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.
