Real Stovetop Mac and Cheese

The recipe was great and so easy to follow! My toddler is allergic to regular store bought mac and cheese, so we were trying to find an alternative since he loved it [the store bought] so much. Found this recipe and he loved it, too! This time no reaction!

This recipe was the one that finally ended my search for a good Mac and cheese recipe. I use it every time and it works a charm. Love that it uses no butter and always produces a velvety smooth, tasty Mac that has just the right amount of sauce and can be multiplied to feed extra people. Always works beautifully.

I seldom rate a recipe but this was so good, I told my husband I wanted to lick my plate. I made it exactly as written, using the pumpkin pie spices suggested in the notes. I was afraid the onion and garlic powders would take away from the flavor of the pumpkin pie spices. However, I was wrong. The flavors were perfectly balanced. The technique to make the pumpkin mac and cheese was different than I'd used in the past, but your directions were clear and simple to follow. I would suggest to others making this dish, to have your ingredients prepped and measured out before you start cooking. Then the dish will then go together perfectly. Is there a way to make this ahead for a dinner party or pot luck?

I wonder if you used shredded cheese or used a block of cheese and shredded it yourself. I made this recipe (subbing white cheddar) and it turned out perfect. It's not "blue box", but it was delicious.
Don't use pre-shredded cheese for melting in a sauce. It's covered in an anticoagulant. Use block cheese and spend the time to shred it your self. Massive difference.

Best recipe- I make it frequently for my toddler and add in hidden veggies. Onion, carrots, celery, riced cauliflower are all excellent!

This was great... I don't like butter so this was a perfect alternative. Went down a treat as a side for bbq pork. Thanks!!

This is perfect and so easy! Can’t understand the negative reviews. I used pre-shredded Mexican Blend cheese, about 3-4 oz of cream cheese and a splash of whole milk to loosen it up and it was delicious, just the right consistency and flavor!!!

Was hesitant to try because of all the reviews but it was totally perfect! Added a splash of milk to loosen everything up but honestly the key is you finely grating the cheese.

I just kept the pot off the heat immediately after the cream boils - the cheese melts and comes together instantly.

Toasted a mountain of breadcrumbs and am in heaven. Will need defibrillator.

This was Awesome Sauce! Pun intended :) Ended up using some white sharp cheddar and I folded in a bunch of steamed broccoli too and it made for a very delicious dinner. Thanks!

I love most of your recipes, but this one wasn't a success for me. The taste of the cheese sauce was great, but the texture made it inedible ... the cream separated from the cheese and the cheese clumped together. If it being too hot causes this... maybe amend the directions to state this more clearly ... when I read "immediately add cream & bring to a boil" ... I didn't get the sense that pan really needed to cool. I wonder if using a new pot makes more sense since this recipe is apparently heat sensitive.

I think it's important to freshly grate from a block of cheese (I used my food processor for this). If you use store bought shredded cheese, it has additives to prevent caking, which also causes the cheese to not melt right and be a stringy mess.

I didn't have half and half or cream on hand, so I used unsweetened oat milk and 2 T butter. This was soooo quick and easy and actually came out better than the baked mac and cheese that I recently made that took 4x the time and was meh.

This recipe worked for me! I actually used oat milk instead of heavy cream and it turned out great. It was smooth and blended really well together on the stove. I did use a block of cheese that I shredded.

Excellent and quick!

I’m not sure why the reviews are all over the place on this. It was delicious! I made it exactly as written and it came out perfect. My husband and I scarfed the whole pot down in one sitting. Will definitely be making it again and again. Thanks for another great recipe!

This recipe is absolutely amazing! Quick, easy and replicates our favorite restaurant Mac and Cheese which is a huge plus for our 2 toddlers!

This recipe turned out great and everyone in the house gobbled up their meal!

I used the instant pot: cooked my whole wheat elbow noodles for 3 minutes and used the saute function to cook up the sauce while the noodles cooled in a colander. We have a toddler, so I didn't add any salt to the water or pasta, but a sprinkling of salt on the adults' plates made it taste like a delightfully creamy mac n' cheese!

Unfortunately this didn’t work for me. Similar to others, my sauce was very stringy. I used pre shredded cheese, which is probably why it didn’t turn out.
I think it would Be helpful to specify in the ingredients list that it needs to be FRESHLY grated cheese :) I will try that next time and see how it goes.

Have made this countless time over the last few years, usually served up with some green veg. My two young kids love it, as do I! So tasty and comforting.

Mmmmm. I made this today for our Thanksgiving meal and it came out perfectly. I hand grated a block of Whole Foods vegetarian sharp cheddar using the large holes, and used heavy whipping cream for the liquid base. Not stringy nor grainy but perfection! Thank you!

i dont know why it didn’t work well for so many others, but this works out very well for me every time! i use preshredded cheese too. lately i’ve done 1/2cup of heavy cream, and more like 1.5-2 cups of cheese for a thicker and more flavourful sauce, and it still works very well. it’s way better than any storebought mac and cheese!

My sister recommended this recipe and we love all your stuff, so thought I would give it a go. I haven't eaten mac and cheese in years and this was delicious! Super easy to make and extremely satisfying. I definitely will come back to this again for a treat!

Thank you!

I followed the cream boil step and used freshly grated cheese but my cheese sauce was so grainy! Sadly did not enjoy this recipe, it was missing the creaminess of box Mac and cheese. I found the oil also separated a bit from the cheese in the sauce making the whole dish seem much oilier than it should have been

We tried this today, with pre shredded cheese and it turned out delicious. So easy and tasty.thanks

YUM!! Tastes just like the "real" thing!! Just a question, in step 2 it says "...and let the mixture come to a boil." But it's just the cream, right? Or did I miss something?
Thanks!!

This didn’t work out for me - I followed the instructions exactly (shredded cheese, boiling the cream, etc), using whole wheat macaroni. It was extremely dry and not creamy at all - it almost looks now like the sauce curdled when I added the pasta? I’m sorry, I love your website and the majority of recipes, but this didn’t work out. Perhaps two cups of pasta is too much?