Baked Mac and Cheese
Throw out that packet Mac and Cheese NOW!
This baked Mac and Cheese will warm your heart. The cheesy sauce is glorious, the top has a beautiful crunchy, buttery topping.
Serve it as a side at your next BBQ or for dinner with a garden salad.
You can change this up by adding shredded chicken, bacon or dried chillies.
Watch this video on how to make a Bechamel Sauce
Baked Mac and Cheese
A crunchy buttery top with an insanely cheesy sauce
Ingredients
Macaroni
- 250 g Macaroni elbow pasta
- 15 g Butter
Topping
- 40 g Panko breadcrumbs
- 30 g Butter
- ¼ tsp Salt
Bechamel Sauce
- 60 g Butter
- 50 g Plain flour
- 750 ml Milk
- 200 g Cheddar Cheese shredded
- 100 g Mozzarella Cheese shredded
- ¾ tsp Salt
Seasonings
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- ½ tsp Onion powder
- ½ tsp Mustard pweder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
Macaroni
- Boil the Macaroni in a large pot of water according to the packet instructions less 1 minute
- Once cooked, drain the pasta, add to a baking dish and add the butter, toss until melted, set aside
Topping
- Mix all ingredients together and set aside
Sauce
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat then add the flour, stiring constantly, (1 min)
- Slowly pour in the milk, stiring (orwhisking) constantly, once a paste starts to form, pour in more milk.
- Cook until the mixture is the consitancy of thickened cream.
- Remove from heat and add seasoning stir, and add cheese
Baking Mac and Cheese
- Pour the bechamel sauce in to the dish with the Macaroni
- Top with the Breadcrumbs
- Bake for 25 mins
Notes
- Make sure you wash or soak the items you used to make the sauce – once it has cooled – it sticks like glue!
- This recipe calls for Panko breadcrumbs, they are chunkier than normal breadcrumbs and give the topping extra crunch, you can use normal breadcrumbs if you can’t find Panko. (Check out the Asian section in your supermarket.