How to make extra creamy macaroni and cheese with butter, flour, milk, and cheeses. Or read on to see our tips for making it.

Like many, my favorite food growing up was macaroni and cheese. I would take it any way I could get it — out of a box or made from scratch by Mom.

It’s one of the first things I learned to make as a child. Mounds of cheese melted into a velvety, creamy sauce and tossed with pasta. It’s heavenly. Below, you’ll notice we share a bunch of tips from our experiences in our kitchen. With only about 15 minutes of hands-on time this is perfect for a weekday. How to Make the Best Macaroni and Cheese One of my favorite parts of the last few weeks was testing, learning, and eating macaroni and cheese.

Not a bad couple of weeks, right? After each try, we got a little closer to our favorite recipe and how to make it the best — every time. One note. There are two popular ways to make mac and cheese. The first uses a combination of butter and flour to make what’s called a “roux.” Milk is added and whisked into the butter and flour. Starches from the flour swell and thicken the milk and we’re left with a thick, creamy, glossy sauce. The second is custard-based and uses egg yolks to thicken the sauce.

For this recipe, we went with the first option (it’s how our Moms make it and, in our opinion, a little easier). There are definitely two camps. For our easy recipe, you will need butter, flour, milk, and cheese. That’s all you need to make our creamy macaroni and cheese. Here are a few tips so you can make it best — It’s the little things that make a big difference in the end. The Pasta – Shape and Cooking It We’re traditionalists when it comes to mac and cheese.

We choose elbow macaroni and try to find a brand that adds little grooves to the sides of the pasta. The sauce sticks better. Other pasta like penne, cavatelli or spiral shapes works well. It’s important to undercook the pasta before tossing with the cheesy sauce. Whether you enjoy the mac and cheese as stovetop pasta or baked pasta, the pasta will continue to cook in the hot sauce.

By undercooking slightly, you remove the risk of mushy pasta. We cook pasta 1 to 2 minutes under what the pasta package calls for. The Milk We use what we have in the fridge — that’s most likely 2% reduced fat milk. Whole milk works wonders, too. In the past, we’ve used 1% and even skim milk, but they were never as creamy.

It still tastes great, but you do lose some richness. The milk is added to our “roux” or butter-flour paste. There’s a lot of talk about whether to use hot or cold milk when making macaroni and cheese. Julia Child says hot milk — we’re not usually in the camp of disagreeing with Julia. With that said, there are quite a few arguments out there that pushes for cold milk. The theory on both sides arereally to prevent lumps in the final sauce. We’ve made the sauce both ways and haven’t been able to find a winner.

So, here’s what we’ve concluded: use warm milk and, more importantly, while adding the milk to the butter-flour mixture, add slowly and constantly whisk. Here’s another! The Cheese There’s no room for mild cheeses, here. Our standby is sharp white cheddar cheese. It’s flavorful and melts beautifully. Depending on the cheese you buy, you risk graininess as they melt.

Martha Stewart says yellowand extra sharp cheddars can become grainy — another win for sharp white cheddar cheese. You could just stick with one cheese, but we love adding a little extra punch. Pecorino-Romano or Romano cheese works wonders for this. (Romano is the American and Canadian term for Pecorino-Romano cheese). Another common cheese used is Gruyere — we love it, but it’s expensive, so we usually skip it.

One more note about cheese: If you can, grate the cheese yourself. Store-bought grated cheeses are drier (and a little more expensive). They don’t seem to melt as well as cheese you’ve hand grated. It is more effort, but we think it’s worth it in the end. For more from scratch pasta recipes, check out our, our inspired or this.

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, review it, and don’t forget to tag a photo on Instagram. Happy cooking! Recipe updated, originally posted May 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne. We love most mac and cheese recipes, but this one is at the top of our list.

It’s easy to make, can be served as stovetop mac and cheese or baked and it’s unbelievably cheesy and creamy. When choosing pasta for this, choose something that holds onto sauce nicely — elbow macaroni, shells, or spiral pasta works well. If you can, grate the cheese yourself, store-bought grated cheese does not melt as nicely. We really like using white cheddar cheese for this. It is usually much sharper than yellow cheddar and melts perfectly into the sauce. Many recipes like this call for Gruyere cheese instead of Romano.

Gruyere is lovely in this recipe, so feel free to substitute it for the Romano. You Will Need 1 pound pasta, such as elbow macaroni, shells, or spiral pasta Salt, as needed 5 cups (1180 ml) milk, whole or 2% are best 1/2 cup (115 grams or 1 stick) unsalted butter 1/2 cup (65 grams) all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg 1 pound sharp white cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (4 heaping cups), plus more if baking (about 1/2 cup) 5 ounces (140 grams) Pecorino-Romano cheese, coarsely grated (1 1/2 cups). Directions.

Cook Pasta If baking the macaroni and cheese, heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish or spray with non-stick cooking spray. If making stove-top mac and cheese, move on to the next step.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the pasta then follow package directions, but cook 1 minute less than the package calls for. Drain then rinse pasta with cold water. Make Cheese Sauce Add milk to a large microwave-safe measuring jug and microwave 1 to 3 minutes until warm. Alternatively, you can add milk to a large saucepan over medium heat then heat milk until warm. Melt the butter in a large, high-sided pan over medium heat. When the butter begins to bubble, add the flour.

Cook, whisking constantly 2 to 3 minutes until butter smells fragrant and nutty — the color of the butter-flour mixture will be light brown. While whisking, slowly pour the warm milk into butter and flour mixture.

Continue to cook, whisking constantly until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Remove pan from the heat. Stir in mustard, cayenne, nutmeg, 4 cups of cheddar and all of the Romano cheese.

Stir until the heat from the sauce melts the cheese. Taste for seasoning, and then adjust with additional spices or salt. To Finish If the drained and rinsed pasta will fit into the pan, add it to the cheese sauce.

If the pasta will not fit, add both the pasta and sauce to a separate large bowl and stir well. Serve as stovetop macaroni and cheese or continue to the next step for baked.

Pour into the prepared baking dish. Top with about 1/2 cup of extra cheddar cheese. Bake, uncovered, until bubbling, about 30 minutes. Turn oven to broil then broil 3 to 5 minutes until top has blistered and become lightly browned. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving. Make Ahead: Mac and Cheese can be made 1 day ahead and chilled.

Baked macaroni and cheese also freezes well. Let it cool completely on a rack before freezing, and then wrap it very well with foil (we use two layers). Defrost the frozen macaroni overnight in the refrigerator and then bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour. Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.

We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values. If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on! Find us: @inspiredtaste.

This is the best Mac and Cheese recipe I’ve tried! Consistently good and very easy! I have also made this with my instapot and it is great!

The only difference to make it in the instapot is I make the cheese sauce in the instapot (melt butter on keep warm and then bring to a boil on saute mode). Then I mix the macaroni into the sauce right in the instapotbest thing about this is I can leave it on ‘keep warm low” while I go out and by the time I get back with the kids it is still warm and delicious and ready to eat!

Perfect for making while the littles nap and then enjoying when we get home after an afternoon at the park!

This Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese takes just minutes to prepare, contains two types of cheese, and is creamy, hearty, and delicious! Even though winter and I aren’t the best of friends, it does bring me joy within the kitchen. Sounds strange, but the cold weather gives me the perfect excuse to whip up some delicious and hearty meals. Not that I don’t do this in the warmer months, but with the weather being frigid, I get creative with those foods that warm you right up and make you forget about the cold and snow. Ingredients.

1 (16 ounces) pound cavatappi shells. 1/4 cup unsalted butter. 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. 1/2 teaspoon salt. 1/2 teaspoon pepper. 1 cup milk, any kind (I used 2%). 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream.

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese Instructions. In a large pot, cook noodles in boil water until al dente, per packaged directions. Drain and set aside. In a medium pot, melt butter.

Then whisk in flour, salt, and pepper. Slowly add milk and heavy cream, whisking until combined. Heat mixture until it bubbles over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add in cheeses.

Stir until melted. Add pasta to cheese mixture and toss to combine. Let macaroni and cheese sit for five minutes to thicken. The directions are right below the ingredients in the box towards the bottom of the recipe.

I've included them here for you, just incase. Hope you love this if you try it, and thanks for stopping!

In a large pot, cook noodles in boil water until al dente, per packaged directions. Drain and set aside.

In a medium pot, melt butter. Then whisk in flour, salt, and pepper. Slowly add milk and heavy cream, whisking until combined.

No-cheese Sauce For Mac And Cheese

Heat mixture until it bubbles over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add in cheeses.

Stir until melted. Add pasta to cheese mixture and toss to combine. Let macaroni and cheese sit for five minutes to thicken. Serve with your favorite Marie Callender's pot pie. My son and nephew were asking for Mac and cheese this morning and I didn't have any in the pantry (yes, twice a month I make them KD). I've tried many mac and cheese recipes and didn't love any of them so I starting searching for another recipe to try. I came across your recipe and loved the simplicity of it so I decided to give it a go.

Never before have I found a recipe that I didn't have to tweak in some way or add more flavor. This recipe is absolute perfection and my days of searching for the best mac and cheese recipe are over! I was craving some mac and cheese and normally I use the box stuff since I've rarely had success with home made recipes but this sounded even easy enough for me to try. Mind you, when I went to read the comments to see about how well it did or didn't work, I nearly gave up and moved on - the posts were inundated with 'must try' 'love mac and cheese' 'pinning for later' 'have to try'.that is soo freaking frustrating for those of us who want to know if it's worth making!

FINALLY towards the end of the comments I started seeing actual reviews and it sounded like people were having luck with it so I gave it a shot. I'm soo glad I took that leap of faith - I can bake up a storm but cooking is not my strong suit so if I can make it anyone can lol. I had some crumbled bacon in the freezer so I fried up an onion, added the bacon and tossed in a handful of frozen peas to the cooking noodles and turned it into a main course. I will definitely make this again!