If you’re not from the US, the idea of baking a potato twice may sound like a gimmick at best, but rest assured there’s no hyperbole in the name. During the first bake, the potato is wrapped in foil and cooked through. This ensures the flesh stays nice and moist. Then, the potato is carved out of the shell and mixed with butter, scallions, yogurt and cheese before being stuffed back into the shell. Sound good so far? Finally, it’s topped with crisp bacon and more cheese before going back in the oven for a second bake. The second trip into the oven not only melts and crisps the cheese, it crisps the skin as well. With a creamy filling that tastes like sour cream and chive potato chips and a crisp bacon and cheese exterior, twice baked potatoes make for a filling meal on their own or a decadent side. While they’re obviously best straight out of the oven, they make for pretty good picnic food as well. Think of them as a cheesier self-contained potato salad. Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe To give the filling just a little more oomph, I like to caramelize the scallions in the butter before mixing them into the potatoes. It’s not that much more work since you have to melt the butter anyway, and the resulting twice-baked spud have a depth of flavor that you just wouldn’t get from including raw scallions. I also like to line the baking sheet with parchment paper. This not only makes cleanup a snap, it prevents the cheese that melts down the sides of the potato from sticking, giving you a crisp cheese cracker underneath each potato.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 04:46:15 +0000