We recently made Mac ‘n’ Cheese Bites in all our cooking classes. Always a big hit with the kiddo’s, I would say that the classes went well. Well … they went well for the most part, the Cooking Wars! and Baking Wars! classes did have a few issues, which included teams forgetting to add some of the cheese or not getting the mac ‘n’ cheese int the oven with enough time to actually cook the bites. But as mentioned, the kiddos loved the cooked dish.
Check out some pics from classes as well as the recipe.
Ingredients include: cooked pasta, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, egg, butter, onion, half ‘n’ half, bread crumbs
Using one of the most important senses in cooking: taste, to figure out what ingredients we will be using.
Adding breadcrumbs to the baking tray.
Adding breadcrumbs to the second tray …
Everybody gets a chance to add breadcrumbs to the muffin tray.
A closer look at the ingredients.
The muffin tin all tray all filled up with a little extra helping of cheddar cheese on top.
Mac ‘n’ cheese bites just out of the oven, Crunchy on the outside and soft and cheesy on the inside.
We let the bites cool for a few minutes before the students tried them.
Taste time.
Yummy!
Mini Mac 'n' Cheese Bites
Ingredients
- 1/2 tablespoon of finely chopped onion
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups cooked elbow pasta
- 6 tablespoons hard or semi hard grated cheese
- 5 tablespoons soft cheese
- 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp half n half
- 1 egg well beaten
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- Spray Oil
- 2 tablespoon Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375˚
- Spray the muffin tins with spray oil.
- Mix the Parmigiano-Reggiano and bread crumbs together.
- Add about a teaspoon full of the breadcrumb mixture into the muffin tins and dust it around to make sure the mixture sticks to the sides of the cavities as well as the bottom. Turn it upside down to get rid of any excess mixture. Set aside
- Melt the butter in a medium sized pot.
- Add the onion and cook on medium low heat until the onion has soften. Add salt and ground mustard and continue to cook until the onion is translucent. Do not brown.
- Combine the half n half and the cheeses in the pot and cook until smooth and creamy. If adding ground mustard, add it now.
- Remove from heat and taste to see if additional salt is needed. Continue to mix to help cool the mixture down.
- Meanwhile put the pasta in a bowl and add the egg.
- Add about 1/4 cup of the cheese sauce to the pasta & egg mixture and mix briskly.
- Pour the rest of the cheese sauce over the pasta and mix well. If adding fresh herbs, add them here.
- Spoon the pasta into the muffin tins.
- If desired, sprinkle, evenly, some of the breadcrumb mixture on top of the mac and cheese for a nice crunchy top.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the top is starting to turn golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to rest for about 5 minutes before removing the mac ‘n’ cheese bites.
- Serve while still warm.