Gwyneth Paltrow's Favorite Recipes

Actress and author Gwyneth Paltrow shares her family recipes along with personal stories of growing up in her father, Bruce Paltrow, in her new cookbook "My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness" . She discusses how he influenced her in the food she loves, how she involves her kids in cooking, and how she balanced healthy food with homemade treats.

We'll be talking live with Gwyneth via satellite.

Bruce Paltrow's World-Famous Pancakes

Now if there is one image of my father that is the most "him"---that is to say encapsulates all of his elements and delivers them in one picture---it would be him over his cast-iron griddles making his world-famous pancakes. These things have been legendary in our house for decades. He first got the recipe out of the Joy of Cooking and adapted it over the years to utter perfection. The recipe below is so truthful to his pancakes that it's almost hard for me to eat them, I keep expecting him to walk into the kitchen.

3 cups unbleached allpurpose
flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1/2
teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons fine salt
3 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted
butter, melted and cooled,
plus more butter for
cooking
6 organic large eggs
Up to 1 cup milk, as needed
to thin batter
Real Vermont maple syrup,
warmed, for serving

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, butter, and eggs together in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisking just enough to combine (small lumps are okay). Let the batter sit, covered, overnight. The next morning, heat up your griddle or favorite nonstick pan and slick it with a little butter. Add enough milk to the batter to thin it to the right consistency---the thicker the batter, the thicker and heavier your pancakes; the thinner the batter, the more delicate your pancakes---neither is wrong. Cook the pancakes on the griddle, flipping them after bubbles appear on the surface of the uncooked side. Let cook 2-3 minutes more, then remove, and eat with lots of warm maple syrup.

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Macaroni & Cheese (a few ways)

I grew up looking forward to the nights we had mac and cheese; my mother would pop the supermarket frozen kind in the toaster oven and the bubbling American cheese would go all brown on top. My brother and I used to fight over the crispy bits. In this more Italian-leaning (and preservative-free) version, the ultimate comfort food gets an elegant makeover. I love to serve this in ramekins for individual portions, adjusting the flavors at the end for each member of my family.

1 pound elbow macaroni
(preferably with ridges)
8 ounces mascarpone
Pinch freshly grated
nutmeg
1 cup tightly packed grated
Parmesan cheese, plus
1/2 cup for topping
1/2 cup milk
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black
pepper
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons unsalted
Butter

for variation add one of
the following:
1 cup Basic Tomato Sauce
1 ball fresh mozzarella, cubed
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup Taleggio cheese,broken into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 400°F and turn it on to convection if that's a possibility. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the macaroni for 2 minutes less than indicated on the package. Meanwhile, stir together the
mascarpone, nutmeg, and 1 cup of Parmesan in a small saucepan over a medium flame until the cheeses melt together, about 2 minutes. Stir in the milk and salt and pepper to taste and keep the sauce warm over a low flame. Drain the pasta and combine it with the sauce. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmesan and the bread crumbs. At this point, you can put the macaroni in a large baking dish, scatter the bread crumb topping over it, dot it with the butter, and bake it for 15 minutes and it will be great.
Or you can do any of the following variations, which can be done in 4-ounce ramekins to make individual servings:

1. Put a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, then pour the macaroni over the sauce, sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture, dot with butter, and bake for 15 minutes.
2. Mix the mozzarella with the macaroni before pouring into the baking dish. Top with the bread crumb mixture, dot with butter, and bake for 15 minutes. This is also particularly nice with the tomato sauce base as in number 1, above.
3. After you pour the macaroni into the baking dish, tuck in tiny bits of the crumbled Gorgonzola, sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture, dot with butter, and bake for 15 minutes.
4. After you pour the macaroni into the baking dish, put a layer of Taleggio on top, sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture, dot with butter, and bake for 15 minutes.