How to Make Mac and Cheese, simple Recipe

Super creamy and gloriously cheesy, this classic baked mac and cheese boast a golden bubbling lid with ooey-gooey goodness underneath. This recipe for the Best Baked Mac & Cheese Ever is super creamy – not dry like some homemade mac and cheese can get. It’s cheesy. Oh yes. Very cheesy. It’s rich, gooey, with a brown and bubbling top and a gloriously creamy interior. And, yeah – in my humble opinion, it’s the best-baked mac and cheese recipe EVER. Seriously.

Ingredients to make Mac and Cheese:

Pasta: First, you pick your pasta. Elbow macaroni is a classic choice, of course, but shells, penne, or rotini are delicious too.
Cheese sauce: You make your cheese sauce by first making a roux – cooking flour, seasonings, and butter together. Then, drizzle in the milk. The flour thickens the milk into a glorious béchamel sauce – a classic French sauce made from butter, flour, and milk. And then … remove from heat and add the cheese. Some people like to top their baked mac and cheese with breadcrumbs, but for this recipe, I love how it forms a brown and bubbling top in the oven without bread crumbs. Feel free to add if you prefer! Make it your own!

Method:

How to make a roux for mac and cheese
A roux is simply a mixture of fat (butter here) and flour, usually in equal measures, which is cooked together in order to remove the raw, floury flavor. For macaroni and cheese, you make a fairly light roux by cooking it for about three minutes. Then, milk is added to the roux to make the béchamel (or white) sauce.

1. First, start by melting the butter.
2. Melting butter for the roux base of the best-baked mac and cheese recipe.
3. Then add the flour and seasonings and …
4. Making the roux for the best-baked macaroni and cheese recipe ever
5. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon in a figure-8 motion, for three minutes. This
6. one looks a bit darker than a classic roux might because of the smoked paprika.
7. Cooking the roux for the best-baked macaroni and cheese recipe ever
8. Then, to make your white sauce (or béchamel), add the milk slowly, whisking the entire time, and cook until bubbly and thick.
9. Pouring the milk into the pan for the best-baked macaroni and cheeseAaaand then add your cheese for your glorious macaroni and cheese situation.
10. Adding cheese to the sauce for the best-baked macaroni and cheese recipe ever
11. Gloriously cheesy sauce for the best-baked macaroni and cheese recipe ever
12. There’s your base for the best-baked mac and cheese recipe ever!