PIMP MY RECIPE
It's a Mac & Cheese off Y'all
The Challenge/Recipe: Southern Style Baked Mac & Cheese
Author: Basil and Bubbly
Found: Pinterest
Type of Dish: Side
Cuisine: Southern
Total Time: 50 – 70 minutes
I’d had enough with the cold weather and decided that I would barbeque. Rain or shine, windy or not, I could not be stopped. I would barbeque. Normally, I would do a potato side dish, but I thought the first BBQ of the season I would change it up and try a mac & cheese bake. I wanted something simple that I didn’t have to keep a close eye on while I BBQed in the backyard.
As per always, I checked my many recipe books. But, I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. My go to when I can’t find what I’m looking for is Pinterest (let’s not kid ourselves it’s everyone’s go to) and I was able to find the Southern Style Baked Mac & Cheese by a blog called Basil and Bubbly.
Here is the exact recipe and instructions that I found –
Ingredients:
16 ounces macaroni
â…“ cup butter
â…“ cup flour
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp salt
â…› tsp cayenne pepper
3½ cups 2% milk
8 ounces medium cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, cook for 8 - 9 minutes. Strain and set aside.
In a heavy-bottomed large pot over medium heat, melt the butter.
Sprinkle the flour, white pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper over the melted butter, whisking until smooth.
Stir in the milk ½ cup at a time (feel free to eyeball it ), only adding the next half cup once the previous one has been incorporated entirely.
Add all of the medium cheddar cheese and half of the extra sharp cheddar cheese, stir into the milk/flour sauce until melted. Stir in the macaroni.
Pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Top with the remaining extra sharp cheddar cheese.
Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes.
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Now this didn’t start as a Pimp My Recipe feature, but it quickly turned into one when I went to pick up what I needed for the BBQ and the store was out of Macaroni noodles. I’m not quite sure how that happens but I had to find a substitution. I grabbed a bag of Rotini; the al dente time was similar to Macaroni and I thought the little ridges would pick up the cheese well (I was right just as a side note, I know you’re not shocked). Continuing on this journey I realized that they didn’t have a sharp cheddar available. So, instead I used a bag of cheddar as the “sharp” option and a mix of cheddar and mozzarella as the “medium” option.
While I prepped everything else for the BBQ I boiled the water and cooked the Rotini. Al dente is meant to be 10 minutes I let the pasta cook for 7 as I knew it would still cook during the bake.
I set the oven to 375 F, try to remember to do this at the beginning so the oven can pre-heat. It’s always unbelievably annoying when you’re ready to put something in the oven and realize you forgot to do that half an hour ago.
To make the process go a little quicker I decided to stir together my dry ingredients, ahead of time. While looking through my bag of spices I realized that what I thought was cayenne was actually just another bag of paprika. Oops.
I ended up using ¼ tsp of chili powder and ¼ tsp of paprika. I used the intended amount of flour, but the concept of white pepper kind of freaked me out so I used the intended amount but with the traditional black pepper. I’ve never been great at measuring, I’m more of an eye ball it kind of girl and I won’t lie to you I got super irritated when trying to measure out the salt because the little spout was being an ass hole. So, I eye balled it. And since I do this on a regular I can tell you it was just under ½ tsp.
When I originally looked at the recipe online, I noticed the amount of salt and decided that unsalted butter was the way to go. I also added a little bit more butter, because well butter is great. If you’re looking at the butter package, go just a little past the â…“ cup line and you should be good.
When the pasta was done, I drained it in the colander and let it sit while I began melting the butter. When it was almost completely melted I tossed in the dry mix and used a spatula (which I use for everything) to bring it all together. Now, I did use the intended amount of 2% milk, but I did not add it in ½ a cup at a time. Because to be blunt I don’t have time for that, I was doing 16 million things at once. I added 1 cup in and stirred, then 2 cups and stirred. Then proceeded to stop the dogs from eating the piece of butter I just elbowed off the counter. And then finally added the ½ cup left of milk and stirred. It was just fine. Make sure you’re really getting to the bottom of the pot when you’re stirring so nothing sticks and burns.
I then added 1 cup of my “medium” shredded cheese and because I really think cheese is important in a mac & cheese bake I added a full 1 cup of my “sharp” shredded cheese as well. I mixed this all together well and let this sit for a second while I finished cutting up something else for the BBQ. Once I was pretty sure this was good and melted I gave it a good stir, I added the pasta and mixed everything together. It took me a couple minutes to decide the best baking vessel to put my cheesy mix into. I decided on a large casserole dish with a lid.
Now, it says in the title of the recipe that it’s a bake. I immediately had the thought that I would bake this and then the pasta would get stuck and then we’d be mac & cheese-less. Sounds horrible right? I couldn’t let that happen so, as a precaution I took a stick of butter and rubbed it all over the edges and creases of the casserole dish.
I poured the mix in the casserole dish, make sure I got ALL the cheesy goodness and pasta in. I then sprinkled a thin layer of my “sharp” shredded cheese over the top. Just enough so it was covered but not chunky.
I put the dish in with the lid on for 20 minutes, I then took the lid off and put it back in for 15 minutes. I’d already started BBQing at this point, so I had my wonderful assistant also known as Megan check on the mac & cheese. It was still not crispy enough on the top, so we turned down the heat to 350 F and put it back in lid off for 7 minutes.
This turned out perfectly! It was crunchy on the top, and gooey and cheesy on the inside. I would say you could lesson the salt even just a little bit more than I did but it turned out really well.
This 100% will become a staple at my BBQs, and I plan to keep all my changes.
Below are my changes, I apologize now that they aren’t as “official” as you may used to. But, trust me it’s worth it.
Ingredients:
2 Cups and a bit Rotini pasta
â…“ cup and a bit butter (set aside a little extra butter to use inside the casserole dish)
â…“ cup flour
½ tsp black pepper
A little less than ½ tsp salt
¼ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp paprika
3½ cups 2% milk
1 cup shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese mix
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 F (don’t forget, or it’s a pain)
In a large pot, boil salted water and add your Rotini. Allow to boil for 7 minutes and then strain. Set aside while you do the other thousand things you’re doing.
In the same large pot (the less dishes the better), begin to melt your butter.
Mix together, flour, pepper, chili powder, paprika, and salt. Make sure these are combined.
Once the butter is melted but not all the way, throw in your dry mix. Use a spatula to bring the butter and your mix together.
Stir in your milk. Separate this at least a little. But do this however it best suits your timeline. Just make sure you keep stirring.
Add the one cup of shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese and then one cup of the just cheddar shredded cheese. Let this melt, but make sure you’re stirring every little bit of the way. get to the bottom with your spatula so nothing sticks and burns (cause that would be real sad).
Stir in the pasta. Make sure the pasta and your sauce combine. Let this sit while you use some left-over butter to line your casserole dish or whichever “vessel” you chose.
Pour your pasta and sauce into the casserole dish, once you’ve gotten everything in sprinkle some of the shredded cheddar cheese over the top making a thin layer.
Put the lid on the casserole dish and place this is in the oven for 20 minutes.
Once your 20-minute timer goes off, take out the dish remove the lid and put it back in for 22 minutes.
Let this sit for a couple of minutes and then get a strong spoon and serve.
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Get cooking babes!
BATTLE OF THE BANANA BREAD
​QUICK FACTS:
Original Recipe: Banana Bread (SimplyRecipes.com)
I don’t know about you but banana bread has always been one of the baking staples in my house - whenever the bananas in our house would go brown, my mom would throw them in the freezer until we had a banana bread craving. It’s probably my favourite dessert bread, to eat and bake! So now I’m the one throwing the overripe bananas in the freezer, and recently opened the freezer to discover I had built up quite the collection… So good thing Rachel and I were in the mood for banana bread!
I’ve never been the person who follows the recipe exactly, I’m always making adjustments or improvising, which I know breaks from the myth that baking has to be exact etc, etc. But I’ve always found that as long as you keep the proportions of the ingredients approximately the same, things tend to turn out pretty well! Plus when it comes to things like spices, spicing things up doesn’t tend to mess with the chemistry. (Heh)
I don’t really have a go-to banana bread recipe, but one that I’ve made a bunch (pun intended) is this one from SimplyRecipes, which makes the claim that it’s been the most popular banana bread recipe on the site for over 10 years. I can see why: it’s a really good basic recipe, though one that I admit I’ve never followed exactly. So for the purposes of Pimp My Recipe, I thought I’d do something wild and actually follow the recipe exactly for one loaf, and then make my own adjustments to it for the second.
THE ORIGINAL RECIPE
Ingredients:
- 2-3 overripe bananas
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/12 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350oF/175oC and butter or line a loaf pan
- Mash the bananas til smooth, then stir in the melted butter.
- Add the baking soda and salt, then the sugar, egg and vanilla.
- Finally, mix in the flour until combined.
- Pour into the buttered or lined loaf pan and bake for 50-60mins.
- Let it rest in the pan til cool to the touch, then remove from pan to fully cool.
PIMP MY RECIPE:
Ingredients:
- 3 overripe bananas (thawed from frozen)
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350oF/175oC and line loaf pan with aluminum foil.
- Mash the bananas til smooth, then stir in the melted butter.
- Add the baking soda and salt, then both sugars, egg, vanilla and sour cream.
- Stir in cinnamon, then mix in the flour until combined.
- Pour into the lined loaf pan and bake for 60mins.
- Let it rest in the pan til cool to the touch, then remove from pan to fully cool.
Like I said, the original recipe is a solid one, especially if you’re looking for a reliable, classic banana bread. And it bakes beautifully - it definitely wins in terms of looks: it came out perfectly golden and even had a bit of a sheen to it. Texture-wise, it was a perfectly dense banana bread and has a crunchy top that just adds something lovely. Unfortunately, we found that in my following the recipe exactly, it turned out very sweet - sweeter than we like! Usually I cut down the sugar to 1/2 cup, but if you like your banana bread sweet you can keep it at 3/4 cup, or if you like it REALLY sweet, you can up it to 1 cup like the recipe suggests.
For my spin on it, I kept it pretty simple, making a couple changes I typically do, and trying out a couple new ones. Now, if you’re looking to perfect a recipe I wouldn’t recommend making a bunch of changes all at once: tweak one or two things each batch and stick to what works as you go along, until you have something that is perfect for you! In this case, I wasn’t set on perfecting this recipe, I just wanted to play around and see what I got. And what I got wasn’t bad! It definitely wasn’t as pretty as the original, it baked darker and with less of a sheen - I’m assuming that has to do with adding the brown sugar, cinnamon and sour cream! The sour cream added a bit of extra density to the loaf, and the cinnamon a bit of spice, while the brown sugar was intended to add a slightly caramelized taste, though I don’t know that that was actually successful... The next time I make this recipe I think I’ll try without the sour cream to see if that brings out more of the brown sugar flavour and brings back that traditional banana bread sheen on the outer crust.
I think the true test of the success of a recipe is whether people are eating it, and in this case it seems like Pimp My Recipe came out on top - I got home the next day to find that more of the pimped out loaf had been eaten, while it looked like the original loaf had only been touched for our taste test! All in all, both loaves are yummy, it really just comes down to your own personal preference - but it’s definitely satisfying when your instincts in switching up a recipe end up making something people want to eat!
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- Megan