Combination Mac & Cheese (J. Folsom, 14 December 2022 version)
This recipe evolved as my response to several issues. Deb likes the creamy version of Mac & Cheese, recipes based on a cheese sauce thickened with flour (or even corn starch), like the consistency of the stuff in the blue and dayglo orange boxes. I grew up on a custard style, which has more substance (portions stand up on their own, they don’t flood the plate in a thick puddle.)
This means my preferred recipe is baked; the mix will go into the oven where it cooks (350 F) until set, really until it’s bubbling all over and there’s a nice golden cheese crust. But I found that baking Mac & Cheese in a large casserole dish was an endeavor, taking too long when people were waiting for dinner. So I moved to baking individual portions in large muffin tins, an approach that turned out splendidly.
But along the way I also realized a pure custard can be dry and tough. Especially in a large casserole, the edges seemed over-done before the center browned, and the finished product was far from creamy, sometimes stiff and dry. Somewhere along our paths of catered events, Deb and I attended a party at the home of our daughter’s friends where the caterer served several different Mac & Cheese dishes, a menu that proved very popular with the guests. All of their renditions were creamy-style, just different levels of spiciness or differing add-ins. Regardless, it was clear people enjoyed a creamy texture. So I modified my custard-based recipe (which I had taken from the Cheese volume of a Time-Life series), keeping the muffin-man, but without sacrificing the creaminess – i.e. combining the custard-style and creamy-style techniques. This involved making a creamy base using flour, some of the milk, and some of the cheese. The warm base then cools when I add the remaining milk/cream, such that I’m able to incorporate the eggs without their curdling. This gives structure, but with a creamy interior, similar to the goal of those lava cakes so popular on cruise ships.
Because I butter the tins, the mixture has plenty of oil from the cheese, and I cook it until there’s a light crust around the sides and bottoms, the portions turn out easily for serving (after cooling about 5 minutes, and with a bit of coaxing). But don’t skip the precaution of coating tins with butter or spray oil before filling. Guaranteed that if the hot portions for service turn out nicely, the leftover portions will just fall out of the tin once the pan cools.
Leftovers: Extra portions, once cooled and more firm, can be vacuum-packed for freezing. They make for a brilliant reheated Mac & Cheese lunch or dinner. To reheat so portions are similar to when first served, bake in an over, covered, until heated thoroughly, then uncover and let the crust crisp some. For faster service, cook in the microwave on a safe plate until thoroughly heated, then break open and finish heating – like you might treat baked potatoes. They resuscitate so well that I’m guessing you could make a full meal in advance, store in the frig and then serve the following day as though freshly prepared.
INGREDIENTS:
PASTA – I tend to use DeCecco, often left-over partial boxes, including wagon wheels (rotelle), fusilli, farfalli, and penne, even large elbow if you can find it. I don’t like pasta that cooks to mush in the custard. For my normal 12 portions, I use at least a pound of pasta, but this is also a chance to use up partial boxes or bags, so it’s often a bit more.
CHEESE– I lean on sharp cheddar, but typically mix several cheeses, often cleaning out those partial hunks that hang out in the frig. Typically, a recipe will include cheddar (Tillamook yellow or Vermont-style white we get at CostCo), Grated Cheeses (partial packs), especially the 4-cheese Mexican mixes and the Trader Joe’s Swiss Gruyere, and Parmesan (whatever is already ground from previous adventures). At times I’ve had some Jarlsberg, which I find particularly nice in this mixture. And if you have some left over Mozzarella, toss that in. I’ve never incorporated Cream Cheese, though I see in social media that some people add Philadelphia to almost everything, with seeming success.
- Butter – half a stick
- Eggs – 2
- Milk & Cream – 2 cups each
- Flour AP – Pantry (1/4 cup)
- Salt – Pantry ( ½ – 1 t)
- Mustard powder – Pantry (1-2 t, depending on how much you want to tame the sweetness of the cream and cheeses)
Prep Cheeses: Grate and combine Cheeses – at least 1 lb, but I go overboard with cheese, whatever I have available – probably at least 2 lbs.
Creamy Base: Combine the 2 c. milk and 1/4 c flour in a saucepan and cook until the flour thickens the mix. Dissolve the remaining cheese in this mix, then cool with 2 c. cream (or half & half). Whip the eggs, mustard, and salt into the cooled mix. You are going to need enough of this mix to cover the pasta-cheese that has been packed into individual portions.
Prep Pasta: Boil pasta in salted water; I use a nice-sized Colander Pot (Pasta Pot). When the pasta is softened and heated, but not even as far as al dente, pull out the colander to let the pasta drain. Dump the water from the stock pot and return the pasta. There, I melt 2-4 T butter (“measure with your heart” they say) into the hot, drained pasta, and then mix in the rest of the grated cheese. (I don’t save any to scatter on top of the muffins, and I don’t use any crumbs like Panko)
Assemble Pasta Portions: You’ll have created a gooey mass that needs to be packed into the individual wells of extra-large muffin tins, or whatever you have that will make healthy personal servings. Somehow, I usually end up with 12 portions, a full tin. Individual soufflé dishes, the larger Pyrex ramekins, or the early ‘Grab-it’s would all work, I think. Fill the wells fully, pushing pasta in so there are no large cavities. I don’t mean squash it down as a mass, but make certain each well has a full complement of pasta and cheese – which means I gently compress it. Sometimes I seem to have generated more pasta than the wells will hold, so I’ll either leave some pasta pushing up from the muffins, or fill a small gratin side dish. I’ve even refrigerated the extra and used it a few days later. Resist the temptation to pile on too much; pasta riding proud from the custard becomes rock hard and inedible when baked.
Set the tin or ramekins in a larger tray (or on some rack covered with an ample spread of aluminum foil to catch run-off). Do this before adding the liquid, because now you are going to fill each well to the brim with the creamy custard mix, which means I guarantee some will flow over and out as it’s cooking. The tray or foil will save you from a mess to clean later, even perhaps from a small, smokey oven fire.
I have, once or twice, run out of liquid, so I’ve learned to partially fill all of the molds first, then top them off. If it looks as though I may run out, I’ll whip an egg into some added milk or cream and use that to top off each portion.
Bake: It takes a while, probably 25-30 minutes at least, in a 350 F oven. I check doneness with a ready-read digital thermometer. Since we are cooking an egg custard, I want the temp to hit at least 185 F. By this point, the mac & cheese muffins should be bubbling and have formed a nice, light crust around the shell, with a rich top crust. Don’t leave them in the oven too long, but you can let them go to develop more crustiness if wished.
Alternatives: My cryptic notes indicate that in March of 2017, I made an extra-large batch with 1 lb Jarlsberg and 1.5 lbs Tillamook sharp, plus a cup of grated Parmesan, That version had 2 lb of DeCecco wagon wheels, 1 stick of butter, 6 c total milk and cream, ½ cup flour, 2 t salt, 3 jumbo eggs, and 1 t mustard. I cooked the flour in the butter, then combined milk until smooth. I mixed a ½ stick (4T) butter into the pasta, and used the rest to butter the molds.
Another note from December, 2016, records using 1 ½ lbs pasta wheels, 2 lb cheese, 3 c milk and ½ c cream, 2 t salt, 2 eggs, ¼ cup butter, ¼ cup flour, with a dash of pepper, cayenne, and dry mustard.
So it seems clear there is a lot of tolerance for changing proportions.
Link to this Page: https://botanyincontext.com/combination-mac-cheese/