- 3 months ago
Epicurious welcomes back Chef David Rose as he takes boxed mac and cheese to the next level. From Kraft mac and cheese waffles to Cheetos Flaming Hot cheese balls, Chef David transforms ordinary boxed mac into elevated cheesy recipes for you to try at home.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00These box mac and cheeses are about to transform into elevated delicious recipes.
00:05My name's Chef David Rose and today I'm going to elevate these box mac and cheeses.
00:11Last year I did the Epicurious Taste Panel with mac and cheese and tasted over 17 box mac and
00:17cheeses. Really got the wheels spinning as far as utilization through seasonings, flavors,
00:22and even emulsifying sauces. We're going to enhance these box mac and cheeses, transform them
00:27into completely new different dishes.
00:32Mac and cheese waffle. It's gooey, it's cheesy, and with this waffle, every part is a crispy edge.
00:39You gotta have a sauce. So we're making a beautiful cheese sauce.
00:46First things first, whole milk, cheese packet. We're going to use just about a tablespoon of this.
00:52Not a lot, more so for the thickening. We're going to take the place of a traditional
00:57roux with your butter and your flour. Kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, a little bit of
01:02white pepper, a little bit of paprika. Great for color and flavor. It's time to add our cheeses.
01:07American cheese is the way to go. It's really great melting cheese. Doing about five slices.
01:13So with the craft powder, it has those emulsifying sauce in there. Without those ingredients,
01:18it breaks apart. It can get oily. The oil can separate from the cheese sauce. It can get grainy.
01:23It can get clumpy. Okay, to this, we're going to add a little bit of parmesan cheese. Nice contrast.
01:28So it's all about balance. Sweet, creamy, salty, nutty, tangy. Keep whisking this right here until
01:36it forms into a bechamel fondue cheese kind of consistency. Let's make the waffle. There's a lot
01:41of cheese, a lot of fat, and it can burn very easily. So medium temperature, that's the move.
01:47Heavily spray on the inside of the waffle. It's released easily when you open it up.
01:54This is beautiful mac and cheese leftover from last night. And it's cold, which is going to make
01:58for a great waffle. And then we close that up. See in about three to five minutes. And you press
02:04that down. You want the griddle to make contact with the mac and cheese all over. So it compresses it
02:09and forms that waffle and gives you those beautiful, browned exterior and edges. One,
02:15two, three. Onto the plate we go. Mm-hmm. You have that creamy cheese sauce. So just a little kind
02:23of drizzle. You get creative, get funky. A little bit of bacon. You get that salty, meaty note. Let's
02:29lighten it up with a nice, herbaceous note. Fresh chives. The leftover mac and cheese waffle,
02:35crispy, cheesy, bacon-y. Ten out of ten. Flaming hot mac and cheese balls. Bold, spicy, crispy exterior
02:47with creamy mac and cheese center. Start with whole milk. Then from there, let's use our packet. What
02:58makes it so craveable? MSG. The MSG in there gives it salt, it gives it umami, and it intensifies the
03:05flavor of the cheese. Xanthan gum is going to add as a thickener and an emulsifier by stabilizing the
03:11sauce as well. The powder is helping emulsify and tightening up the cheese sauce. As we add
03:16pepper jack cheese, we want to keep whisking. So I love using pepper jack cheese and a lot of cheese
03:21sauces because of the melt factor in there. This is the pasta from the box. Already pre-cooked. I didn't
03:28rinse it because I want to use that pasta water as another thickening agent. All the cheese wrapped
03:33around the pasta. You want to get a sheet pan, spread that out, and let it cool. We have removed
03:39our chilled mac and cheese from the fridge, and a couple things happening during that process. One,
03:44the cheese congealed. Two, there's a lot of starch retrogradation going on right now. As it cools,
03:51the starches thicken and actually get even more emulsified as it just hangs. It's going to keep that
03:56ball form and not fall apart. You want to roll it into about a two-inch diameter, about the size of
04:03a golf ball. And there, a three-stage breading process. We have our seasoned flour, just a little
04:08bit of AP flour, salt and pepper. We have our egg wash. And then the last part right here,
04:13I literally pulverized the Flaming Hot Cheetos and combined that with panko in a food processor.
04:19So that way I'm getting the nice flavors from the Flaming Hot Cheetos and also giving it a nice crunch.
04:24We have our frying oil here at about 360, 370 Fahrenheit. Don't want it too hot to go too fast
04:30because even though the mac and cheese is cooked, you want to allow it to reheat.
04:36Super hot, fresh out the oil, adding a little bit of Flaming Hot crumbles on there as well. It's
04:42actually a chili concentrate. The more you eat, the more that heat develops in your mouth. And that's
04:48purposely done to have that craveable flavor when it's combined with that MSG. And then from there,
04:54we dust the cheese powder on there at the Cheetos. Just a little bit.
04:59Flaming Hot Mac and Cheese Balls coming at you. That's a thing of beauty. Kind of brings a tear to my eye.
05:07Nashville Hot Cheesy Fried Chicken with Goodles Cheddar Mac. We're gonna fry our chicken and give
05:12it a little dust at the end. It's gonna be good. We have some unseasoned wings. The breading is where
05:17all the flavor is gonna rely and give it a nice crispiness. Into the AP flour, added some cornstarch
05:23in there. Cornstarch is gonna help with getting rid of a lot of that moisture. The less moisture you
05:27have, the crispier the fried chicken's gonna be. To that, I'm gonna add Cajun seasoning,
05:32buttermilk ranch, dried dressing, nice blend of herb, dill, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder,
05:38white pepper, and black pepper. And onion powder, garlic powder. Next, we're going to add our Goodles
05:45Cheddar Mac and Cheese. It is a great addition to this dry seasoning. The dry cheese that's in there,
05:50and the maitakes. Concentrated, deep umami flavors. That's gonna make this chicken really pop. I like a
05:57nice crispy chicken wing. So I'm gonna do a double breading. Over here, I have hot sauce and I have
06:03buttermilk. The buttermilk is gonna help tenderize. Also give it a nice tang. And the hot sauce, we are
06:08making Nashville hot, so a little bit of heat goes a long way. And then right back into that season
06:15breading. By double breading it like that, it's gonna get these wings nice and dry. Remove that moisture
06:20and also get a nice crispy exterior. We have our Dutch oven right here. It's very important to have the
06:27appropriate oil. Canola, peanut oil, something with a high smoke point. You don't want to overcrowd
06:34the Dutch oven or the cast iron. The more meat you put in there, it's gonna bring down the temperature.
06:40And we need that hot temperature to get a nice golden brown crust. Flip that. You see that right
06:44there? Ah, golden brown deliciousness. You get a lot of that color as well from the seasonings. But the
06:50Goodles, you got that cheese powder in there. You got the paprika. All these things kind of bring
06:54together that nice golden brown hue. When that chicken is piping hot, you salt it and finish that.
07:00We're gonna get a lot of that salt from dehydrated buttermilk ranch dressing. All those flavors are
07:06super concentrated and super fortified when it's dried. Same thing with the cheese powder. There's
07:11a little bit of buttermilk in there as well. It has actual cheddar cheese in there. Salt and a little
07:17bit of dried maple syrup for a hint of sweetness. So what we have here is our hot oil brush that just
07:25really adheres and just soaks up all that deliciousness. The bread is gonna act as a vessel
07:32and the pickles add a real nice brininess, a nice hang, and a little bit of acidity to kind of cut
07:38through the fattiness of the chicken. And there you have it. Beautiful Nashville hot cheesy fried chicken
07:45coming at you. Hot. Grilled cheese and mac and cheese bringing both worlds together. It has that
07:54beautiful melt factor and that vibrant orange color. It just kind of brings you back with nostalgia. It's
08:00gonna be good. First things first, make our cheese sauce. Whole milk because fat is flavor. Of course,
08:07the OG mac and cheese, one of my favorites, put the cheese powder into the milk firstly. It has
08:13stabilizing salt. That's gonna help emulsify, give great mouthfeel, and also really bring all those
08:19cheeses together where it doesn't break. So we put that all into there. Just kind of sprinkle all the
08:25proteins, all the starches, the tapioca flour. That's taking the place of a traditional roux,
08:32which you have butter and flour. That's gonna help thicken and give us a nice rich mouthfeel and texture.
08:38Once that starts to bubble up, we're gonna add the rest of our cheeses in there. American
08:42cheese, one of my favorites. It has whey, which thickens it up. Creamy texture. You want all that
08:48beautiful cheese sauce to stay inside of the bread where you want. If it's too loose, not enough
08:54cheese, kind of liquidy, kind of watery, it'll run out and that's no bueno. Add some contrasting
09:00flavors and texture with a dry nutty gruyere. Add a little salt, a little pepper. You see that nappe-like
09:07consistency. Nappe, another fancy French word for the thickness. When you run your finger through
09:14something, you see the streak and the sauce adheres and sticks to that beautiful spoon. You see that?
09:20For this grilled mac and cheese, we're using the entire box. The pasta, the packet, literally want
09:25all that beautiful cheese sauce. Is it nice and al dente? Not too soft. So what I have here, one of my
09:31favorite breads, sourdough. Mayonnaise is great for getting that beautiful GBD on the outside of the
09:38bread. What is GBD, you ask? Golden, brown, delicious. Okay. After about a minute, the mac and cheese
09:47thickened up a little bit, but it's not cold. You don't want to put too much in there where it overflows.
09:53It makes it hard to flip, but just enough edge to edge and also be a really good mac and cheese to bread
09:59ratio. So about three to five minutes on each side, nice medium heat, developing those beautiful
10:05golden brown exterior, that nice crispy edge on both sides. Mac and cheese and grilled cheese in one.
10:11I present to you the grilled mac and cheese sandwich. Isn't she beautiful?
10:18Cheeseburger Helper Tortellini. Pasta, tomatoes, and cheese. Buttery, it's creamy, it's cheesy. Paired with
10:26the Annie's shells and white cheddar. I actually like this one a lot because it doesn't have any
10:31artificial flavors in there. So it tastes like real cheese because there's real cheese in it.
10:36Round, ground beef. We have a little bit of salt, pepper, paprika, tomato paste, Worcester. We're going
10:42to add a little bit of the Annie's white cheddar. Now, even though this is going to be the filling,
10:47we want to add that cheese flavor in every single bite, every single step along the way. With the real
10:54cheese that's in here, the lactic acid, you get a nice mouthfeel. And the cornstarch is going to help
10:59thicken the splash of heavy cream. It's going to allow the filling to be tight and firm. But that looks
11:06pretty good to me, would you say? So let's make our cheesy tomato sauce. Really simple. We're going to
11:11add our whole milk. Do not stress the importance of making sure that this milk and this heavy cream
11:17is hot. The better you do that, the cheese will melt properly. It won't clump or fall apart.
11:22Hot liquid, perfectly cheesy sauce. We're going to whisk in the cheese packet. There is a heavy
11:29presence of whey. Whey is a byproduct of curd, so it has salty, dairy flavor to it, which also helps
11:35thicken. Some more white cheddar and parmesan, a little sweeter, a little nuttier, really good flavor.
11:40Add marinara sauce in there because it echoes those flavors of the hamburger helper. And then there,
11:45I'm going to season it a little bit with salt and pepper. Just a pinch will do. Whisk that,
11:50just let it reduce. What you're looking for, that beautiful nappe consistency, like so. Boom.
11:58Okay, now I am a sucker when it comes to contrast and texture. And a nice breadcrumb on there just
12:05really ties this all together. A little bit of butter, olive oil, so equal parts, and you let that
12:09melt. Japanese breadcrumbs or panko, it's super crispy, adds for a really nice crunchy bite. As that's browning,
12:17I'm going to add that Annie's pack in there. Again, it has the real white cheddar. Using the cheese
12:23powder in various applications as a great umami and flavor bomb. A pinch of salt and pepper, fresh
12:31parsley. That's going to make for an amazing crunchy topping to our cheeseburger tortellini. Now, ideally,
12:38you'll make tortellini with fresh pasta, but sometimes you just want to get right down to it. So,
12:43I am using wonton wrappers. So, to my purists, they are only tortellinis in shape and size.
12:50That's it. But the flavor, flavor is there. We want to do about a teaspoon of the filling. Brush two
12:57edges like so. Roll it up and then tuck that filling in there. Make sure all those sides are sealed.
13:06Flatten out the filling. Tap, tap, tap. You don't want to press too hard because you don't want to break
13:11the wrapper. Hold it up halfway like so and then connect the two like that. That's what we're
13:18looking for. Cute little tortellini in shape, in size, and beautiful. If you had too much cheese,
13:26too much dairy, too much milk or heavy cream, it'll be very loose and it would not be very tight for a
13:32filling entity. You want to have tight filling and that works really well with the thickening agents
13:37in the cheese package. What we're going to do now is make a brown butter, allowing those milk solids
13:42to have that maillard reaction where it's browning and caramelizing and intensifying. It goes from a
13:48golden yellow hue to a nice brown peanut butter type color. Our tortellini has been boiled in heavily
13:55salted water for about three to four minutes until they're plump and they start to float. Super
14:00important you don't want these to fry. You want to get a nice mellow browning on there and then we start to
14:06play. Cheese sauce right here. Nice little base of that right in the middle. And then from there you
14:12get that beautiful crunch from the breadcrumb. This right here showcases and shines a light on mac and
14:19cheese is one thing but this is taking those similar flavors of mac and cheese, those similar flavors of
14:25cheeseburger helper, but elevating them and for a dish that you'd gladly pay top dollar at any restaurant.
14:30Mac and cheese bites. All those great creamy nutty cheesy flavors of mac and cheese into a handheld form.
14:40We want the mac and cheese to hold that shape so the roux is going to be very important in this particular
14:45recipe. A roux is equal parts fat, equal parts flour. We're going to have starch gelatinization. Those starch
14:52molecules in the flour are going to expand and make a thick, viscous, creamy sauce. Once we have that,
14:59add our heavy cream. It's going to start to get thickened. Those starch molecules will expand
15:05and it'll give us our bechamel. The bechamel is the base for any cheese sauce. We're going to temper
15:11eggs into the bechamel. You want to emulsify and be that thickening agent. From there you want to have
15:17a slow drizzle of our bechamel because you want to slowly bring up the temperature of the eggs. If you do
15:24it too fast it'll break and start scrambling. Incorporate that tempered egg bechamel mixture
15:30back in here. So this one I'm using a little bit more starch than usual. We're using our fingers to
15:35eat these. You want every possible opportunity to thicken this up and tighten the sauce. Paprika gives a
15:41nice color and hue and great flavor. Nice little smoky note. Garlic powder, black pepper, and then we whisk
15:48till all that is together right there. Then we add Annie's shells and white cheddar. Again the cornstarch
15:58in there and that real dried cheese flavor is going to bump up and bolster the cheese that we add to
16:05here using white cheddar powder. So let's use cheddar cheese. Gouda, I love Gouda. Parmesan cheese allowing
16:12all of those cheeses to melt. We have fully cooked noodles right here. You can use the shells that are in
16:16here but we've been literally making pasta the entire day and we've got plenty elbows. You want to make
16:22sure every noodle is coated. This is going to be the binder for the mac and cheese bites inside the
16:29muffin tins. What I'm using right here non-stick muffin tins. A really great way to elevate and add
16:34texture is actually putting this breading on top of it. But I think on the bottom it kind of mimics
16:39that contrast and texture and flavor of putting on the top. I'm going to add a little bit of parmesan
16:44cheese on the bottom as well. Add for a nice caramelization on the bottom. You don't want
16:49to fill these inserts up too much because it'll overflow and be very messy. So have them level
16:54with the top of muffin tins. Parmesan cheese is great for getting that nice brulee kind of effect
17:00on anything. Bump it up again with what more than the Annie's white cheddar. Cheesy salt bite on there.
17:07With the dried cheddar cheese and the lactic acid it's going to really give a nice saltiness and kind of
17:12help with the crunch of the top. Put this into the oven until it browns up. Ladies and gentlemen
17:18we have liftoff. So you see here when I cut right into the middle of this it keeps its shape.
17:26It keeps its consistency and that's a result of one using that Annie's cheddar packet and tempering
17:31of the eggs and also that roux. That is beautiful.
17:38Smash cheesy potatoes. Crispy, buttery, sharp, nutty. A really great application using Cabot Creamery.
17:46Seriously sharp shells and cheddar. All the things you want in the potato and more.
17:51These have already been boiled so what we're going to do next is smash them. Don't want to push it too
17:56hard but about a half an inch in thickness. The really great thing with smashing the potatoes is
18:02more crispy edges and by smashing them you're allowing a lot of that moisture to escape from
18:09the potato which will give you more browning, more of that Maillard reaction. I like to melt some whole
18:14unsalted butter. It helps with the caramelization and the nice crispiness. Add a little bit of olive oil.
18:21Seasoning these after you have the melted butter and the olive oil because it serves as a glue.
18:26Into the oven we go. 15-20 minutes at 350. I'm going to add parmesan cheese and this is where we apply
18:34the cheese powder. It actually uses real cheese. It has dried Vermont cheese by dehydrating it. It adds
18:42really really good intense flavor and no moisture which gives you crispy potatoes. It has dried buttermilk
18:49which gives you tang and really amplifies the butter that we have in our potatoes. Because these
18:55potatoes are hot, it's going to absorb and soak in all that flavor. We take this, we raise the temp
19:01about 350 to 400. Another 15 minutes until it's golden, it's brown. They're beautiful, super crispy. Add a
19:09little bit of Malden salt flakes. Chives are always a best friend to baked potatoes or any type of potato.
19:17And there we have it. Beautiful, super delicious, crispy smashed cheese potatoes. My plate to you.
19:26Cacio Pepe pasta, the mac and cheese way with Sabatino truffle mac and cheese. Super delicious,
19:32super flavorful. Traditional Cacio Pepe, you have four ingredients. Pasta, pasta water, pecorino cheese,
19:39and black pepper. That's it from Rome, Italy. So do not attempt to make or recreate this in Rome. They
19:45might kick you out of the country. To our pan, we are going to add butter and olive oil to toast black
19:52pepper. You bloom all those spices, all those flavors that are in there and you revive them and reawaken
19:58them. The pasta water is going to act as a thickening agent because of all that starch from the cooked pasta.
20:04Open up our Sabatino truffle mac and cheese made with actual real dehydrated black truffles. And that's
20:11the very first thing I even smelled before I tasted it. Gives you a chance to add truffle flavor with a
20:17fraction of the price. The beautiful thing about this packet is it has whey and potato starch, both of
20:23which are going to help with the emulsifying of it and give us a nice great pan sauce. Even though
20:30traditional Cacio Pepe is a relatively basic and simple recipe, it takes a little bit of skill,
20:36a little bit of timing to correctly do it. So this kind of, you know, flattens out that learning curve,
20:42makes it a lot easier. A little bit of heavy cream. Again, this is not your traditional Nona's recipe
20:49from the old country. You let that heavy cream kind of thicken out and get nappe consistency.
20:53Cooked pasta. You can use the noodles in there already, but I think for a Cacio Pepe,
20:58you got to go with spaghetti. And you want to finish it with the Pecorino cheese to give it
21:02that nice salty note. I love a good Pecorino. Pecorino is a hard, salty, sheep's milk cheese.
21:08You see that? Beautiful. You want to go ahead and plate. That right there is a beautiful plate of
21:14Cacio e Pepe made our way with Sabatino truffle mac and cheese. Now, I wouldn't serve this in Rome,
21:20Italy, but here today, I'd eat that. When it comes to boxed mac and cheese, you can very easily look
21:28on the box and follow the instructions step by step. But if you want variety, you want to get fun,
21:33you want to get experimental, the options and variety are endless. So have fun. Get out there.
21:39Explore. Make your mac and cheese yours.
Comments