The Best Creamy Homemade Mac and Cheese Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What keeps mac and cheese moist? ›

It's all about the sauce. Put plenty of milk in that sauce and even add a little sour cream. The pasta will absorb some of the liquid, but not all of it and your sauce will be moist and cheesy.

The #1 secret to creamy reheated mac and cheese

"Stir in about 2 Tbs. of milk per 1 cup of mac and cheese and reheat," he says. The milk loosens up the pasta and helps create the creamy sauce as it's reheating. Heavy cream works well in this case too and adds an extra touch of richness to the mac and cheese.

Sharp cheddar is the overwhelming popular choice, but for extra-creamy results, we think medium cheddar is even better. Other delicious options include Gruyère, smoked Gouda, and Monterey Jack.

Heavy cream can be used in mac&cheese. It will be richer and creamier. It's actually a very good substitute for regular milk. I've often used evaporated milk in mac&cheese which makes it better than milk.

But the secret to baked mac and cheese is this crispy top, which hides a creamy, soft bottom. That extra layer of cheese helps hold in the moisture when it bakes in the oven. Just be sure not to bake it too long so the macaroni doesn't dry out! Bake just until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

The use of milk makes the pasta itself creamier, and reserving it keeps any starch washed off the pasta in the milk, which is then used to make the sauce. Some milk is absorbed into the pasta as it cooks, but you need to reserve enough to make your sauce.

Heavy cream is, in my opinion, the best milk substitute for kraft mac and cheese. It's thicker and more luxurious than milk, so I actually think this makes a better end result! just add the heavy whipping cream in the same way you would add the milk.

If your mac and cheese tastes bland, it's either because it's under-seasoned, you didn't use flavorful cheese, or you didn't use enough cheese. Try adding a little more salt first, because that might fix it.

What kind of milk is best for mac and cheese? ›

The remaining ingredients are simple: butter and flour (which makes the sauce thicken), milk, spices, salt, and pepper. For the milk, I prefer whole milk since it makes a creamier sauce, but I've used reduced fat milk plenty of times without complaint.

Great mac n' cheese needs one or more cheeses that melt well, and one or more cheeses that bring the flavor. The best melters include monterey jack, fontina, baby swiss, asiago, provolone, mozzarella, and alpine-style. Cheeses for flavor: cheddar, havarti, smoked gouda, gorgonzola, feta and any other of your favorites.

As mac and cheese sits in the fridge, the cheese mixture sets — that turns this once-creamy dish solid. To make your mac and cheese velvety again, First for Women Food Editor Charles Grayauskie suggests combining it with a bit of milk. “Stir in about 2 Tbs. of milk per 1 cup of mac and cheese and reheat,” he says.

Low and slow is the key

To achieve a velvety, hom*ogenous cheese sauce, you must slowly heat our cheese. The curdles in a cheese sauce come as a result of overheating the proteins in the cheese, which causes them to separate from the fat and water content, per The Washington Post.

The sauce was thicker, creamier, and shinier. It behaved like actual cheese, with tiny little cheese pulls between the elbow noodles. I may never add milk—or any other liquid dairy for that matter—ever again.

Cheese sauce can be kept from congealing by applying enough heat to keep it semi-liquid but not enough to scorch it or dry it out. A candle or an electric heat source can be used for this. A fondue pot is one type of vessel commonly used for the process.