This smokey, creamy Bacon Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese for Two is made with butternut squash roasted in bacon drippings, crunchy panko, and sharp Cheddar cheese.
You all know how I feel about creamy, cheesy pasta. (Hello Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bell Peppers , Easy Fettuccine Alfredo With Broccoli , and cute little Mac and Cheese for One ). You throw some butter, some milk or cream, and some cheese over carbs, and I am good to go.
But come fall, I start wanting to a little something extra in my pasta, like maybe some bacon, or maybe some butternut squash, or maybe both…
Folks, please allow me to introduce Bacon Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese for Two.
Oh this is a beautiful, wonderful, amazing fall dinner for two. It’s smokey from the bacon, just a tiny bit sweet from the butternut squash, crunchy from the panko on top, and so cheesy.
You start with a few slices of bacon, cooked till crisp, and then you roast the butternut squash in the bacon drippings. Since this is a dinner for two, you only need about 1/4 of a butternut squash, but I totally recommend roasting some extra, because you are going to want to eat the bacon-roasted squash right off the pan (learned this one the hard way).
Puree the squash that you don’t eat (or if you’re lazy like me and don’t mind a little texture in your sauce, just give it a good mashing with a potato masher). Then you mix your roasted squash puree with with a simple cheese sauce, stir in half of your bacon, stir in some pasta, coat with more cheese and panko and bake.
Let that butternut squash mac and cheese hang out in the oven just long enough for the cheese on top to melt and the panko to crunch up and turn a beautiful golden brown. Sprinkle a little more bacon on top and enjoy!
This makes a generous meal for two or side dish for four (perfect for a small Thanksgiving side, perhaps?), or you could scale it up as much as you’d like. This is a particularly flexible dish!
Bacon Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese Recipe Notes
- If you don’t normally stock panko, you can order it from amazon or find it next to the bread crumbs at the grocery store. You can substitute bread crumbs here, but I really recommend panko for its superior crunch and texture.
- Here’s how to cut butternut squash if you’ve never done it before.
- I’m not kidding about roasting some extra squash for eating! If you are roasting more than half a squash or have particularly lean bacon, cook an extra piece or two of bacon so you have plenty of drippings for roasting.
- You can omit the bacon to make this vegetarian butternut squash mac and cheese, just toss the squash with about a tablespoon of oil before roasting.
Ingredients
- ▢ 2 ounces ( 3 to 4 slices) thick-cut bacon or bacon ends
- ▢ 1/4 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
- ▢ Salt and pepper
- ▢ 4 ounces ( 1 cup) macaroni or conchigliette
- ▢ 1 1/4 cups milk divided
- ▢ 2 tablespoons butter
- ▢ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ▢ Pinch ground nutmeg
- ▢ Pinch crushed rosemary
- ▢ 3/4 cup ( 3 oz) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese divided
- ▢ 1/2 cup panko
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F, line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Put water on to boil for the pasta.
- In a medium pan over medium heat, cook bacon until crispy. Remove bacon from pan and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Add squash to the pan and toss in the drippings until well-coated. Pour squash out onto your prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender.
- Cook your pasta according to package instructions, drain and set aside. Crumble or chop bacon into bite-sized pieces.
- While your pasta cooks, puree roasted butternut squash in your food processor or blender. Add 1/4 cup of the milk and puree until smooth.
- In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook until golden brown, about 30 seconds. Whisk in milk, stirring constantly so no lumps form. Continue to whisk mixture for 3 to 5 minutes, until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Stir in pureed butternut squash and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Salt and pepper to taste and add (just!) a pinch of ground nutmeg and rosemary. Stir in 1/2 of the bacon and the prepared noodles.
- Transfer mixture to a greased 7x5-inch baking dish. Top with the remaining cheese followed by the panko. Bake for 12 to 17 minutes or until cheese is melted and panko crunchy and golden.
- Top with remaining bacon and cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Recipe Adapted From: Two Peas and Their Pod
These 12 NaNoWriMo snacks will help keep you fueled and energized all the way to 50k.
Today is a very important day. One, it’s the day after Halloween, which means we are one holiday closer to my favorite holiday, Christmas, and two, it’s the first day of National Novel Writing Month!!
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.
I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo on and off since I was a kid, but last year was the first year I hit my 50k (that’s right, Baking for Two wasn’t the only book I wrote last year </shameless self promotion> 😉 ).
I’m participating again this year, and to celebrate the start, I’ve put together a little round up of NaNoWriMo snacks to keep us fueled and energized all the way to 50,000.
There are treats for solo snacking/writing, and since regional writing meetups are one of the awesome parts of NaNoWriMo, there are also treats to serve a crowd. My requirements were: not too messy, portable, easy to make, and delicious (obvs).
If you’re anything like me, I think you’ll enjoy expanding the traditional NaNoWriMo diet of:
- Coffee
- Leftover Halloween Candy
- Crippling self-doubt 😉
Good luck everyone. I hope to see you all at the end of 50k!
Solo Snacking
Small-batch Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats
Healthy Cinnamon Apple Chips from Cook Craft Love
Easy Homemade Kettle Corn
Sweets to Share
Strawberry Sencha Green Tea Doughnuts
Chocolate Chip Coffee Cookies from Marsha’s Baking Addiction
Crunchy Caramel Snack Mix from Butter Your Biscuit
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dip from Swanky Recipes
Homemade Trail Mix: Nutty + Healthy from Mid-Life Croissant
Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins from Where You Get Your Protein
Savory and Salty
11/22 Update: Just gonna leave this here… 😉
These small-batch Bacon Scones with Maple Glaze are one of my favorite recipes from my new cookbook, Baking for Two !
Release day update: Baking for Two is officially on sale as of today!
As you might know, the digital version of my cookbook, Baking for Two, comes out tomorrow (print version will ship on the 21st). It’s all very exciting and also terrifying, but mostly exciting, but mostly I want to throw up, and I probably will not sleep tonight.
Guys, I’m realizing I may not be the very best at handling professional stress/excitement.
Anyway, while I’m busy having my own little melt down, I do hope you’ll check out Baking for Two . So much went into making this book, and I think you will absolutely love the small-batch recipes in there.
And in case you missed my last post on the topic , here’s a quick run down of what you get with this book: 80+ sweet and savory small-batch baking recipes, baking school (taught by yours truly, where I run through common baking ingredients and techniques), and 234 pages of me finding increasingly ridiculous ways of describing how delicious each recipe is. 😉
I love, love, love these mini bacon scones because aside from being amazing and everything good about breakfast food, mini scones are the CUTEST.
LOOK AT THESE TINY TRIANGLES!! Don’t you just want to try to shove an entire one in your face just to see if you can?
As far as scones go, these ones are just about perfect. Soft and a little crumbly. They bake up so tall, are EASY to make, and are exactly the sort of recipe you want in your breakfast recipe arsenal.
They bake with a bit of bacon in the dough, then once they come out of the oven, you add a maple glaze and some more bacon over the top. The end result is these completely adorable, delectable sweet and salty scones that you are going to love.
More Breakfast Treats
- Poundcake Cupcakes (Cupcakes for Breakfast)
- Easy Cream Scones
- Maple Cream Scones
- Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
Bacon Scones With Maple Glaze Recipe Notes
- This recipe only calls for just a bit of buttermilk. Check out my Waste Not post, “What to Do With Leftover Buttermilk,” for storage tips and recipe ideas for the leftovers.
- These scones are, far and away, best on the first day.
Ingredients
Scones
- ▢ 3 slices bacon
- ▢ 1 cup ( 120 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 12 g) sugar
- ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
- ▢ 1/3 cup buttermilk
Maple Glaze
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 30 g) powdered sugar
- ▢ 1 teaspoon milk
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon maple extract
Instructions
Scones
- Preheat oven to 450°F and lightly grease your baking sheet.
- Cook bacon until crisp, using your preferred method, and crumble or chop into ¼-inch pieces.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Use a pastry cutter, two knives, or your fingers to cut cubed butter into flour mixture until no pieces larger than a pea remain. Stir in 2/3 of the bacon. Reserve 1/3 for topping.
- Use a fork to work in buttermilk until a thick dough forms. Turn out on a well-floured surface and knead 4 or 5 times, until the dough comes together and can be formed into a ball.
- Press ball out to about a 6-inch disk and use a knife or bench scraper to cut into quarters.
- Transfer scones to prepared baking pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until scones are just lightly golden.
- Cool scones on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before glazing.
Glaze
- Whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and maple extract until smooth and drizzle over scones.
- Sprinkle reserved bacon pieces over the top of the scones.
- Serve and enjoy!
Bacon Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese for Two
Ingredients
- 2 ounces ( 3 to 4 slices) thick-cut bacon or bacon ends
- 1/4 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 4 ounces ( 1 cup) macaroni or conchigliette
- 1 1/4 cups milk divided
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Pinch ground nutmeg
- Pinch crushed rosemary
- 3/4 cup ( 3 oz) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese divided
- 1/2 cup panko
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F, line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Put water on to boil for the pasta.
- In a medium pan over medium heat, cook bacon until crispy. Remove bacon from pan and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Add squash to the pan and toss in the drippings until well-coated. Pour squash out onto your prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender.
- Cook your pasta according to package instructions, drain and set aside. Crumble or chop bacon into bite-sized pieces.
- While your pasta cooks, puree roasted butternut squash in your food processor or blender. Add 1/4 cup of the milk and puree until smooth.
- In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook until golden brown, about 30 seconds. Whisk in milk, stirring constantly so no lumps form. Continue to whisk mixture for 3 to 5 minutes, until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Stir in pureed butternut squash and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Salt and pepper to taste and add (just!) a pinch of ground nutmeg and rosemary. Stir in 1/2 of the bacon and the prepared noodles.
- Transfer mixture to a greased 7x5-inch baking dish. Top with the remaining cheese followed by the panko. Bake for 12 to 17 minutes or until cheese is melted and panko crunchy and golden.
- Top with remaining bacon and cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
