Halloween Pumpkin Ale Mac and Cheese

Black and orange with amazing flavor profile! Delicious pumpkin ale cheddar cheese sauce, color enhanced with smoked paprika and turmeric and drizzled over black bean rotini for stunning visual effect. Non-beer based sauce version included.

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Halloween Pumpkin Ale Mac and Cheese. The colors!!!!

Halloween Pumpkin Ale Mac and Cheese. Pumpkin ale cheese sauce over black bean rotini.

This pumpkin ale mac and cheese is (obviously) intended for inclusion in a Halloween feast. So its totally legit to call it Halloween Mac and Cheese. The black rotini, the strikingly orange cheese sauce, the gamut of flavors dancing together in this seemingly simple dish.

Pumpkin Ale in Cheese Sauce

Once again we reached out for a pumpkin ale as an ingredient. 'Tis the season after all. Pumpkin ale is just so perfectly suited for a cheddar beer sauce with generous dashes of smoked paprika and turmeric for extra flavor (but mostly for color intensity).

You can opt in or you can modify the pumpkin ale mac and cheese by tweaking the ingredients of the sauce. I include a non-beer based version in the recipe card below, in case you want to prepare it for children or simply hate beer cheese sauces...cannot see why you would, but still:)

Not using pumpkin ale will lead to the loss of its characteristic pumpkin spice flavors which come together so well with sharp cheddar and the smoked paprika and turmeric coloring agents. So you will have to add some actual pumpkin spice. Just be careful to not overdo it. You want hints of it, not to make it the star of the show.

When drinking pumpkin ale the aromas and taste of the spice can feel overwhelming (they do to Chris and I). When using the ale to cook with the pumpkin spice becomes much less intense, even elegant. The real loss in not using pumpkin ale however is concentrated in the loss of the delicious and deep maltiness the ale contributes to the sauce. This cannot be made up for in the non-beer version.

Pumpkin Ale Mac and Cheese sauce for Halloween

Beer Pairings

Speaking strictly color wise, if you like to drink pumpkin ales (and not solely use them as cooking with beer ingredient) do pair this fun dish with one:) These ales frequently display deep orange/amber hues perfectly complementing Halloween decor. Of course, you could also go with a pitch black Schwarzbier.

Joking aside, both styles of beer will support the flavor profile of our pumpkin ale mac and cheese with their sweetness and carbonation to cut through the fattiness of the cheese sauce...After all, most beers pair well with most cheeses. So if you want to grab an amber ale - great choice!

How to Serve It

To achieve maximum visual amusement with this Halloween pumpkin ale mac and cheese you must do the unthinkable.

You must resist the urge to generously coat the macaroni in the cheddar sauce prior to serving. Doing this would mean losing out on the beautiful contrast between the black and the orange.

Instead of tossing the macaroni straight into the sauce, drizzle some olive oil over them so they don't stick together and serve with a generous side of sauce to be poured over the blackness. Once the visual contrast has been devoured by the eyes and they have feasted in their own right, the macaroni and the cheddar sauce can be united, both still very warm and bursting with flavor.

Halloween Pumpkin Ale Mac and Cheese, Pumpkin ale and cheddar cheese dip

As a last talking point - I know that you have been asking yourself - what makes the macaroni black. In our case the answer is black beans. I did in fact try to purchase squid ink colored macaroni, but was only able to find spaghetti or tagliatelle. Which could have worked beautifully, we could have used our pumpkin ale meat sauce (most certainly color enhanced with smoked paprika and turmeric) with black spaghetti or tagliatelle, but luckily I happened upon these gorgeous black bean rotini made from organic black bean flour. At Trader Joe's, one of my favorite places to shop ever. So if there is one near you - they have your black rotini. And with black rotini you pretty much need our pumpkin ale cheese sauce.

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