Fried Mac and Cheese Balls

Inspired by Marc Matsumoto

A couple months ago I went to Honest Johns and they had fried Mac and Cheese, which was absolutely delicious (and certainly not low calorie). So I was surfing the Internet, using StumbleUpon and came across this recipe. I think they turned out pretty well, though I did make a few mistakes. I think next time I make these I will add extra cheese, since I wanted more cheese flavor.

Ingredients:

Good Ole Kraft Mac and Cheese.

2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon flour
3/4 cup half and half
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup Mac and Cheese (I used Kraft, but using leftovers would work perfectly)
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup flour
1 egg (beaten)

Oil for frying (I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Directions:

1.      Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once melted, add the flour and whisk until the flour is mixed in and the mixture is bubbling.

2.      Whisk in the milk, making sure that there are no lumps in the mixture. Heat this mixture until thickened. Then add the Mac and Cheese and stir.

3.      The Mac and cheese now must be cooled to room temperature (or no longer hot) and then put in the fridge to chill.

4.      Once cooled take out mixture and take out about 2 Tablespoons of the Mac and Cheese. Roll to make a ball, and try to press hard in order to remove air.

5.      Preheat the Deep fryer to 320* F. Meanwhile get three bowls set up for the ½ cup flour, egg, and the Panko breadcrumbs. One bowl is for the flour, another for the egg, and the third for the Panko.

6.      Take one of the Mac and Cheese balls and roll it in the flour, then roll it in the egg, and finally roll it in the Panko. 

The Rolled Mac and Cheese Balls with flour, egg, and panko.

7.      Carefully put the rolled Mac and cheese balls into the deep fryer, turning a couple times and cooking until golden brown. This should take about 6 minutes or so. 

This is before the mac and cheese balls were flipped.

The Kitchen helper was banished from the kitchen during frying... She was not happy about that.

8.      Once cooked place on a paper towel to remove extra oil and serve.

Notes:

*I messed up the recipe by adding the butter/flour/dairy mixture to the entire box of Mac and Cheese, so when rolling them into balls they did not stick together well.

* I used skim milk instead of half and half, which may have worked fine if I only put it into 1 cup of Mac and cheese.

* Once my Mac and Cheese was cooled I put it into the freezer for about 10 minutes, in order for it to firm up more. This also helped later when rolling them.

* These can be served with Ranch or even with a cheese sauce, but are great plain.

Recommended Products:

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Inspired by RecipeGirl

It could have used more Icing, but it was still amazing!

I enjoy going onto StumbleUpon and looking up recipes, and I have came across this one multiple times. I love pancakes and I love cinnamon rolls, combining the two is just an amazing idea. So for my first blog post I decided to make these for a late breakfast.

This is Greta my little Kitchen Helper. She is a French Bulldog.

 

Ingredients:

Pancakes:

1 cup pancake mix

¾ cup water

(This may vary depending on the pancake mix, I used the recommended mix for 7-8 pancakes)

You can also use your favorite pancake recipe.

Cinnamon Filling:
½ cup margarine, melted
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

Cream Cheese Icing:
4 Tablespoons margarine
2 ounces Neufchatel Cheese (1/3 less fat Cream Cheese)
¾ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. For pancake batter make according to the box. (Make sure not to over mix)

2. For the Cinnamon Filling mix the three ingredients. Let stand in order to thicken.

Cinnamon/ Brown Sugar Mixture (The Granulated Brown Sugar is used here)

Cinnamon Filling (sorry about the messy picture)

3.  For Cream Cheese Icing mix the margarine and Neufchatel Cheese and heat in the microwave until melted (I heated for about 45 seconds, but both ingredients were at room temperature). Whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

Cream Cheese Icing turned out a little yellow for some reason

4. Heat a large pan to medium heat, once heated spray with nonstick spray. For the pancakes put 1/3 cup on batter onto pan. Once bubbles appear on pancake add the filling in a swirl around the pancake. Wait a couple seconds and flip the pancake. Cook the bottom of the pancake for a couple minuets (Do not wait too long, otherwise the filling will burn).  Flip the pancake on the plate and put in the oven on warm until all pancakes are done.

5. When the pancakes are done, drizzle the cream cheese on each pancake.

Notes:

* You can use butter instead of margarine, but the margarine cuts down on the fat and calories.

* Neufchatel Cheese had less fat than Cream Cheese, and had the same taste and texture as Cream Cheese.

* I used granulated Brown Sugar, which I would not recommend. It made the filling a little grainy, but I don’t think that it affected the taste.