The creamiest Mac and cheese

Prep time          Cook time            Total time

20 minutes                 15 minutes                      35 minutes

Ingredients 

• 1 lb of dried elbow pasta
• 3-4 tbsp of Dijon mustard or brown spicy mustard
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of whole milk
• 2 1/2 cups of half and half
• 4 cups of shredded cheese medium cheddar cheese divided 
• 2 cups of any other kind of cheese you like, Colby, Muenster, mozzarella or you can just add 2 more cups of medium cheddar. Go crazy!
• 1 tablespoon of smoked paprika and 3 tbsp of Sofia’s Spices Adobo picante with salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease a 9 x 13 baking dish set aside
2. Bring a large pot of salted water, when boiling add dried pasta, and cook 2 minutes less than the package says for al dente. Drain and drizzle a little bit of olive oil to keep it from sticking.
3. while the water is boiling separate the cheeses into 3 piles, 3 cups for the sauce 1 1/2 cups for the inner layer, and 1 1/2 cups for the top.
4. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, sprinkle in flour, and whisk to mix. It should look like clumpy wet sand cook for 1 minute. Whisking often, slowly pour in about 2 cups of half-and-half until smooth. Slowly pour in the remaining half and half and half the whole milk while whisking constantly, until combined and smooth.
5. Continue to heat over med heat it should start to get thicker.
6. Remove from heat and add spices and mustard. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of cheese at a time then another 1 1/2 of cheese until it’s completely melted and smooth.
7. In a large mixing bowl combine drained pasta with the cheese sauce, stirring to combine fully. Pour 1/2 of the pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with 1 1/2 cups of cheese then top with the remaining pasta mixture.
8. Sprinkle the top with the last 1 1/2 cups of cheese and bake for 15 minutes until cheesy is bubbly and a little brown on top.