My entire life I've been disappointed by the amount of the delicious white cheddar powder they give you in Annie's. I recently figured out that for like $15 on Amazon you can just buy a tub of the stuff that'll last you forever. https://www.amazon.com/Cheddar-Cheese-Powder-cheese-lovers/dp/B01INI4QA0 It is one of the best purchasing decisions I have ever made.
This is the answer. I've used the King Arthur powder, and also this one, which is cheaper. I prefer real cheese on macaroni, but both these powders taste a lot like Annie's when added to macaroni with butter and milk. It's also great on popcorn.
one time for funsies at the coffee shop I worked at I loaded the whipped cream maker with some heavy cream and white cheddar powder and charged it with a whip-it. I wouldn't say it tasted exactly like easy cheese but it tasted pretty close honestly.
Most importantly it didn't taste at all like whipped cream but it looked exactly like it which made it real fun when I offered to make a coworker a hot cocoa with it.
This is the one we've settled on. I've also tried their orange cheddar powder, but the white is a bit more sharp in my opinion. My one caveat is that it takes a lot of powder for a pound of pasta+meat and veggies (which is how we make it). I'm talking like, a cup of powder dissolved into 1/2 - 3/4 cup of milk, with maybe a dollop of Greek yogurt for extra tang. If you were doing just a few oz of pasta like a box of mac, I'm sure you could scale it way back. I hope you enjoy!
Alright so I've always been in love with shitty box mac n cheese, the cheaper the better. But now I can't eat gluten and the gluten free boxes are all stupid expensive and kind of shit besides, so here's my copycat recipe:
gluten free macaroni (preferably Barilla but whatever)
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp milk
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan
3-4 tbsp cheese powder
1/2 tsp modified tapioca starch (optional)
hot sauce to taste
Salt the shit out of your pasta water. Mix together the milk, egg, parm, cheese powder, tapioca starch and hot sauce. Cook and drain the pasta, then return it to the pot and mix in all the other stuff. Cook over medium low heat until the sauce gets as thick and creamy as you like, stirring and scraping the bottom with a spatula the whole time so the egg doesn't scramble.
I've never actually measured any of these ingredients so take them with a grain of salt.
I've only ever tried this brand's white cheddar powder, so I have no idea if the rest of their offerings are good. But as someone who was addicted to white cheddar popcorn and white cheddar mac and cheese, I was pretty satisfied.
You can find white cheddar cheese powder on Amazon for like 25 a tbsp
2 pounds of white cheddar powder; i use it on popcorn and mac and cheese
The ingredients, according to fastfoodnutrition.org:
> Water, Enriched Macaroni (semolina, egg white, glycerol monostearate, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Cream, Cheddar Cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), Cream Cheese (pasteurized cultured milk and cream, salt, stabilizers [xanthan and/or carob bean and/or guam gums]), Cheese Flavor (whey, cheddar cheese [milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes], buttermilk solids, butter), Contains less than 2% of the following: Modified Food Starch, Romano Cheese (sheep’s milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, calcium propionate), Butter Flavoring (whey solids, enzymemodified butter [butter, buttermilk powder, enzymes], maltodextrin, salt, dehydrated butter [butter, buttermilk powder], guar gum, annatto and turmeric [color]), Sodium Phosphates, Toasted Cheddar Base (natural cheddar cheese flavor [cheddar cheese {milk, culture, salt, enzymes}, water, whey, dry milk, salt, sodium phosphates, enzymes], salt, yeast extract, corn oil, butter [cream], cream solids, whey, sugar, spice, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate, natural flavor), Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, Onion Powder, Spices.
That's a lot of ingredients, and a lot of ingredients with their own ingredients. It's basically noodles, cream, cheese, cream cheese, and cheese flavoring, which is mostly made of...cheese. Butter flavoring, onion powder, and the generic "spices" round it out. Onion can be an allergen, hence why it's listed by itself. The "sodium phosphates" is where the thickening comes from, and this is important. These are salts that are used to emulsify the fatty ingredients into the watery ingredients. Sodium citrate is the easiest to find for home use, but you'll likely have to order from some place like Amazon.
I won't point you to a specific recipe, but what you'll want to look for is a sodium citrate mac and cheese recipe. Tons of people have done them, but the root is Modernist Cuisine, and probably popularized from there by Serious Eats. Use white cheddar in the same quantity as whatever cheese your recipe calls for. Arby's uses cream as the liquid, or cream and water, so honestly, just use something like whole or 2% milk. I've never added cream cheese to a mac and cheese recipe, so maybe substitute some for the other cheese. You don't technically need butter, because the sodium citrate is doing the thickening. As for the cheese powder, that's probably not terribly necessary, but you can order some from Amazon. The same company makes butter powder. Mustard powder is common in M&C recipes, and they use onion powder so hit it with just a bit of that. Hopefully that gets you close.
Deal link: Amazon (additional 15% off coupon on app)
Category-wise subreddits for Amazon Deals:
Category | Subreddit |
---|---|
Electronics | /r/Deals_Electronics |
Computers and Accessories | /r/Deals_Computers |
Video Games | /r/Deals_VideoGames |
Home Improvement | /r/Deals_HomeImprovement |
Clothing and Accessories | /r/Deals_Apparel |
Grocery | /r/Deals_Grocery |
Discord Server: Instant deal notifications on our Discord Server!
Amazon Canada Deals: /r/OnlineDealsCanada
Disclaimer: The deal links are affiliated. We may earn a small share on qualifying purchases. It does not affect the deal price in any way.
Deal link: Amazon
Category-wise subreddits for Amazon Deals:
Category | Subreddit |
---|---|
Electronics | /r/Deals_Electronics |
Computers and Accessories | /r/Deals_Computers |
Video Games | /r/Deals_VideoGames |
Home Improvement | /r/Deals_HomeImprovement |
Clothing and Accessories | /r/Deals_Apparel |
Grocery | /r/Deals_Grocery |
Discord Server: Instant deal notifications on our Discord Server!
Amazon Canada Deals: /r/OnlineDealsCanada
Disclaimer: The deal links are affiliated. We may earn a small share on qualifying purchases. It does not affect the deal price in any way.
Packaged Mac and cheese is just elbow noodles and cheese powder. Just buy the cheese powder in bulk.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01INI4QA0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_HJh3Fb939J5FQ