I was making breakfast for a friend a few days ago and made a simple pepper, cheddar and egg scramble with pancakes. I jokingly warned, “Watch out for maple syrup dribbling in your eggs.” Yet lo and behold when the cheddar intermingled with some of the maple syrup, my friend exclaimed,”Try the cheddar with the maple!!” I did and suddenly thought I should incorporate it in a mac and cheese recipe. I’m a Canadian boy so I’m not much of a proponent of the baked mac and cheese like those in the Southern United States, so mine is as quick to make as cooking the pasta.

Maple Mac N Cheese

225g (1/2 lb) dry macaroni or other small curved pasta

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup Gold Forest Grains soft white flour

3-1/2 to 4 cups 2% milk

3 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika

1 cup Sylvan Star 8 year old cheddar, shredded

1 cup Sylvan Star Italian spiced Gouda, shredded

1 cup Sylvan Star sheep’s milk Manchego, shredded

1/4 cup medium (amber) maple syrup

     In a large pot, bring 8-10 cups of water to a boil.

     As the water comes to a boil, shred the cheeses. Set aside.

     Add 1 Tbsp salt to the boiling water, add the pasta and stir occasionally as you move to the next step.

     In a medium saucepan, melt the butter then gradually whisk in the soft white flour. As the butter and flour tightens up, cook the mixture for a further minute. Slowly whisk in the milk a half a cup at a time, taking the time to fully incorporate the milk and thicken the mixture. When all of the milk is finally incorporated, add the paprika and maple syrup. Whisk to ensure there are no lumps of the spice and the maple syrup is uniformly combined. Take the sauce off the heat, add the variety of cheeses and whisk slowly to combine, allowing the residual heat of the sauce to melt the cheese into the sauce.

     Drain the cooked pasta and ladle the prepared cheese sauce into the pasta. Stir to uniformly coat each pasta noodle and serve immediately. Serves 4-6.