Baked Mac and Cheese Recipe

If you’re looking for the ultimate comfort food, you’ve got to make a big old batch of my baked mac and cheese recipe—creamy, delicious, amazing—and did I mention the fried bread crumbs on top? They are everything.

Ingredients and Prep

First off, let’s grate the cheese. I’m using sharp cheddar and Gruyère. If you want to use your favorite cheese, go ahead. I personally like using a nice creamy Gouda in here; red cheddar is delicious if you can find it.

Cook the Pasta

Our prep work is all done. Now it’s time to make some pasta. You can’t make pasta without water, so fill a large pot up—might be a minute. Put that water over heat and let’s add a big old spoonful of salt. I’m making classic elbows, but shells are a really nice choice as well. Bring to a boil over high heat, add your pasta, give it a stir, and cook to instructions.

Make the Cheese Sauce

Once that’s done, it’s time to make that delicious, delicious mac and cheese sauce. To do that, we’re going to heat three cups of whole milk in a pot. This is going to go over medium heat, and you’re gonna scald the milk—almost to a boil—because when you use cold milk, that does not make the best sauce.

Build the Roux

Grab a really big pan or even a pot; this is where the magic happens. Time to melt one half of a cup (113 g) of butter in a big pan. Let’s get this nice and melty. If you want to be a little adventurous, you could totally brown the butter in the pan—that’ll add a little bit more depth of flavor, but it’s totally up to you.

Okay, butter’s melted. Let’s add in a third of a cup of all-purpose flour, sprinkle it in. We can reduce the heat to medium-low, and we’re gonna cook the flour for two to three minutes. This is the roux, or the base of our white sauce that we’re gonna make and fill with cheese. Just like you have a choice of making the butter into browned butter by cooking it down, you could take this white sauce and keep cooking it so the roux turns a golden color, toasting the flour and giving you more depth of flavor. Once again, it’s up to you, though.

Add the Milk

Okay, this is a gorgeous golden color; it has a wonderful nutty flavor. It’s time to add in the milk. Drizzle it in slowly while you whisk and blow away that steam—it’s really hot. Gently whisk this so you don’t make a mess, and we’re gonna cook it for two to three minutes until the sauce starts thickening up.

Season and Cheese

My white sauce has thickened up; it’ll continue to thicken a little bit, so don’t go crazy. Let’s take it off heat now, and it’s time to add a bunch of delicious things to it:

• ¾ tsp freshly ground pepper
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp paprika (regular or smoked)
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Now it’s time for our cheese—glorious cheese. Add them in any order you want; don’t spill any on the floor. Keep stirring that in, and last but not least we’re adding in one cup of heavy cream. Mix that in there.

Combine Pasta and Sauce

We cooked our pasta until it was al dente and had a little bit of toothiness left in it. You don’t want to fully cook it so it’s super soft—one, because you’re gonna bake it, and two, because it needs to continue absorbing those delicious juices from the sauce. Gently toss that pasta in your ooey-gooey cheesy sauce.

Assemble the Dish

This is now ready to pop into our baking dish. All that pasta in there—smooth it out.

Fried Bread-Crumb Topping

I have half a cup of panko bread crumbs. If you’re in a hurry, you could just sprinkle them on top, but have you ever had fried breadcrumbs? They are amazing. Melt a little bit of butter—about a tablespoon. Once your butter’s melted, add in those panko crumbs, and we’re just gonna fry them up in the butter until they get a little bit of a golden color. It happens really quickly, so don’t walk away from them.

Look at those golden fried bread crumbs—an extra step that’s definitely worth it. To finish this off, let’s sprinkle about another half cup (or full cup, depending on how you feel) of shredded cheese and a little bit of Parmesan, too. Into the bread crumbs, I’m adding maybe a quarter cup of shredded Parmesan cheese. Now we’re going to top it all just like that. Don’t let any of these bread crumbs go to waste; if they’re sticking at the bottom, it’s because of the butter. Look at that—golden and ready to go into the oven.

Bake

Our amazing baked mac and cheese is ready to go into the oven: 375 °F for about 35 minutes. It’ll be golden, bubbling, and just plain delicious.

Serve

Fresh out of the oven, my mac and cheese was sizzling up a storm—it sounded like a symphony of delight. But it’s cool enough to eat, so we’re gonna take a bite. The fried breadcrumbs are everything with the creaminess; it’s like—oh, it’s just perfect. I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.