Skinny Creamy Mac and Cheese - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

What does adding more milk to mac and cheese do? ›

Sauce too thick? Stir in a splash of milk and mix until the sauce has loosened up. (This is also a great trick for reheating mac and cheese - if you're microwaving leftovers and the sauce seems to have dried up, stir a splash of milk or half-and-half into the pasta to bring the sauce back to life!)

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.

What Is the Best Cheese for 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 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.

Evaporated milk is a highly concentrated source of milk protein micelles—bundles of proteins that can act as powerful emulsifying agents—which help to keep the sauce creamy and smooth.

The result will be a bowl of mac and cheese that is so rich and creamy that you may even forget that it came from a box. If you're worried about leaving out the milk entirely, then you can simply lessen the amount of milk the box calls for and up the amount of butter, which should give you a similar result.

Just be careful to add the sour cream slowly to get the right texture, and consider taste differences. Sour cream can be a good macaroni and cheese milk substitute, but it will obviously be more sour and perhaps not the most kid-friendly mac and cheese you can make.

What can you add to mac and cheese to make it thicker? ›

Blend in one tablespoon of all-purpose flour, stir well and cook for a few minutes until the butter–flour mixture looks smooth and the flour has absorbed the liquid. Add black pepper, nutmeg or any other spices you would like (optional). Slowly stir in one cup of milk. Use your whisk to gently beat out any lumps.

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.

Always add the cheese off the heat. Grate it in advance, add it a bit at a time, whisking until it dissolves, then add more. Don'tget impatient and dump it all in at once. Adding cheese while the pan is on the heat tightens the proteins, which will make lumps in your sauce.

For all methods, to keep the mac and cheese from drying out, stir 1 tablespoon milk into each 1 cup mac and cheese before reheating. Before you reheat mac and cheese, you want to make sure it's stored properly.

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.

Add 1 tablespoon of milk per cup of mac and cheese and mix to incorprate as much as possible. *If you'd like to add more creaminess and flavor, substitute half-and-half or cream. 3. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place in the oven at 350°F for 20-30 minutes, or until heated through.

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.