So this is it, the dip I’ve dreamed of: Easy, quick and soooo delicious … a new weekday favorite. Poor lactose-intolerant people!
This cheese dip is basically a béchamel sauce with the addition of sharp cheddar. I used orange-colored sharp cheddar in this recipe, but feel free to experiment with any other cheese. Sharp ones are best but I’ve even tried this dip with mozzarella, when I ran out of sharp cheese. Mozzarella is per se rather bland, but the dip didn’t seem to care. It required a little more salt and cayenne pepper and I added a pinch of paprika, for a nice color.
This dip simply is the perfect accompaniment for fluffy Pretzel Bites or Tortilla Chips, or really anything else. Super Bowl Sunday can come, we are prepared!
Recipe for quick cheese dip
Ingredients for the cheese dip.
For this cheese dip you will only need 4 ingredients: butter, flour, milk and cheese. Add some salt and cayenne pepper if you like.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring all the time with a spatula. Whisk in half of the milk (about 1/4 cup) and cook until slightly thickened. Then gradually add the rest of the milk (1/4 cup) and cook until you get a creamy sauce – about 1-3 minutes.
Turn heat to low and stir in the cheese until smooth and all of the cheese is melted. You may add up to two tablespoons more milk if the consistency is rather thick. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, to taste.
Pretzel Bite sitting in a pool of cheese dip. I want that too!
Enjoy immediately with Pretzel Bites, Tortilla Chips or anything else.
If you are looking for a genius Pretzel Bite recipe, you can find it here.
For reheating: You can either reheat the dip in a small bowl in the microwave or you heat it in a small saucepan (you may add a little milk). But I assure you, there won’t be any leftovers ;-)
Enjoy!
We made two different kinds of cheese dips: The easy cheese dip (recipe below) and the cheese dip with bacon and beer.
We still can’t settle on which dip is better: The Quick Cheese dip (in the small bowl, recipe below) or the Cheese Dip with Bacon and Beer in the blue dish. To come to a compromise, we simply made both ;-)
Update: I’ve posted another cheesy dip – a super creamy Buffalo chicken dip.
This is the creamiest and easiest cheese dip ever. You will only need 4 ingredients (butter, flour, milk and cheese) and it's ready in 5 minutes.
Ingredients
- 3/4 tablespoon (10 g) unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon (10 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) milk plus up to 2 tablespoons (30 ml) additional
- 3/4 cup (85 g) grated cheese (I used sharp, orange-colored, cheddar)
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon fine salt and cayenne pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring all the time with a spatula.
- Whisk in half of the milk (about 1/4 cup) and cook until slightly thickened. Then gradually add the rest of the milk (1/4 cup) and cook until you get a creamy sauce – about 1-3 minutes.
- Turn heat to low and stir in the cheese until smooth and all of the cheese is melted. You may add up to two tablespoons more milk if the consistency is rather thick.
- Season with salt and cayenne pepper, to taste.
- Enjoy immediately with pretzel bites (recipe on the blog), tortilla chips or anything else.
Notes
For reheating: You can either reheat the dip in a small bowl in the microwave or you heat it in a small saucepan (you may add a little milk).
Did you follow this recipe? You could share your result here. All you need to do is take a picture with your smartphone and send it to [email protected]
Great recipe, but what on earth is a taco chip?
I mean Tortilla chips ;-)
There’s a typo in the article:
For this cheese dip you will need only 4 ingredient: butter, four, milk and cheese. Add some salt and cayenne pepper if you like
I was confused for a second.
;-)
Thanks so much for pointing that out. I corrected the typo!! Hope you tried the cheese dip though. It’s soooo easy and phenomenal.
Tried this, but used almond milk and margarine in place of butter and normal milk. I also used garlic salt instead of regular salt, and I even put in some cream cheese. It was very delicious, and very quick and easy. 10/10.
Very cool ;-) Great that it also works with margarine and almond milk – I’ve never tried that!!
Can leftovers be put in the fridge and reheated later or will that not turn out well?
Hi Aidan, I’ve never tried putting leftovers in the fridge since there have never been any hehe. Sorry. But I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work. The only think that could possibly happen is that the dip gets a little lumpy. You could try whisking it thouroughly whith a fine whisk when you reheated it, in case it’s a little lumpy.
No need to feel sorry for the lactose intolerant here!😀
Sharp cheddar is naturally lactose free, as is any other hard cheese (such as parmesan, Romano, etc…). And butter has a very, very miniscule amount of lactose (although, if you are severely sensitive you may want to use margarine or other substitute just to be on the safe side).
So the only substitution needed is the milk, just use Lactaid (or other brand lactose free milk), goat milk, etc…
I was very happy to find your recipe since I have been trying make a good cheese sauce that my lactose intolerant 3yo daughter can eat and the whole family can enjoy. So many recipes out there use Velveeta, Mozzarella, cream cheese, or other softer (low melting-point) cheeses, all of which have larger amounts of lactose. Not to mention, their lack of a full flavor that is needed in a good cheese sauce, in my opinion. 😉
Can’t wait to give this one a go.😆
That is great to hear!! I hope you will try it. I love this cheese sauce. The only tricky part is to keep it lump free – but an immersion blender works really nice in case the sauce contains lumps ;-))
Looks amazingly delicious. Can I use mozzarella cheese?
Yes, you can use any cheese you like. Mozzarella works perfectly fine – you may need to add a pinch of salt.
Ursula:
Is there any way to solidify the mixture after heating. I would like to coat several foods with this recipe of cheese. Then I can refrigerate or freeze for later enjoyment.
Hi Walter, If the cheese dip cools, it gets kind of solid (pudding-like). You can coat food with the cheese sauce and simply reheat everything (oven, microwave) when needed. I hope that answers your question.
Amazing, my pretzels didnt come with cheese, Now they do, wish i could show you a picture. My first time trying something like this, I’m so happy.
Sounds great! Mine do too haha 😊 Thanks so much for giving the recipy a try!!
I made this tonight to dip pretzels in. I only used half the flour and it turned out great! Dips like this that call for flour are usually too bland for me and are overwhelming in the flour taste… so I always have to use waaaaay less flour. I added some cracked black pepper, chili pepper flakes, a pinch of salt, and a tiny squirt of yellow mustard. Thanks for the recipe – I’ll use it again!
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks so much for your feedback. Good to know that it also works fine with less flour. I sometimes add black pepper and chili flakes too ;-))) I just made it the other day because we ran out of salsa/hummus/anything dippable and I really wanted tortilla chips with some kind of dip. Usually, I do have all ingredients at home, so this was a perfect match. And: Please keep adapting recipes, I always do: It’s simply more fun hehe.
Good recipe. How long can we store it in an airr tight container in fridge?
Hi Amol,
Well, since it’s stirred together in 5 minutes, I always make it and eat it right away. But I would guess, it’ll keep well in an airtight container for 1 or 2 days. Cheers!
Very awesome. I’m on a very low sodium diet. I used your base with fresh mozzarella and zero sodium Rotella. Very happy to get a cheese dip back in my life. Thank you
Hi Allen,
Happy to hear that these 2 kinds of cheese work for you. Cheese dip needs to be in everyone’s life :))) I’ve made this cheese dip again this week – it’s simply the best and easiest cheese dip I know. I love it with grated cheddar though (but I guess this doesn’t really work out with your low sodium diet). Thanks so much for leaving a comment! Ursula