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