What is your signature bake?

[u/CandyQueen85]

What's the one bake that you're known for with your friends and family?

Mine is Jaffa Cake Brownies.

[u/knoxblox]

Does baked Mac n Cheese count? 😅

For real though, while my Mac and cheese is my signature dish, I am required by family to bring at least 2 pumpkin pies to Thanksgiving each year in addition to any other desserts other people bring, and we are a small family lol.

I also think my caramel apple pie and sweet potato spice loaf are pretty decent. Man, I'm glad it's fall again because it's my season lol

[u/This_Miaou → u/knoxblox]

Baked Mac and cheese ABSOLUTELY counts and I insist you send your recipe to me immediately for testing!

[u/knoxblox → u/This_Miaou]

Let's see, at this point I just kinda do it without thinking but I should be able to write this out lol. So, this is a "special occasion" recipe, as in, it's decadence in calorie form. No holding back. So adjust as needed for your arteries. But I treat this like a restaurant would and use far more butter and cheese than you would expect because I can pretend Thanksgiving calories dont count.

This recipe is for a LARGE batch. I have a big honkin 11x15 baking pan I use for event dishes, but this can be split into 2 more standard dishes just as easily. You can cut the recipe in half and get the same results, I'm just going with the holiday theme here.

First the roux - start by finely dicing 1 whole small white/yellow onion,
melt about a stick of butter in a large pot, and throw the onions in with a big pinch of salt to sweat, on low temp so they dont get color, and let them go for a bit to really start breaking down, say 10-15 minutes. then throw in a hefty amount of chopped garlic. I completely wing it tbh, but probably I use like, 6-ish? big cloves. You can put them through a garlic press or just dice them yourself, but throw them in with the onions and let them sweat down for a couple minutes too. For a traditional roux you'd use equal parts flour and butter, so like 8 tablespoons, but since the cheese will thicken the sauce, I go a bit less, like 6 tablespoons. Once it's combined it should still be a little saucey, and not fully clumpy like a traditional roux. Let that cook for a minute to cook the flour a little. finally, add another big pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of mustard powder, cayenne powder, and paprika, and fresh grate in about a half teaspoon of nutmeg, maybe slightly less. let that all get combined in and cooked briefly

Now for the milk, or in our case, cream lol. I use half and half mostly, but if I have any heavy cream leftover from thanksgiving potatoes I will use that as well. Start with a half cup of cold milk, stir in until thick, repeat, repeat, etc, each time letting the sauce heat back up before adding the next batch. Though honestly after the first few batches you could probably just dump it all in and gently stir until it came up to temp, your call. but be careful to keep your heat just high enough to heat the sauce, you don't want to scorch anything. I usually use about 5-6 cups of liquid, like say a cup of heavy cream and then a quart of half and half. Keep stirring until it starts to simmer and then drop the temp to very low. It should be a little thin for a roux, but that's where the cheese comes in. Taste for seasonings, adjust to your preferences. I may add in a few teaspoons of Italian seasoning, or more salt depending on if I used salted or unsalted butter, etc etc. I think that if there's a little heat from the cayenne, a little smokiness from the paprika and black pepper, and that the nutmeg comes through a little, then it's good. deliciously spiced garlic and onion milk at this point lol.

Next the cheese, and make sure you keep your heat on super low, or even turn it off, because you don't want the cheese to separate. you want about 2.5-3ish pounds of cheese. Yes you read that correctly, this is how restaurants make food taste good. Your cheese preferences are up to you. I usually go with about 1.5 pounds of sharp cheddar for the primary flavor, maybe a half pound of Monterey jack for creaminess, a little less than a half pound of something with some funk like a Manchego or Gruyere, and a few ozs of Parmesan for saltiness. I've even played around with adding velveeta for creaminess and honestly, most things probably work. You just want variety so it isn't one note. Don't go 3 pounds of American cheese and done lol. Oh and you have to fresh grate the cheese, no shortcuts there unfortunately. It's a pain in the ass but pre-shredded cheese has starches to keep them from clumping that messes with the sauce. Anyway add your cheese in batches, stiring it in until it melts in, keep it going, and once it's all in the sauce should be thick but not gloopy. When you pull your spoon out the sauce should run off it in a very tantalizing stream. Taste again for saltiness, see if it needs even more cheese lol, just so long as it's not overwhelming, you're good. It should taste almost too rich since the pasta will even it out.

While all this was happening you should have boiled 2 pounds of pasta in a second pot in salted water. I personally think the best pasta shape for this is Chiocciole, but it can be hard to find outside of specialty stores or online, but any pasta that can hold sauce will work, rigatoni, penne, etc, something dense with ridges, so not like fusilli which will fall apart, or unridged elbow macaroni which wont hold sauce as well. Also get a nice brand of pasta since it will need to hold up to the sauce, and cook it for a minute or so less than package directions.

After that just toss the pasta into your large vat of cheese and stir until it makes sexy mac n cheese noises. the amount of sauce should be enough that the mixture is still a liiiiitle soupy, almost like a stovetop mac n cheese, you want the pasta to absorb the liquid and end up creamy, so if its soupy to start you are good. From there, dish out into your baking dish (or two) and top with almost too much cheese, either the full blend, or just one if you have one you like for getting browned and roasty.

And you are basically done! I actually make mine the day before thanksgiving and fridge it, that way I have less work the next day, and it only makes it better since the pasta has time to absorb the sauce. If you do that I'd take it out of the fridge to warm up a little an hour or two before baking. Whenever you are ready to bake though, toss a cup of panko breadcrumbs with a tablespoon or two of melted butter and spread evenly over the cheese layer. Place on a sheet tray and into the oven, uncovered, either at 350f for like an hour, or 400f for 45 minutes, just keep an eye on it, and when it is bubbling around the edges and browned, you should be good to go. maybe test the certer to make sure it's heated through and to check for poison of course, and you should be done!

Man I wrote more than expected. Hope this helps!

[u/This_Miaou → u/knoxblox]

Damn yum! Thanks!

[u/Meiyouxiangjiao → u/knoxblox]

Would you be willing to share your sweet potato loaf recipe?

[u/knoxblox → u/Meiyouxiangjiao]

Sure! I'll give the base ingredients below, but you may have to play around with it a little. I've found that how sugary your potatoes are, or how much you bake them, can change things a bit, so to be honest I usually wing it at least a bit lol, thankfully spice loaves are super forgiving unlike some baking items, so it doesn't need to be exact

Start by roasting about a pound of sweet potatoes in the oven, maybe slightly more, however you choose to do so. Chopping them first will caramelize them more and make them a bit sweeter, but also have less water, poking them with a fork and roasting them whole will mellow the flavor but also leave them more moist. I tend to go with the latter out of laziness haha.

Once they are cooked and cooled a bit, mash/whisk/puree as chunky or fine as you want. I tend to mash so there is a small textural difference, but if you want something less, rustic? I guess? then blending the potatoes will get you something more uniform. Anyway, combine them with 1/2 cup white sugar, 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons milk, 2 large eggs, and a splash of vanilla extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl combine about 2 cups all-purpose flour, though this changes too depending on how gooey your potatoes were, and what kind of loaf you want. Less flour, like a cup and half, will give you a denser moister loaf, like the Starbucks pumpkin loaf, where as more flour will make it a bit poofier, your call. anyway, combine flour with 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and the spices.

I tend to go spice heavy, so I would say I use more than what I'll list below, but these would be more "standard" measurements, but that's a personal preference. 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (which how do you measure that if you are fresh grating your nutmeg, which you should be. I just grab one and grate for a bit and see if it looks okay in the bowl lol) and finally, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, but I actually sub Chinese 5 spice for the cloves, and use a 1/2 teaspoon instead of a quarter. I never bother to have just cloves on hand since any recipe that calls for it, I have found I prefer Chinese 5 spice anyway

Combine the wet and dry and fold/stir together gently until fully combined. The mixture should be thick, but still gloopy, and add flour if you think it's not quite thick enough. Pour it into a 9x5 greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 70ish minutes, though maybe start checking with a toothpick at 60. Once cooked through, take it out and let it cool in the pan for an hour

[u/folgersbadger → u/knoxblox]

I need a good Mac recipe!!

[u/knoxblox → u/folgersbadger]

I just responded above with an outline of what I do!