Easy Baked Mac and Cheese (small Batch)

Easy Baked Mac and Cheese. I don't know about you, but Mac and Cheese has to be one of my all time favorite pasta dishes. It is something I never get tired of eating and I am always on the lookout for a new recipe to try.
This recipe I am sharing with you today is an adaptation for Easy Baked Mac and Cheese which I found in a cookbook of mine entitled, One Pan Wonders, by Cook's Country.
This is one of the few cookery books I chose to bring over from the UK that I had collected through the years, for several reasons.
One, you cannot fault the recipes from Cook's Country, and two, I love one pan cooking. The least amount of dishes that I have to wash at the end of the day the better! Yes folks, I can be that lazy at times!

I did cut the original recipe for this mac and cheese down by half, so that it only serves two people, but I will add that they are generous servings.
You could easily use this recipe to feed three if you chose to serve it as a side dish.
One thing which really appealed to me was that it all cooked in the one dish. A casserole dish. No need to precook the macaroni.
No need to precook a cheese sauce. You don't even have to heat up any water!
It is as simple to make as stirring things together in a casserole dish and baking them in the oven. Dry macaroni, cream and water are stirred together in a buttered casserole dish. You can also use evaporated milk in the place of cream.
If you use the low fat/no fat evaporated milk, this cuts the fat and calories down by a fair bit.

This gets covered tightly with some aluminum foil and banged into a fairly hot oven, where it starts to cook. If there is any faffing about at all, it is having to stir it periodically.
I broke it down into 10 minute increments, and stirred it every ten minutes, which worked very well.

At the end of that time your macaroni should be perfectly cooked, al dente. Now all you do it to stir in a bit of additional water and some cheese.
Two kinds of cheese are used, a strong cheddar (grated) and a process or American cheese (grated.) The two combine to make a rich cheese sauce along with the additional water.

Its an amazingly creamy and delicious sauce. You would not think these few simple ingredients could form such a great cheese sauce, but they do.
It has to be chemistry because it totally works!

Toasted Panko bread crumbs are sprinkled on top of the dish to serve. I toasted mine in a skillet over medium high heat along with a small touch of butter, which added a brilliant richness.
All in all this made for one very delicious meal, served with some sliced ripe tomatoes. If there is one thing I love more than mac and cheese, it is mac and cheese with some tomatoes.
The two things just go together very well. Very well indeed. Like peas and carrots.
Mac and cheese was never anything my mom ever made when I was growing up. I am not sure why. I suppose she thought cheese was a bit on the expensive side, I don't know.
She mixed macaroni together with ground beef and onion and tomatoes sometimes. I cannot remember her ever adding cheese to that mixture.
In any case, I didn't like it. Probably because I was never overly fond of ground meat mixed with things. Mom was a very thrifty cook and she never bought great quality ground beef.
It always had loads of fat in it and gristle and sometimes even bits of bone. You could guarantee if any of those things were in it, it landed on my plate.
As soon as it touched my teeth or mouth that was it, I couldn't eat it. I had and have a very strong gag reflex and it just ruined it for me.
I can't even hold a piece of paper between my teeth without gagging, so you can imagine how much fun it is for me to go to a Dentist. Not fun at all!
In any case I had hoped I would out grow that problem and I have to a degree, but I still can't stand to eat cheap ground meat, and would prefer my pasta without any meat at all. Call me fussy if you want to, but it is what it is!

In any case, if you are looking for a quick and easy mac and cheese supper for two, you have just struck gold! This one spells winner.
Easy to make and incredibly cheese and delicious, it went down a real treat! I will probably have the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. Yes, I am that person!

Easy Baked Mac and Cheese (small batch)

Yield: 2Author: Marie RaynerPrep time: 2 MinCook time: 38 MinTotal time: 40 MinNo need to boil water and cook the macaroni for this rich and delicious mac and cheese dish. Everything cooks right in the casserole dish for a quick and easy supper dish for two.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (170g) elbow macaroni
1 1/4 cups (300ml) water
6 fluid ounces of cream
1/4 tsp dry mustard
salt and black pepper to taste
3/4 cup (90g) grated sharp cheddar cheese (3 ounces)
3/4 cup (98g) grated processed cheese (3 ounces)
1/4 cup (30g) panko bread crumbs, toasted

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375*F/ 190*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 5 by 7 inch casserole dish really well, or one equivalent to the size. (3 cup) Spread the macaroni out in the dish in an even layer.
Whisk together the cream, 1 cup (240ml) of the water and the mustard powder. Season with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper. Pour into the baking dish and stir everything gently together to combine. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
Bake in the preheated oven for thirty minutes, stirring it every ten minutes or so. By the end of that time all of the liquid should be absorbed. Remove from the oven and stir thoroughly, scraping up from the bottom and sides of the dish.
Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup (60ml) water and the cheeses. Recover with the foil and return to the oven. Bake for a further 5 to 8 minutes until the macaroni is tender and the cheese has melted.
Remove from the oven, stir to coat the pasta evenly with the cheese. Let cool for ten minutes. Sprinkle with the toasted panko bread crumbs and serve.

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