Mac & Cheese Pie with Bacon Crust

After I posted this on Facebook, and then mentioned it as being my favorite thing from last week here on my blog, I've been asked for the recipe.  I had originally hunted down a recipe at a website called 30 Days 30 Ways Mac and Cheese that is sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and collaborates with food bloggers to create inventive recipes for the all-American favorite macaroni and cheese.  I will be reading the rest of that website looking for other recipes!

Here's a link to the original recipe:  Mac & Cheese Pie with Bacon Crust (recipe created by DudeFoods.com

And here's what I did, generally following his recipe - Spencer helped me, so it's school-related, right?!

I wove the bacon into a square about the size of my pie plate, then flipped it into the pie plate and pressed it down with another pie tin.  This presses it into the plate in a crust shape and keeps it from curling up too much as it cooks.  I took another six slices of bacon and wove it into the loose lattice on a baking sheet.  Both went into a 400* oven for about 20 minutes.  (I used thick slice bacon, so I felt it needed a bit more time than the original recipe suggested.)

While the bacon was in the oven, I cooked the pasta (about 8 ounces uncooked) and made the cheese sauce.  Melt 1/4 cup butter over medium heat and stir in about 2 1/2 tablespoons flour.  Add 2 cups milk slowly, stirring constantly.  Then stir in about 4 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar because that's what I had on hand - he suggests Colby Jack) and about 1/2 cup Parmesan (I used fresh shredded).  Cook and stir over low heat until it is thickened and the cheese is all melted.  Stir the cooked and drained pasta and the cheese sauce together. 

Also, melt about 2 tablespoons butter in a small skillet and brown about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs in that.

When the bacon is done cooking, it will need to be drained and cooled a bit.  The original recipe suggests blotting the bacon with a paper towel to absorb the grease, but I didn't think this was effective enough.  Next time, I will actually drain it - I am pretty sure that if I hold the second pie tin inside the plate, the bacon will stay put while I pour off the grease and then maybe I will even put it back in the oven without that second pan to crisp it up just a bit before filling it.  Anyway, I put all the mac and cheese filling that I hadn't already sampled in the crust, topped it with the bread crumbs and some fresh chopped basil, then put the bacon lattice on top and put the whole thing back in the oven for another 15 minutes.



Now our pie did not slice into wedges as neatly as the picture on the website and facebook shows.  I think this is because our bacon crust was not as crisp as it should have been. 

Oh. My. Word.  So delicious!!! Very rich.  A cheese and bacon lover's dream meal.

Have you tried it?  Let me know what you think in the comments!  I love to talk about cheese and bacon almost as much as I like to talk about homeschooling and coffee!