I love potatoes! It’s as simple as that. It really doesn’t matter whether they are baked, scalloped, au gratin, mashed, boiled, hashbrowned, or in some other form. Potatoes are just yummy. But, if you are looking for a version that takes potatoes to the next level, try these Duchess Potatoes. With egg yolks, cream, butter, and parmesan, these are stellar potatoes!
These look fancy but are not that hard to make. The cooking process just takes two steps First, you boil the potatoes and then you bake them.
To get started, peel some russet potatoes and cut them into 1 inch chunks. Now they are ready for the first cooking process—boiling. When boiling potatoes it is really important to place the potatoes in a pot and cover them with room temperature water. You want the water and potatoes to heat up together so that the potatoes will cook evenly. Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium and simmer the potatoes until a fork can be easily inserted and the potatoes are tender. When the potatoes are tender, drain the water and return the potatoes to the warm pot for a couple of minutes to let the rest of the water evaporate. Be sure the burner under the pot is turned off when drying the potatoes to prevent sticking and burning.
Using a potato masher, mash the warm potatoes until they are smooth. Then add the egg yolks, butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cream to the potatoes. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine the ingredients into a smooth potato mixture. Be careful not to overmix the potatoes. Just gently combine them until the butter is melted.
Now it is time to get the potatoes ready for baking, so transfer the potato mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe round mounds of potatoes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Space them about 2 inches apart. This recipe will make approximately 8 mounds. No pastry bag? Don’t stress. You can cut the corner off of a zip-top bag and push a large star tip through the hole. No large star tip? No worries. Just use a zip-top bag with a cut-off corner to pipe the potatoes into mounds. The potato mountains won’t have the nicely browned ridges, but they will still be delicious!
For the final touch, I like to dust the top of the mounds with a little finely-grated Swiss cheese.
Now it is time to bake these little snow-covered mountains of potato lusciousness.
They need to bake for about 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees F. Be sure to rotate the baking sheet after the first 15 minutes. When they are done, the ridges will be lightly browned and the outside will be a little crispy.
While these are intended to jazz up the looks of your dinner, you may have trouble getting all of them to the table. You will just want to bite into that crispy exterior to reach the mouth-watering creamy interior the minute they come out of the oven. No fork necessary. Take my advice, do it and just Enjoy!
- 1½ pounds russet potatoes
- 3 egg yolks, room temperature
- 3 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
- 3 Tbsp. heavy cream
- ½ kosher salt plus salt for the water to boil the potatoes
- ½ tsp. ground black pepper
- a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- ⅓ cup finely shredded Swiss cheese
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Line baking sheet with parchment.
- Peel potatoes. Cut them into 1 inch chunks.
- Place the potatoes in a pot. Cover the potatoes with water. The water level should be 1 to 2 inches above the potatoes. Bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat. When the water boils, turn the heat down to medium and simmer the potatoes until a fork can be easily inserted and the potatoes are tender. This will take 10 to 20 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes in a colander, removing as much water as possible.
- Return the potatoes to the pot and cook over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes to dry them further.
- Using a potato masher, mash the warm potatoes until they are smooth.
- Add the egg yolks, butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cream to the potatoes. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine the ingredients into a smooth potato mixture. Gently stir until the butter is melted. Do not overmix.
- Transfer the potato mixture to a large pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Pipe round mounds of potatoes onto the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Space them about 2 inches apart. This will make approximately 8 mounds.
- Sprinkle the potato mounds with Swiss cheese.
- Bake the potatoes for about 25-30 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet after the first 15 minutes.
© 2017 FoodieOasis
