Baked Macaroni

[Jen H]

Hey everyone,

I'd like to make baked macaroni but don't know how much of each ingredient I should use. I'd like to use Tinkydada elbows, Pacific almond milk, and Cabot cheese. I cannot have any gluten, soy, or dairy. Any ideas?

[lpellegr]

How can you eat Cabot cheese if you're dairy free? Do they make some fake cheese as well as the usual ones?

When I make gluten-free baked macaroni and cheese, I modify a recipe from a box of regular (not-gluten-free) elbows. Basically, you can make a recipe for 2 cups of white sauce using any kind of "milk" and a thickener such as cornstarch, add to that 1t salt, 1t dry mustard (optional), any other seasonings you want, and I find if I measure out 2 cups of Tinkyada elbows and boil them, that's just right for that amount of sauce (for other pasta shapes that might not work - for Tinkyada small shells it takes more like 3c). Make the sauce while the elbows cook, then turn the heat off under the sauce. Shred and add 2 cups of cheese (or reasonable facsimile) and stir into the sauce until melted, then drain the noodles and stir them in. Pour all into a greased casserole dish and bake for 20-25 min at 375. In my pre-gluten-free days I used to top it with bread crumbs, but gave that up because gluten-free bread crumbs are precious and too good to waste on decoration. This reheats well because the Tinkyada noodles are so good. Don't overcook them - give them about half the time recommended on the package and test them, then adjust the time so they're still a little firm going into the sauce.

If you need help with the white sauce:

3T margarine, melted on low heat

2T cornstarch, mixed into melted margarine.

Add salt and mustard at this point to avoid lumps.

Add 2c "milk", turn up heat, and stir constantly until it thickens. Try not to let it boil. This makes a nice thick sauce with dairy milk, but it might take some experimenting with other kinds.

[Jen H]

Hi Pellegr,

Thanks for the recipe! I'll give it a shot this weekend. All Cabot cheese is gluten free and lactose free. It's the lactose in dairy that bothers me. I've never used corn starch before. Which brand do you use?

[lpellegr]

I use whatever cornstarch I have around - at the moment I have - well I just realized I have no idea because I took it out of its original box and put it into a canister. I think some brands might actually say "gluten-free" on the box. The Clan Thompson Smartlist says that Argo, Kingsford, Price Chopper, and Safeway brands are all gluten-free. You can also use rice flour (white or sweet) to thicken sauces, but I don't know the proportions - 1 or 2 T per cup of liquid ought to do it. You could try any gluten-free flour substitute before you go out and buy corn starch.