Potato or Potahto 🙂 always a favorite, even better when double baked and oozing with cheese.
I love to make this dish for big parties, it’s a no brainer, why?
Here are some reasons:
Crowd pleaser: everyone loves potatoes.
Not picky: sweet, Ube, plain potato? just change the cheese to match the flavor profile or to your taste.
Ms Popularity: a potato agrees with everyone, it’s even gluten free!
Forget about it: the whole dish can be made the day before and refrigerated until it’s service time.
Easy peasy: bakes for 25 minutes while you prepare the main entrée’.
Finally, if all of the afore mentioned reasons are not enough, or you need one more…..well, look at the video and how Zen it is to pipe the filling in the skins. Find Nirvana in cooking, and eating…always.
Ingredients
Just a quick note on the size of the potatoes:
choose some spuds with (about) the same size. You don’t want to end up with an overcooked potato and an undercooked one.
Garnishes you can use
Tools
You could pre cut the foil in strips or squares before washing the potatoes or use pre cut sheets available in food service retail stores.
Twice Baked Potatoes : directions
1st Bake
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Scrub the potatoes and dry.
Poke them with the point of a knife and wrap them in aluminum foil.
Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for about 40 min or until tented when “squeezed”.
NOTE: to squeeze the potatoes wear an oven mitt and don’t squeeze too hard. You will know when they are tender enough.
Remove potatoes from the oven and unwrap. Let cool while you prepare the sauce.
When the potatoes are cooler to the touch, cut them in half and carefully scoop the core leaving a rim of about 1/4 inch.
Check the video to see how the potatoes should look after the core has been removed.
To prepare the sauce:
1-Warm up the milk and the cream in a microwave, the mix doesn’t need to boil.
2-In a medium casserole, melt butter with nutmeg. ( For extra flavor you could brown the butter. )
3-Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter and stir until the flour is toasted, about 3 minutes.
4-Pour the warm milk into the pan in a stream, while whisking, to prevent the formation of lumps.
The sauce should get thicker without reaching boiling point.
5-Once the sauce has started to thicken, pour the cheese and stir until cheese has melted.
6- Off heat: add the baked potato cores to the sauce. You can use a hand mixer for better results.
Alternatively, you can use a whisk.
7-Once the potatoes have cooled add the egg yolk and incorporate
NOTE:
At this point it will be ok to add greens such as Parsley, Chives or any of your choice.
At this point it will be ok to add greens such as Parsley, Chives or any of your choice.
2nd Bake
Make sure that you oven has kept the same temperature (350 degrees) as you previously used.
Bake the filled potatoes for about 20 to 30 minutes or until puffy, and lightly brown on the edges.
Serve at once.
Should you decide not to bake the potatoes after you piped the filling, you can refrigerate them, covered for up to 3 days.
Bake from cold increasing baking time by 10 minutes or as needed.
Varied doses for servings