Lexi’s Mac & Cheese
Ingredients
16 oz elbow macaroni
½ cup flour of your choice
1 ½ cups of milk
2 ½ cups of half and half
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 stick unsalted butter
8 oz cheddar cheese
8 oz colby jack cheese
8 oz gruyere cheese
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp paprika
Directions:
Boil water and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine all cheeses and mix together in a bowl
Heat butter on low-medium heat until melted. Slowly mix in flour while whisking mixture until sand-like.
While continuing to whisk, slowly pour in milk and half and half. Make sure to keep a thick consistency. This will probably be 10-15 minutes of pouring and whisking and will result in a “rue”.
Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente (noodles will cook more in the oven). Drain noodles.
Once all the milk and half and half has been used, remove the rue from heat and add salt, pepper, and paprika.
Add 1 ½ cups of cheese into the rue and mix until melted.
Mix the rue and noodles together.
Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Add half of noodles into pan, cover in half of the cheese. Add the rest of the noodles and cover with the rest of the cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden.
Notes:
Feel free to use any cheese combination that you like! I also love to use Monterey jack.
To make this 2-3 days ahead, do all steps except bake. On the day of, remove from refrigerator 1 hour before baking