I Can Cooking! #12: Bakin' Bacon Mac & Cheese!

YEAH!!!

 Ahem.  (sorry, but all things bacon-y get me excited)

 Anyways, comfort foods!  Bacon!  YEAH!  Mac & Cheese has always been one of those classic comfort dishes; no matter the day or mood, a nice bowl of that creamy noodly goodness never fails to fill the stomach and soul.  And baked mac & cheese?  All the better.  And then adding bacon on top of that?!  Ohhh man.

 Fellow I Can Cooks, you're in for a treat.

It's totally okay to indulge once in a while.

The Ingredients!

• Noodles:  Any sort of small pasta works; "macaroni" doesn't always mean those elbow things, but rather just refers to the type of pasta, so go wild with it!  I generally use spiral-shaped pastas since they hold sauces really well.
• Cheese:  When building the sauce from scratch, you don't want anything that'll be too stringy or tough when melted, though also anything too soft won't make a very satisfying sauce either.  I usually go for a mix of Fontina (decent flavor, and very smooth, creamy melting properties) and Cheddar (here I use a smoked cheddar to play off the bacon flavors better).  Jack and Gouda cheeses are also good choices; Colby as well (even though it gets very stringy, it doesn't get very tough... just stir in the shreds separately from the sauce for an interesting texture contrast).
• Bacon:  Needs no explanation.  Just none of that turkey bacon stuff though, ugh.
• Bread:  This is for the topping.  Sure, you can buy bread crumbs, but... it can be so much better making them yourself.
• 1 egg:  This helps homogenize the sauce.
• Milk:  Makes the sauce a sauce.
• Butter:  For starting the roux.
• Flour:  Ditto.

There are other small ingredients that'll be added here or there for flavor or whatever, but the basics are all listed above.

 Begin by salting a pot of water and bringing it to a boil.

Pots rarely boil; watch the water instead.

 While the water is boiling, chop the bacon into small pieces and start them going on another burner.

WTF are bacon bits?

We do this the RIGHT way!

 Cut the cheese.  *giggle*

It doesn't have the be super-small or anything, just manageable / small enough to melt easily.  Graters help, but... whatevs.

  By the time you finish prepping the bacon and cheese, the water should be just about boiling.  Pour in the pasta.

Everyone in the jacuzzi!

Phase 2:  Things start coming together

 Keep cooking the bacon, stirring regularly.  The thing about the small pieces is that they'll cook very quickly as time goes.

Your whole house will be filled with an amazing aroma.

 You should be pretty much done with the cheese by this point.  Marvel at your work.

Looks like one o' them thar fancy-pants ordurve trays!

 Once the bacon's done, take it out and drain it on some paper towels.  At the same time, test your resolve to resist temptation (to a point).  Save a bit of the grease.

The hardest part of this recipe:  trying not to eat all the bacon before it goes into the dish.

 Now take the grease you saved (about 1Tbsp or so should do) and a bit of butter, and melt them together in a saucepan to begin the sauce.

Chronicles of butter, once more.

Do the roux!

 After you've made your roux, add milk and pepper, and heat gradually.  As mentioned previously, don't worry about the roux tightening up when you add the cold milk; it'll reintegrate within a couple minutes of heat.  Once it does, slowly add the cheese, starting from the creamiest-melting one.

Don't worry that it doesn't look like much yet.

 The pasta should be about done by now; just drain it and run some cold water over to "shock" the noodles so they stop cooking and don't stick to each other before you can use them.

Huh, that's way more than it looked like when I started...

 This should probably have been an earlier step, but set up the bread that you'll need for the topping in such a way that they'll air-dry for a bit.  Preheat the oven to 350F.

BREAD FORT!

 Once you've gotten the cheese mostly melted into the sauce, lower the heat and add the egg.  You'll want to stir it in quickly and completely so it integrates into the sauce rather than cooking separately like an egg-drop soup.

The egg will help thicken the sauce and keep it from separating, as well as adding a subtle "quiche-like" flavor.  Just be careful to lower the temperature enough that the egg doesn't cook before it can be fully integrated into the sauce.

 Once you've done that, toss the noodles and what bacon you haven't snacked away yet together in a casserole dish.

If you took this and added ranch, you'd get what we called a "salad" in the Midwest.

 By now the oven should be at temperature, so toss in your bread so it can toast up nicely.  You'll want to pull it out once there's a bit of browning; you don't want it to burn at all since it'll be going right back into the direct heat.

WTF is a toaster?!  J/k; you'll need the oven on in a little bit anyway.

 Keep the sauce going and add the rest of your cheese, and eventually it'll look like this.  Don't worry about a little bit of chunkiness; texture differences like you see here aren't even noticeable when eating the final product.

I just want to drink it.

 Take out the toast from the oven and let it cool (and dry further), then run it through a food processor to make crumbs for the topping.

WTF is panko?!  This is better anyhow, since you can use whichever type / flavor of bread you want.

 Once you've gotten your bread crumbs made, stir in some crushed garlic, salt, and olive oil (or better, add a bit of truffle oil!).  This will add a really nice flavor to the topping, as well as giving the crumbs just enough moisture to not burn and make a nice crust.

Basically powdered garlic bread.

 Pour the sauce over the noodles, stirring it in so there are no dry spots.  You don't want the dish completely saturated, but a decent coating throughout.

The picture doesn't really convey how much this thing weighs now.

 Cover the mass with the bread crumb mixture, plus a bit of pepper and parmesan cheese.  Sure, the parmesan will burn *slightly*, but that's okay, it'll still taste great.  Plus, it makes a really good indicator for when the dish is done!

It's also a good idea to put down a thin layer of shredded cheese between the macaroni and the crust (ie. the Muenster seen in the ingredients picture, but not mentioned since).

 Run the dish through the oven until the parmesan on top browns and there's a nice bit of browning around the outside of the dish as well.

Gaze upon my works, and DROOL!

Prepare for deliciousness!

 This stuff right here.  It hits the spot, and perhaps some spots you didn't even know you had.

Though certainly not an everyday sort of meal, it's definitely a hell of a treat.  Not to brag or anything.

Alternate serving suggestions:

 The great thing about mac & cheese is that it's such a versatile dish; you can throw pretty much anything into it and it'll come out awesome.  Some of the best things I've found to go into this:

• Substituting ground beef for the bacon, and mixing in corn just before baking.
• Sauteed mushrooms (bonus points for sauteeing them with the bacon!).
• Cutting the bacon, and stirring in tuna, peas, and onion before baking (trust me, it's GOOD).
• Spinach (FRESH though... the canned stuff would ruin the flavor.  Also, this + mushrooms = GODLY.).
• Putting just a hint of mustard powder into the sauce.

 Or, just come up with your own variations!