Tini Younger put her viral mac and cheese in front of a national audience as a celebrity chef, sharing the recipe on Good Morning America. The dish comes from her new cookbook, Today We Are Cooking, and the move gives home cooks a full version of the recipe instead of a clipped online teaser.
Today We Are Cooking
Younger brought fan-favorite recipes to Good Morning America in celebration of the book, including her grandmother's favorite apple pie and a loaded baked potato broccoli soup. The mac and cheese is the clearest business card in the set: it is the recipe that has already traveled online, and now it arrives tied to a new release with a wider platform behind it.
Colby Jack and cavatappi
The recipe is built on 1 pound of cavatappi pasta, 16 ounces of low-moisture mozzarella cheese, 8 ounces of Colby Jack cheese, 8 ounces of cheddar cheese, 12-ounce can evaporated milk, 2 cups heavy cream, 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon chives, 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Younger bakes it in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish at 350 F for 25 to 30 minutes, then broils it for about 2 minutes until the top turns golden brown.
Four days in storage
That mix of multiple cheeses and a two-step finish makes the dish look straightforward on paper but slightly more involved in practice. The recipe still stays in home-cook territory because the method is simple to follow, and leftover mac and cheese can be kept in an airtight container for up to 4 days, which makes the payoff extend beyond a single meal.
Younger's appearance does the practical work that cookbook promotion is supposed to do: it turns a social media hit into a usable recipe people can cook now. What remains open is scale, not method; the book and the viral mac and cheese have been put in front of viewers, but how many copies Today We Are Cooking has sold or how many views the recipe drew is not stated.
