how to make dessert mac and cheese

Dessert Macaroni and Cheese! Yes, you read that right! A sweet mac & cheese made with cream cheese, blueberries and vanilla, it’s a sweet take on a classic comfort food.

Reading: how to make dessert mac and cheese

Similar to bread pudding or rice pudding, Dessert Macaroni and Cheese has a starchy base held together by a baked custard. The idea came to me one day and I figured someone must have made this already.

I googled and read all about Mac and Cheese, saw all sorts of variations on the savory dish, but didn’t find any sweet mac & cheese recipes, so decided to give it a try.

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Well the first go-round was really strange. I made the traditional white sauce (Bechamel) and instead of adding cheddar cheese, as I would do for a savory mac-n-cheese, I added cream cheese, vanilla and sugar.

It’s not that it tasted bad, it actually tasted pretty good, but the look and texture was so similar to regular mac-n-cheese that there was a sort of cognitive dissonance between what my eyes were seeing and what my mouth was tasting. My husband had exactly the same reaction.

Scroll through the step-by-step process photos to see how to make Dessert Macaroni & Cheese:

For round two I made the white sauce separately from the cream cheese base. I mixed the cream cheese, sugar and eggs together for a simple cheesecake-style batter, then combined the two with the cooked pasta.

Tossing blueberries into the mix added lot of flavor and moisture, and also gave the eye a cue that this was dessert. This is more important than you can imagine. We eat with our eyes, right?

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The blueberries could be switched out for another fruit, and cinnamon, lemon zest or other flavors could be added to change up the flavor. I definitely recommend putting berries or chocolate chips or anything to make it look like a dessert.

I really like this dish. Dessert Macaroni and Cheese might seem strange at first, but give it a try and let me know what you think.

If you love this dish as much as I do, please give it a 5 star review.

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