Using mktemp in makefile

I want to create a temporary file and pipe some text into it using a makefile. In bash, I can create a temp file and pipe text into it like so: temp_file=$(mktemp) echo "text goes into file" > ${temp_file} cat ${temp_file} rm ${temp_file} Output when running it (as expected): text goes into file When using the same code in a makefile, I get the following output: makefile: test: temp_file=$(mktemp) echo "text goes into file" > ${temp_file} cat ${temp_file} rm ${temp_file} $make test echo "text goes into file" > /bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token newline' /bin/sh: -c: line 1: echo "text goes into file" > ' make: *** [makefile:18: test] Error 2 Any idea what I'm doing wrong here or if I'm missing any special makefile syntax rules?