Homemade Mac and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese must be my favorite food of all time! Whenever we have a barbecue, I always love the side dishes the most and the homemade mac and cheese is definitely the best of all. I like to order mac and cheese at restaurants and compare to see which is the best, and I used to love some of the restaurant styles the most. But now, I'm all about this recipe. It's super easy, takes only a few minutes longer to make this than the yucky box style, and the kids will love it! If you do the baked version, it will obviously take longer... but worth it!!

I always feel so satisfied when my kids enjoy something that I made. They are getting into the picky stages, and Harper often comes into the kitchen with her nose plugged when I'm cooking, and says, "this food is stinky!"And I know this is just mac and cheese and almost every kid loves it, but Harper is usually even picky about a breadcrumb topping! So luckily she liked this one. And it makes me feel better to feed my girls something homemade rather than corn dogs all the time!

A few things to consider when making homemade mac n cheese:

1. You should use block cheese and shred it instead of buying pre-shredded. The pre-shredded just doesn't melt right and can give your cheese sauce a gritty texture.
2. Use sharp cheddar for a much better flavor. Mild or medium cheddar doesn't end up having a cheesy enough taste. I also use Gruyere in this recipe to deepen the flavor and make it seem fancy :) My mom often uses Pepperjack, and you can definitely use whatever cheeses are your favorite, but the Gruyere and sharp cheddar gives my favorite comfort food mac and cheese flavor.
3. If you bake your mac and cheese with the crumb topping, then undercook your pasta by about one minute so the pasta will stay firm after being baked. No one wants a mushy mac!

Ingredients

• 16 oz large macaroni noodles (Cavatappi noodles are my very favorite, but they can be hard to find. Get them if you can! Penne or other tube pastas work great.)
• 6  T salted butter
• 1/3 C all-purpose flour
• 3 C milk (whole is best
• 1 C heavy cream
• 4 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 C Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 1 1/2 C panko bread crumbs
• 4 T butter, melted
• 1/2 C parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1/4 t paprika
• 1/8 t garlic powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly spray a 13x9 baking pan or large casserole dish and set aside.
2. Boil pasta 1 minute shy of package directions. Drain, then set aside. You can drizzle a small amount of olive oil on your pasta to keep it from sticking. If you are not going to bake the mac n cheese with the crumb topping, then cook according to package directions
3. Combine the two cheeses in a bowl. Set aside
4. In a medium or large pot, melt butter.
5. Over medium heat, whisk in flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
6. Gradually whisk in cold milk and heavy cream until the sauce is smooth and thick. About 2-3 minutes
7. Whisk in 2 cups of cheese until smooth. Whisk in another 2 cups of cheese until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper
8. Stir in drained pasta. Mix until all the noodles are coated in the cheese sauce.
9. Pour the macaroni mixture into prepared baking dish. Top with remaining 2 cups of cheese, and lightly stir the cheese into the noodles so it sinks down in a bit rather than sitting on top.
10. In a small bowl, mix together the panko, butter, parmesan cheese, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper until combined. Sprinkle over the top of the mac n cheese.
11. Bake in the oven for 15 or minutes until bubbly. Finish off with 2 minutes under the broiler to get a nice golden color on your topping. Enjoy!

LBJ’s Champion Chocolate Chip Cookie

My little brother got married! Yay! He got married in Texas in June, and then last night we had the Utah Reception. If you know my mom, then you know that she knows how to put on a party! It was so beautiful and we are so grateful for all the wonderful friends and family members that helped to put on such a beautiful event.

My main assignment was the “favors.” The bride and groom had their first date at a cookie place, and they asked that cookies be served at the reception in some way. So they became the favor! I worked on my cookie recipe for a few months and, guys, this is it. The end-all be-all, best ever, champion chocolate chip cookie!!

As I was testing and developing this recipe I was continually frustrated with the consistency of the dough. I read through other blogs of people that referred to themselves as a “cookie master” or “cookie queen,” I tried their recipes, and they all flopped!! Then I finally figured out my main issue: I’m baking in Utah. High altitude. Baking at high altitude IS different, and that’s what’s helped me come up with this recipe.

The next trick was finding the perfect chocolate chip. So I’m a huge fan of Crumbl, Chip, and basically all the trendy cookie places that have grown popular. But I take issue with the milk chocolate chip. I think that the sweetness of the cookie needs to be balanced with a semi-sweet chocolate chip rather than milk chocolate. If milk chocolate is your thing, then go for it. (It just won’t be as good ;)) What I DO like about Crumbl and Chip’s milk chocolate chip cookie is that the chocolate chips are so big! I’ve found that the larger chip makes a much prettier cookie when it is baked. The trouble is: a large semi-sweet chip is hard to find. But we found a huge bag of Guittard large semi-sweets at Orson Gygi! I have now been converted to Guittard over the regular big Costco bag of Nestle chips that I’ve been buying all along. It was pretty surprising how much better the Guittard cookie was over the Nestle. And I had other people help taste all of the cookies and they agreed!! So now you know I try not force my opinions on you, because other people helped me!

And finally, in regard to the appearance of the cookie, I have two more tips. 1: a convection oven is key. The convection cookies were waaaay prettier. But I don’t have a convection oven, so I used my aunt’s house. And that won’t always be convenient so luckily the cookies in the regular oven tasted just as good, just weren’t quite so beautiful. The picture above shows convection cookies. And 2: the dough should be chilled. If you hate chilling your cookie dough and can’t stand to wait, then skip it. This is mostly about appearance (the cookie will spread more and not stay as thick), but will affect your cooking time as well so watch them closely when baking!

Ingredients

• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 C (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature *if you use unsalted butter, then increase your salt to 1 teaspoon
• 1 C light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 T vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Combine flour, baking soda, salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until combined. Scrape the paddle and sides of bowl as necessary.
3. Add eggs and vanilla to butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the eggs are combined into the mixture, but do not over mix.
4. Pour in half of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until just combined.
5. Add in the rest of the flour, and beat until just combined. Do not over-mix.
6. Remove bowl from stand mixer. Fold in chocolate chips. You do not want to beat the chocolate chips in the stand mixer because the chips will break apart.
7. Scoop dough with a 1/2  C measuring cup, then pull the dough ball apart to make 1/4 C size dough balls. Yes, you can use a 1/4 C scoop, but I like how the cookie turns out when it has the rough edge from being pulled apart. Do not round the dough into a ball. Slightly press in the sides of the dough to make the dough balls tall rather than round. This helps the cookie to stay thick.
8. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes. For the wedding, I made the dough beforehand and put it in the freezer for almost two weeks before baking and they turned out perfectly. I just let the dough defrost in the fridge for a day before baking, so they stayed chilled but not frozen.
9. Preheat convection oven 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Place 6 cookie dough balls on a sheet pan lined with a Silpat and bake for 12-14 minutes. With a convection oven, you shouldn't need to rotate the pan, but I still did because I was really babysitting these cookies. Normally I wouldn't, but this was for a wedding!
**in a non convection oven, preheat to 325 and bake for 16 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.
10. Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. And of course, they are best enjoyed warm with a glass of milk! This recipe makes 18 large cookies.

Let me know if you loved this recipe!

**FYI: Kyle told me that I should not make this recipe public. He thinks it should be my little secret! So consider yourselves lucky! And if you make them, let people know where you got this recipe!