Fall officially made its presence known this weekend. From a sleety, windy, freezing Halloween to being forced to pull out my winter jacket, everything screamed “hibernate”. I was up for the challenge – it’s been a while since the weather forced me inside for an entire weekend, so I decided I’d make this a practice run for the imminent, months-long winter isolation.
The first thing one must do when faced with such a challenge is to watch egregious amounts of TV, read and sleep. This doesn’t leave much time for an elaborate dinner, but that is fine because the only thing suitable to prepare in such a scenario is bubbly, warm, comfort foody macaroni and cheese.
If you have an hour, you can get this pulled together and get right back to binge watching/reading/sleeping in no time.
And thanks to daylight savings time, I ultimately gained back the time it took to make this, so it was almost like it appeared out of nowhere, it a time that no longer exists….
Adapted from Solid Gold Eats
- 2 tbsp butter + 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp plain bread crumbs
- 2 3/4 cups whole milk
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups freshly grated gruyere cheese
- 1 1/2 cups freshly grated white cheddar cheese
- 1/2 box elbow macaroni
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 2 quart baking dish with butter. Make the topping by melting 2 tablespoons of butter in a microwaveable dish, then toss in the breadcrumbs and stir. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat the whole milk over medium heat until warm.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a medium sized saucepan. Add the flour and whisk, cooking for 3-4 minutes or until the roux is a golden yellow color. Add the warm milk and whisk until thick and bubbly. Whisk in salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper and shredded cheeses until cheeses have melted through. Set the sauce aside.
Set a large pot of water on the stove over high heat to boil for the macaroni. Drop the macaroni and cook about 6 minutes. Drain, then stir the macaroni into the cheese sauce.
Pour the macaroni and cheese into the greased baking dish. Top with the breadcrumbs and bake for 30 minutes or until brown and bubbly.
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