Baked Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
This baked pumpkin mac and cheese is at the tip top of the comfort food list (at least mine). It has the best velvety smooth pumpkin cheese sauce that gets into all the little nooks and crannies of short pasta shapes. To top it off, a heavy sprinkle of toasty, buttery herbed bread crumbs. SO GOOD!
What’s the dish?
You’ll need a deep dish 9 x 13 for this recipe. There’s a whole pound of pasta and a LOT of cheese sauce. And remember, there needs to be room for the mac and cheese to bubble away in the oven, so having it come up to the very edge of the pan isn’t ideal.
This Pyrex deep dish 9 x 13 is a good, cost effective option, but anything that’s at least 3 inches deep will do the trick.
Pasta shapes & cooking
I love anything that holds a bunch of sauce! Elbow macaroni is what you’re going to find most often, but if you can, get some lumaconi/lumache/snail shell pasta.
Obviously, we’re not gonna use long pasta. I mean you can, I guess, but that’s…chaotic.
When boiling the pasta, use plenty of water with plenty of salt. For a pound of pasta, I used 8 cups of water with 2 tablespoons of salt. Boil until al dente, since this is going to bake in the oven for a half hour to finish. Timing will depend on the pasta that your using. For elbow mac, it’s usually around 7-8 minutes. For the lumaconi that I used, it was more like 12. The pasta will soak up some cheesy goodness and become more tender as that happens.
That’s SO cheesy.
Resist that urge to buy a few bags of pre shredded cheese. That stuff has an anti-caking agent that makes it a lot harder to blend into a saucy cheese sauce. Good for tacos. Not for baked pumpkin mac and cheese. Use the fine side of a box grater or a fine shredding disc with a food processor.
The sauce has a roux-style base, beginning with melted butter, seasoned flour and then adding the milk and cream. Once it thickens up into a smooth, creamy consistency, you can gradually add the cheese. Once the cheese is melted in, whisk in the pumpkin before mixing the pasta back in.
This recipe does call for an egg, and you’ll need to temper it with a spoonful of thickened sauce before you add it to the pot. Not the time or place for cheesy scrambled eggs!
I tested this with a bunch of different cheeses, including fontina and gouda. I even had 5 cheeses in one of the test batches. It was good, for sure, but with prices on everything the way they are, not really financially sound. A couple bricks of sharp cheddar and one block of gruyere were super delicious and went really well with the pumpkin and spices in this recipe.
You only need one whole can of pumpkin puree, so no unfinished cans lurking around in your fridge. If you’re feeling adventurous, check out my tutorial on how to make fresh pumpkin puree from an adorable little sugar pumpkin. It goes really well in savory dishes like this one!
This is one of my favorite pumpkin recipes!
Spices
Speaking of spices, I really love the mixture in this recipe. Garlic, ground mustard and smoked paprika keep things savory and punch out the cheese even more, while the nutmeg and brown sugar bring more attention to the pumpkin. Truly team players, here.
Breadcrumbs
Is it really baked mac and cheese without breadcrumbs? Nope. I like to prepare the breadcrumbs before I do anything else, so that all I have to do is sprinkle them on top and pop the pan in the oven. Then, there’s no surprise at the end going “Guess what? Now you get to mince some herbs and melt butter! Have fun!”
The fresh sage and thyme go well with everything else in this baked pumpkin mac and cheese. And the crunch from the toasted breadcrumbs is a really nice texture opposite that creamy sauce and tender bite of the pasta.
This is a great Thanksgiving/ Christmas/holiday side dish!
Baked Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour + 5 minutes
- Yield: 16 cups 1x
- Category: Sides
- Method: Oven, Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Description
This pumpkin mac and cheese is deliciously creamy!
Ingredients
For the breadcrumbs:
- 3 TB unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1–2 TB fresh minced sage
- 1–2 TB fresh minced thyme leaves
For the mac and cheese:
- 8 cups water
- 2 TB salt (for the pasta water)
- 1 lb short pasta (elbow macaroni, lumaconi or another short pasta shape)
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 TB salt
- 1 TB light brown sugar
- 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground mustard
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 16 oz sharp cheddar cheese (grated from a block, do not get pre-shredded)
- 8 oz gruyere cheese (grated from a block, do not get pre-shredded)
- One 15 oz can pumpkin puree
Instructions
To prepare the breadcrumbs:
- Melt the 3 TB of butter in a small heatproof bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, minced sage and minced thyme and mix well to thoroughly coat the crumbs with butter and herbs. Set the bowl aside until the mac and cheese is ready to go in the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and butter a deep dish 9 x 13 pan. Set the prepared pan aside while you make the mac and cheese.
Make the mac and cheese:
- Add the 8 cups of water and 2 TB of salt to a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions until al dente. Most of the time, it’ll take about 8-9 minutes, but some thicker shapes (like the lumaconi) may take up to 12 minutes. Drain the cooked pasta and set it aside while you make the sauce. DO NOT rinse the pasta.
- Stir the flour, 1 TB of salt, brown sugar, pepper, mustard, nutmeg and smoked paprika together in a small bowl and set aside. Beat the egg in another small, heatproof bowl and set it aside.
- Using the same pot you cooked the pasta in, melt the 1/2 cup of butter over medium heat. It won’t take long at all to completely melt. Once the butter has melted and barely begun to sizzle, add the flour, salt, brown sugar and spice mixture to the pot. It will be very thick at first, but whisk the flour/butter mixture constantly for 2 minutes. It will loosen up a bit.
- After 2 minutes, stream in the milk and cream while continuing to whisk constantly. Be sure to scrape around the edges of the pot to really get all the flour/spice mixture into the milk as you whisk. Continue whisking the sauce over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. It will coat the sides of the pan and the back of a spoon when it’s ready.
- Remove the thickened sauce from the heat and carefully whisk in a large spoonful of the sauce into the beaten egg to temper it. Add the tempered egg/sauce mixture into the pot with the rest of the sauce and mix well.
- Gradually whisk in the cheese by adding one handful at a time. Only add more cheese once the last handful has completely melted in and there are no lumps.
- After all the cheese has been added, whisk in the pumpkin puree until fully incorporated and smooth. Fold in the cooked pasta and pour the mac and cheese into the prepared baking dish.
- Evenly sprinkle the prepared breadcrumbs onto the top of the mac and cheese and bake for 30-35 minutes. The mac and cheese will bubble around the sides and the breadcrumbs will be a golden brown.
- Allow the mac and cheese to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Keep any leftovers refrigerated and eat them up within a week.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 441
- Sugar: 4.6 g
- Sodium: 801.4 mg
- Fat: 25.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 15 g
- Trans Fat: 0.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.9 g
- Fiber: 1.8 g
- Protein: 18.1 g
- Cholesterol: 85.7 mg
