The Secret Ingredient That Adds A Pop Of Color To Béchamel Sauce

Béchamel has a royal history, it's iconically layered in lasagna, whisked into soufflés, and wonderfully folded into mac and cheese. It's smooth, creamy, and has a beautifully balanced flavor. While its taste might be perfect, the white color of béchamel can be a little unappealing. If you're looking for a way to liven up that bland-looking sauce, then achiote seeds are the answer. 

Ground annatto — also known as annatto powder — is made from achiote seeds taken from the shrub Bixa Orellana found in Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. It's sold as both annatto and achiote, and the seeds can be ground down to form a paste, oil, or spice. It's actually used in many cuisines where the tree is grown, such as Puerto Rican cooking, to give dishes a rich color. In a similar fashion, this seed can also blast the ghostly shades of your béchamel with a much-needed orange vibrancy. So embrace the vibrant hues, and transform your béchamel into a visually enticing masterpiece.

To infuse your béchamel with a rosy glimmer, you only need to steep achiote seeds in milk before adding it to the heated butter and flour mix. To ensure the sauce is smooth, you must strain out the seeds before adding the milk to the roux. The seeds can be super hard, so it's best to avoid a crunchy pepper surprise. You can use ground annatto or achiote paste if achiote seeds are hard to find. Be aware of how strong a paste tastes, so add a minuscule amount to change the color.

As long as you only use a little bit, annatto will bring a sweet, peppery, and slightly nutty aroma to sauce and cheese, so rest at ease that it will not overpower the milky notes in the béchamel. It may make you feel less apprehensive to know that cheddar cheese also uses achiote to give it that yellow-orange color. As well as some vegan eggs, margarine, and ice creams. You will probably be surprised to learn how often it's used in a wide variety of processed foods. 

Why stop at just béchamel? Two other French mother sauces may also improve with a little color elevation. Hollandaise and velouté are both relatively light and could easily be transformed into a more enticing sauce with a little sprinkle of crushed achiote. Achiote paste is also commonly added to pastry dough, empanadas, or tamales, to be specific, to give them a slightly golden shade. Get inventive and try pigs in blankets with a touch of achiote paste.

It's important to mention that while achiote has several antioxidant properties, there are some noted allergic reactions to it in small or large quantities. However, there needs to be greater scientific studies conducted to decipher what part of achiote causes this. So starting with making a béchamel may be a safer way to proceed if it's your first time using achiote. Achiote is a simple ingredient that will brighten up any white sauce with a hint of orange. Adding it is a breeze, so dive right in!