Pimp My Recipe: Southern Baked Mac & Cheese

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

⅓ cup butter

⅓ cup flour

½ tsp white pepper

½ tsp salt

⅛ 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 ⅓ 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

⅓ cup and a bit butter (set aside a little extra butter to use inside the casserole dish)

⅓ 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.

Get cooking babes!

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