls (or form a sausage and wrap in plastic wrap, then once frozen/chilled, cut slices) and either keep in the refrigerator, or, in the freezer.

 

 

Then whenever you need to thicken a sauce, take one or more of your flourbutter balls/slices out of the fridge/freezer and add to your soup and sauce.  Start with a small amount and see how much it thickens - you can always add more!

It will slowly melt into your liquid, you give it a quick whisk and voila, thickened without lumps! Yes, really - NO lumps!  I know it sounds like it will just cook little balls of flour, but really it won’t - try it!

 

Dairy-free: This also works with room temperature ghee and earth balance buttery spread. If using Ghee, the resulting mass is a little softer than butter, but it still works just fine in the soups and sauces. I put mine into ice cube trays, freeze them, pop them out and place them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.

 

 

 

 

Gluten-free: Incidentally, this also works with a variety of gluten-free flour mixes, even though not all are created equal and you may have to play around with it a little. So start with a test batch of 1 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. of gluten-free flour mix, mash them together, roll them in a ball and then test them in a soup or sauce.

 

 

If you are satisfied with the thickening power and texture, go ahead and make a larger batch and freeze for future use!

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