First, sorry if you saw a version of this with just the pictures. Blogger somehow created two versions of this post, and I clicked “Publish” on the wrong one. My bad.
So anyway, this is a more common version of twice baked potatoes than the sour cream and chive ones that I did before. And I only have two things to say about them: Too much cheese … too much bacon. (By the way, that’s not a warning. It’s a recommendation.)
Ingredients
potatoes
bacon
cheese (see below for amounts)
Directions
The first step in twice baked potatoes is to … bake the potatoes. Yeah, totally unexpected, huh? So two little tips on the baking.
First, rolls of aluminum foil are much wider than you need to wrap a potato. To rip the foil … Wait a second. Yeah, I know this isn’t a huge secret, but if you’ve never seen anyone do it, you don’t know. So like I was saying, to rip the foil use the edge of a counter. Like so.
Then wrap each potato.
Second tip, run a wooden skewer long-ways through the fattest potato you’ve got. When it’s cooked all the way through, the skewer will pull out with no resistance.
Because I was only doing four potatoes, I used the toaster oven instead of the full-size. Set it to 350° and give it at least a half-hour or so before you start testing the skewer.
Once they’re done, unwrap and cut them in half.
Using a spoon, scoop out most of the center. Leave enough that the skin keeps its shape.
While the potatoes are cooking, turn the bacon into bacon bits. Add some bacon bits and all the melted bacon fat to the scooped-out potato.
Then add the cheese. You can go heavier with the bacon or heavier with the cheese, as long as it’s about half potato and half fillings.
Using a spoon or a potato masher, mash all the fillings together.
Divide the filling evenly among all the scooped out shells and put them on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350° until the cheese is melted. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Go a little longer if you want the cheese to be browned on top. That’s how I prefer them.
And that’s it.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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21 Comments
Twice baked potatoes sound like anything twice baked — an awful lot of work (and a hot kitchen)! Perhaps it’s just because I live in Texas, where Christmas fell on a 75 degree day.
That said, the pics look delicious enough for me to actually be tempted to try this!
If you want the twice-baked potatoes without heating up the kitchen (and a faster prep!), bake them in the microwave initially, then scoop, mix and mound the filling back into the hollowed-out potato shells, and put ‘em on the grill! You can wrap them in foil to grill, but keep the foil loosely-tented on the top so you don’t lose all the yummy melted cheese.
These totally work on the grill, you know. I usually don’t bake whole potatoes on the grill because it takes so long, but if you don’t want to heat the house up …
Oh wow. Those look so frigging good. I live in Boston so heating up the house, especially this time of the year isn’t a problem.
Bob, the only problem here is that I’ve got a couple of really old windows in the kitchen, and they’re not insulated real well. So whenever I cook, the windows sweat like Charles Barkley walking up a flight of stairs.
Yum! These are making my mouth water. I know what I’m having for dinner tonight!.
May I ask, why do you wrap the potatoes in foil? It’s always been my practice to spray potatoes with oil and sprinkle a little salt on before baking – to give a lovely crispy skin.
Dude…it’s January…people are tryin to diet….not nice posting these kinda pics….drool
I laughed at FoodRenegade’s comment…75 degrees on Christmas Day. It was -22 here in New Brunswick on Xmas with an 18 hour power outage.
Anyhoo…Drew do you have a receipe for basic beef stew? Everyone I tried had thick gravy or way too many spices. I like to taste the veggies and the meat.
Love the site…recipes rock
Altissima, you know, I asked myself that as I was making it. Your question prompted me to go looking for an answer, and I found this page. I knew it would have the answer I needed when I read this: “When we picture a baked potato, we picture it wrapped in shiny aluminum foil. Why is that? Because restaurants serve them that way? Because our parents did it? We think we must have done it out of habit, without knowing the reason. Not anymore…”
Kim, you think you’ve got it bad? I have to make all the stuff you see here.
Trudy, my father-in-law is the beef stew guy. I’ll ask him when he plans on making it next and I’ll go over and write it up.
Home on my own I don’t have to cook a big family meal tonite, so have just enjoyed a delicious dinner of twice baked potatoes with broccoli salad on the side – thanks for the inspiration!
Further musings on the foil …I wonder if the association is from baking potatoes in a camp fire -have to wrap them to prevent them from burning on contact with hot coals?
Altissima, I have dinners like that all the time. Usually leftovers. I really think the foil is because that’s how I’ve always done it. I can’t remember ever asking — or anyone ever telling me — what it was for.
If there was too much cheese and too much bacon, was there a reason you didn’t revise the recipe rather? or were you insinuating that although this was the correct recipe, your individual taste would like less of both……just curious…..
Eydie, that was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. Looking at it again a few days later, I see that I wasn’t clear at all, so I’ve updated it. Thanks for pointing it out.
I'm at work right now, but leaving in 15 minutes. Hopefully the OH will have some spuds in the oven right now which will be ready when I show up. Might try this as I have cheese and bacon in the fridge, lovely jubly!
o so many food bloggers insist on adding so many pictures to their blogs. Readers are not stupid. Do we really need to see mixed ingredients and every other step in the process? I think not.
100th, I'm stealing that "lovely jubly" line.
BeHereNow, lots of people have said they like all the pictures. You're calling them stupid? I think I'll keep doing them.
Yum! Making these tonight!
Guess what I'm going to be having for lunch today… again
8 Foods You Don't Need
If I'm to believe your link, probably a salad.
ty i always love looking at a site that has pic and shows you step by step…
Thanks