We love macaroni and cheese in all forms at our house: made completely on the stovetop, baked perfectly in the oven with crumbs of browned butter and most of all made out of a boxed mix. Orange or blue boxes have been my companions since my childhood. These stories symbolised basic, reassuring dishes which I could cook for myself. Same to all the years I had as a dumb grown up trying to survive in society. Rarely a week before the birth of our daughter her father and I would completely relish indulging ourselves in Trader Joe's mac and cheese with hot dog and frozen peas addition.
Now my daughter's the one who eats boxed macaroni and cheese like it's some kind of separate food group. I wanted to feel that I had a little more say in what gets inputted into it, so I came up with my own. We are happy with the outcome and I am sure you will be the same. For the "box" version, you only need three ingredients, and for actual preparation, you just add milk and/or butter, just like in the real thing.
It Starts With Dry Cheese Powder
This is essentially the neon orange paste that people who use boxed macaroni and cheese probably already know as the cheese component. Online purchases of good-quality brands will have real cheese as the first item on the ingredients' list. As it turned out, buying in bulk tends to be cheaper so I ended up ordering a 1-pound tub of Hoosier Hill Farms cheddar cheese powder at $23.69 with shipping included. If you wish an original colored brand of Cheddar Cheese Powder, try this Anthony's Cheddar Cheese Powder. I liked its taste, however, some starches in the product prepared for me had formed lumps that did not disintegrate well.
Tapioca flour, therefore, is the secret weapon.
What I learned of other brands that included in their cheese sauce mix helped me to deduce a creamy sauce. The only experiment my daughter did was sampling boxed macaroni and cheese so I kept all the used boxes and scanned through the list of ingredients. Out of all the mac and cheeses that were tested none of the Trader Joe's Shells and White Cheddar and Annie's Shells & Real Aged Cheddar had any ingredients that didn't pass the 'no-no' list except for a modified starch as a thickener, which could be either cornstarch or tapioca flour.
Such kinds of starches set almost instantly – on reaching the boiling point and produce a sauce that is generally thicker with more body. The interesting thing about tapioca flour is that it sort of becomes somewhat stringy, and thus approximates cheese pull.
Tapioca flour is easy enough to locate in the gluten-free aisle of the grocery store when you are browsing the baking section. I get Bob's Red Mill brand. Perhaps it is seldom used in households' daily cooking, however the good news is that saffron can be stored for a long time in a cool and dark place. Miraculously, tapioca flour is the main component in our simple Brazilian cheese bread recipe which means buying a bag is totally justified.
It is optional to add the tapioca flour for your homemade mac and cheese mix if you or your people prefer a runnier macaroni and cheese.
The Best Pasta for the Job
Loose crinkling packing peanuts, or plain old cheapo macaroni, overwhelmingly seems the most appropriate here. And that indeed will work, but your result won't be quite like the mix because the pasta in those boxes is generally much more delicate and cooks faster. Al dente – even the most basic elbow macaroni is much more robust than the pasta found in the mac and cheese boxes – so take note of that with expectations.
I found that the best pasta options were shelved with the small pastas meant for soups: that is where you'll see tiny shells. I did mini-penne for them, and that meals were well received. The above pastas are usually retailing at a price of a dollar or two more per box than economy brands but we found the additional enjoyment sustainable.
Instead of semolina pasta as it is usually preferred in recipes, whole-wheat macaroni was not quite as good. So, it became a very thirsty sponge for the liquid, that, to make the sauce, we had to add additional milk, which watered down the cheese. There was also a sensation imbalance that wilted from the slimmer pasta and to the heartier, wheaty texture. Despite this we opted to remain using the traditional enriched wheat pasta and make up for the whole grain during the remainder of the day.
More butter is used in order to create Creamier Mac and Cheese.
Similar to most mac and cheese mixes, my homemade mac and cheese mix requires incorporation of a range of butter. So after years of mac and cheese immersion I have realized that those box brands that profess to be richest and creamiest only require the person to add more butter- even up to 4 tablespoons. That's half a stick, which is a lot for 2 1/2 servings of a fruit that is high in fat. It also less often enhances the natural taste of cheese as most people anticipate it would. While 1 tablespoon is enough for us, we do use whole milk most often .
Out of Milk or Butter? Try These Subs
Sometimes we're out of milk. It happens. I tried to make this recipe with a milieu of dairy and even non-dairy options to see what worked, and a diverse array of stuff lurking in the fridge made for really pleasing macaroni and cheese.
- Replace the butter with sub cream cheese contained with milk (but heat the butter gently before adding the milk to whipped up in order to avoid forming lumps).
- Replace the milk with any plain non-dairy milk
- Replace the milk and butter with sour cream (but do not use it when boiling)
- Replace milk and butter with yogurt – plain yogurt, but avoid boiling it
- Trade milk for a light pilsner beer in a college kid staple
For ease, try copying the following recipe on a card and put in some place where everyone in the house knows where to look when they need to prepare it, without asking you the process.
On the same note, I it is quite conversational to combine one batch of powder with salt and the optional tapioca at one time as I wait for the water come to boil. However, if you'd like to do a large, bulk mix, that is quite doable – I would suggest that you whisk the components. You will be using 3 tablespoons of the dry cheese mix per one batch.
The amounts given are for 1 serving which equal 1 box of macaroni (6 to 7.25 ounces) and cheese.
Ingredients
- Dry macaroni shells or other small pasta; about 1 1/2 cups or 6oz./ 170g when cooked.
- 3 tablespoons (20 grams) cheddar cheese powder, orange/white
- 30 ml plain water, For the filling 80g ginkgo nuts, 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 teaspoon tapioca starch, optionally
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons milk, any kind
- 1 – 2 tablespoons butter (if you use salted butter, you should reduce the indicated salt)
Method
Boil the water:
Boil on high heat. Place a medium saucepan 6 cups water and put it on the stove. Add the lid and let the liquids boil.
Make the cheese sauce mix:
At the same time in another small bowl, physically combine the cheese powder, tapioca starch (if used) and salt with a help of the fork or a small whisk. Set aside.
Cook the pasta:
When the water is at full rolling boil add the pasta. Stir once. After it boils remove the cooker and let the water return to a robust boil that foams at the sides but not spilling over. Cook it until the pasta is as soft as preferred, usually takes about 8 minutes.
Simple Tip!
This is because most of the dry pasta normally bought in stores will require more time to cook than the pasta that accompanies store-bought macaroni and cheese.
Pour rinse the pasta over a colander. Do not rinse out the cloth or knock out the excess water from it.
Cook the sauce, then combine with the pasta and serve:
Lower the heat to moderate then place the hot, empty pot on the heat source, back on the stove. Add the butter and melt. Finally fold in the milk and all the cheese powder mixture. Blend until the majority of the lumps dissolved, leaving the sauce pasty and thickening a little. Pour the hot drained pasta into the sautéd vegetables, mix until well coated. Serve immediately.
Macaroni and cheese should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you find the soup too thick or thickness of your cream causes this same effect for you, then when reheating it in the microwave add a little more water. I prefer to take it straight from the fridge.
