Baked White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese With Pretzel Topping

Bake up the cheesiest white cheddar mac and cheese for the ultimate comfort food

Looking for the best baked macaroni and cheese? This dish is made with a creamy, rich béchamel sauce, Gouda, and white cheddar cheese, all topped with a pretzel crust. Make this mac and cheese for an outdoor BBQ, a cozy weekend in, or family dinner on Sunday night.

Jump to:

• What You'll Learn In This Recipe
• Ingredients You'll Need
• Kitchen Tools & Equipment
• How To Make Homemade Mac & Cheese
• Homemade Macaroni & Cheese Tips
• Recipe Frequently Asked Questions
• What To Serve With Mac and Cheese
• Baked White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese

There's not much better than a big bowl of hot, ooey-gooey macaroni and cheese.

The great thing about mac and cheese is how versatile it is! It's one of my favorite comfort foods during the cold winter months, but also a great side dish for summer BBQs.

While all mac and cheese is delicious, you're going to especially love this homemade version. It's an easy recipe to follow that has a delicious rich white sauce all over the noodles. Trust me, you won't even want the boxed version anymore!

What You'll Learn In This Recipe

I love teaching you a new thing or two in the kitchen while you're making a recipe on my site. By cooking this recipe you'll learn:

• Tips for making the best homemade mac and cheese, including what cheese melts well.
• The French mother sauce that can be transformed into a creamy cheese sauce for macaroni.
• How to customize this recipe to make it your own with various mix-ins or toppings.

To learn even more kitchen lessons like these, sign up for my free 5-day email series with helpful tips to become a better home chef.

Ingredients You'll Need

Let's talk about the ingredients you'll need to make homemade macaroni and cheese:

• Fusilli pasta: Something about spiral fusilli pasta makes this white cheddar mac and cheese so much more fun! Another type of pasta such as elbow macaroni, cavatappi, or rotini would also be great noodles for this dish.
• Unsalted butter: The butter is used as part of the base for the béchamel sauce as well as the pretzel topping. If you prefer a saltier dish, you can substitute salted butter.
• All purpose flour: Flour is key to creating a thick and creamy sauce. A gluten free 1:1 flour substitute will also work in this recipe.
• Whole milk: The additional fat in whole milk is so important in the béchamel cheese sauce. Don't try to use a lower fat content or plant-based milk for this recipe.
• Gouda cheese: The key to good mac and cheese is a high-quality cheese. Be sure it's freshly grated. The pre-shredded cheese at the grocery store has an anti-caking agent that doesn't allow it to melt as easily as freshly grated cheese.
• Sharp white cheddar cheese: A white sharp cheddar provides some of the best flavor. However, if you'd prefer, you can substitute for yellow cheddar cheese.
• Pretzels: This is the base for the mac and cheese topping. The pretzels add the perfect salty bite.
• Garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and onion powder: All of these spices go into the pretzel topping. It adds a great flavor to the entire dish.

Kitchen Tools & Equipment

For the best results, you'll want to use these kitchen tools:

• Heavy bottom saucepan: To avoid any burning or scorching of the ingredients, especially while making the cheese sauce, it's best to use a heavy bottom saucepan. I prefer to use a large saucepan so I can cook the noodles in the pan and then immediately use it to make the cheese sauce.
• Whisk: This is a very necessary tool while making the cheese sauce! Be sure you have a whisk on hand!
• 9" x 13" baking dish: This size pan perfectly holds the baked mac and cheese. Be sure to have a baking dish with a lid if you're planning on making the recipe ahead of time.
• Silicone spatula: A useful tool for transferring the mac and cheese from the saucepan to the baking dish.
• Food processor: This is a helpful tool to make the mac and cheese topping. You could also use a high-powered blender, or just break the pretzels up in a plastic bag with a rolling pin.

How To Make Homemade Mac & Cheese

Mise En Place

Mise en place is a French word that roughly translates to 'put in place.' Before you begin cooking this recipe, you should get all of your ingredients prepared and 'put in place' on the counter so you're ready to cook. These preparation tasks include:

• Grating the cheese
• Measuring out all of the ingredients
• Cooking the pasta to al dente

Make The Cheese Sauce

The base of any macaroni and cheese is a classic French mother sauce called béchamel. It's one of the most basic sauces to master. With some practice, you'll be making delicious homemade mac and cheese in no time!

A properly made mac and cheese sauce is rich, creamy, and doesn't contain any lumps or graininess. In order to achieve this, we're going to make a béchamel sauce and add some cheese. Technically this means we made a Mornay sauce, which is the French term for cheese sauce.

To make a béchamel sauce, we'll need to first melt butter in a saucepan. This whole process should be done over low to medium heat. Low and slow is important for making béchamel.

Once melted (make sure the butter doesn't brown), add in the flour and whisk together for a few minutes. We want to ensure the butter and flour are incorporated, and the raw flour taste can cook off.

From there, add in cold milk, and continue to whisk until the milk is steaming, but not boiling. Remove the saucepan from the heat, then slowly add the freshly grated cheese. It takes some patience, but nothing about this process is hard - I promise!

Make The Topping

This baked cheddar mac and cheese is topped with a unique crust that's made with pretzels. It adds a nice crust and texture to the dish.

To make the topping, simply pulse the pretzels, some spices, and butter in a food processor. Sprinkle that on top of the mac and cheese and then it's ready to bake!

Homemade Macaroni & Cheese Tips

Homemade macaroni & cheese is so rewarding. It takes some love and a little bit of work, but it's so worth the effort. Here are some tips for the best mac and cheese:

Be sure not to overcook the pasta. It should cook to al dente (still slightly stiff in the middle). The pasta will finish cooking in the oven. Overdone pasta will turn mushy when it absorbs the cheese sauce, so don't over-boil the noodles.

In order to avoid gritty macaroni and cheese, you'll want to make sure you are adding cold milk to your hot roux (flour and butter mixture). Also equally as important, make sure you are continuously whisking the béchamel sauce throughout the whole cooking process.

Keep a careful eye on the milk to ensure it doesn't start to boil. Milk boils really quickly compared to other liquids. To avoid a burnt, overcooked flavor, keep an eye on the milk the whole time.

Remember to remove the saucepan from the heat before adding cheese. We want the cheese to melt nice and slow.

Recipe Frequently Asked Questions

What To Serve With Mac and Cheese

Looking for some easy recipes to eat alongside macaroni and cheese? Try these out:

• Mac and cheese is the perfect side dish to serve alongside these Pesto Mozzarella Turkey Burgers
• If mac and cheese is your main dish, you could eat it with Green Goddess Salad or Roasted Brussel Sprouts
• Chicken Cordon Bleu is the perfect addition of protein
• For a weeknight dinner, trying pairing with Herb Crusted Salmon