Weight Watchers Macaroni and Cheese Cupcakes
You can substitute any of your favorite cheese for the Gruyere and Swiss and you can lower calories with reduced fat versions. Points: 3 Weight Watchers points plus. Servings: 12 servings. Serving Size: 1 cupcake.
You can substitute any of your favorite cheese for the Gruyere and Swiss and you can lower calories with reduced fat versions. Points: 3 Weight Watchers points plus. Servings: 12 servings. Serving Size: 1 cupcake.
- Carbohydrate 0.786246874969396 g
- Cholesterol 15.8344270843706 mg
- Fat 4.9481557295649 g
- Fiber 0.0637500007947286 g
- Protein 4.19873072914918 g
- Saturated Fat 3.07028072941881 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (35g)
- Sodium 52.2811935790385 mg
- Sugar 0.722496874174667 g
- Trans Fat 0.310904687528261 g
- Calories 64 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners or cooking spray. I prefer cupcake liners because they are easier to get out.
- In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Slowly whisk in the flour to make a roux. This will help thicken the sauce.
- Add in the milk and garlic bring it to just under a boil. Slowly whisk in the cheese and continue to cook until the cheese sauce comes together.
- Pull the cheese sauce off the stove and mix in one egg and one egg white. Adding eggs will help the cupcakes to stay together.
- In a large bowl, combine the cooked pasta, spinach, cheese sauce, salt, and pepper. Pour the mixture into your cupcake tin evenly.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until the macaroni and cheese cupcakes get brown on the top. Enjoy as a great lunch, fun appetizer, and treat!
How many portions can this muffin tin formula yield before structural integrity collapses? Standard metal twelve-cup pans work reliably for this specific batch, but doubling the quantities requires a second tin rather than cramming extra mixture into existing wells. Overfilled cups overflow before the binders set, leaving a soggy exterior instead of crisp edges. Working in batches preserves the necessary thermal circulation inside a 400-degree oven.
Scaling quantities upward demands proportional adjustments to the binding agents. Whole eggs and whites provide the primary structural matrix, coagulating during the ten to fifteen minutes of high-heat baking to hold elbow pasta together without flour-heavy weight. Tripling the recipe means multiplying the roux base carefully, whisking cold 1% milk into melted butter and flour over medium heat to prevent lumps from forming in larger saucepans.
Dairy substitutions alter moisture levels significantly during baking. Gruyere and Swiss melt into a stretchy, cohesive matrix, but swapping them for lower-fat mozzarella or cheddar requires reducing the milk by two tablespoons to compensate for higher water content in lighter cheeses. Spinach introduces additional liquid, which means squeezing cooked greens thoroughly in a clean kitchen towel before folding them into the pasta mixture.
Leftover baked cups store safely in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheating individual portions in a toaster oven at 350 degrees for five minutes restores the exterior crust better than microwave methods, which tend to make pasta rubbery and soften the browned cheese top.
