We’re not the first ones to the mac and cheese balls party but we filled them with stilton and had to share it with you!!
So yes, mac and cheese balls are literally everywhere these days, and we are certainly not complaining about that. We love the balls. We’ve been wanting to make these for ages and with the run up to Christmas well and truly underway and plenty of talk of the numerous cheese boards we want to eat over the festive period we decided to fill the mac and cheese balls with Stilton, king of the cheeseboard. We’re big Stilton fans, but if Stilton isn’t your thing, fill with your favourite cheese instead! It works best with cheeses that melt well so consider that when making your choice.
First step to making a mac and cheese ball is the mac and cheese. It’s key to the integrity of the ball that you make this in advance and allow it to completely cool down. This makes forming the balls easier as the sauce solidifies a little. We made our sauce quite thick and very cheesy to help with this too.
Once the mac and cheese is cooled, time to form ball and coat! We cut the Stilton up, it is also very crumbly so kind of breaks up easily itself anyway, then with a handful of mac and cheese we surrounded about a 1cm cube of Stilton, firmly compacted and then coated with flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. We even went as far as adding crushed cheese puffs to the breadcrumbs for even more cheese flavour because if you can’t go completely overboard at Christmas, when can you?!
Allowing the balls to sit for at least 10 mins helps to solidify them and keeps their integrity when frying, you can even refrigerate or freeze these. Freezing them also means you can prep for parties by making them days in advance and then just frying off, just bear in mind they’ll need to cook longer if they’re frozen, it’s always best to check the centre of the first one to make sure you’ve got you’re cooking time right! They are really best served hot when they’re all crispy, we ate our smothered in sirracha mayo!
- 1tbsp butter
- 2tbsp plain flour
- 300ml whole milk
- 250g macaroni, boiled till cooked
- 175g extra mature cheddar, grated
- 80g grated mozarella
- 1tsp dijon mustard
- 1tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt & pepper to taste
- 200g fine breadcrumbs
- 3 eggs, whisked
- 200g plain flour
- 100g stilton, cubed
- In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour to form a paste, stir for about a minute just to cook off the flour.
- Add the milk bit by bit until the sauce starts to thicken, you should end up with a nice white sauce.
- Add the mustard, seasoning, Worcestershire sauce and cheese, continue stirring until all the cheese has fully melted.
- Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni, start with half and stir. You will need just enough sauce to coat the macaroni.
- Cover & transfer to the fridge to cool and set to a firm texture.
- Begin with 3 bowls to set up your panne; one with breadcrumbs, one with egg and the last with flour.
- Ball the cooled macaroni cheese by starting with a small handful of macaroni and pushing a cube of stilton into it.
- Form a ball by firmly squeezing the macaroni together to create a tight ball, you don’t want the macaroni falling apart.
- Dip each ball into the egg, then the flour, then the egg again and finally into the breadcrumbs.
- Fry the balls in a preheated fryer at 175C until golden brown and crispy.
- Serve immediately whilst they’re still hot and the cheese is melted.
