The Best Twice Baked Potatoes Ever
I think my wife makes the best twice-baked-potatoes I’ve ever tasted. She keeps them simple but rich with butter, cream and her special ingredient, sour cream. If you can stick with just 1/2 a potato, the calories aren’t too bad but that’s almost impossible.
If we’re having a big dinner party or going to someone else’s home and asked to bring a dish, my wife will make a bunch of these twice baked potatoes early in the day and reheat them in the oven at the party. They are easy to prepare and a huge hit. You’ll see them served in many of my recipes especially on holidays and birthdays.
Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe
Just try to eat half a potato.
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
- 4 medium russet potatoes
- olive oil cooking spray
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup heavy cream half and half or milk
- salt and pepper to taste
- paprika
Instructions
- Scrub potatoes carefully and insert a metal skewer through the center (longways) of each.
- Bake for approximately 1 hour at 325° F.
- Once removed from the oven, allow them to rest for 5-10 minutes until you can easily handle them.
- Slice the potatoes in half and carefully scoop the potato out from the skin with a spoon, being careful not to rip the skin.
- Place the hot potato into a mixing bowl. You want to get the potatoes mashed before they get cold or they will gooey, so work quickly at this point.Mash the potato with a hand masher, mixer or potato ricer and add the butter along with the sour cream. Mix well.
- Add the cream or milk slowly while mashing until the consistency is that of mashed potatoes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Once the potato mix has reached the consistency of mashed potatoes, stuff it back into the potato skins, making sure that the potato mix sits high above the skin.
- Sprinkle with paprika for flavor and color.
- Before serving, bake in the oven at 350° F for 15 - 20 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned.
Notes
Optional: If you want to make this a meal unto itself, add any combination of bacon bits or ham, cooked broccoli, and/or shredded cheddar cheese into the mashed potato mixture before stuffing the skins and re-baking.
What, no grated cheddar cheese? My wife makes twice baked potatoes and we have found that they taste better without the sour cream and with lots of fresh grated cheese….
Butter, Sour Cream, green onions (all of the green onion (shallots), topped with lots of cheese. Many people love green onion. Even better refrigerated & eaten the next day. I promise you will love these. Seems though if you don’t like sour cream, might not like the green onion. To me, the two together makes a great taste. If I take somewhere, never have any left & it’s a huge dish always. I’ve started just scooping the potato out & mix all the above. It’s quicker.
Why the skewer?
Hi Marsha, great question. Most importantly, the metal heats up and helps cook the interior of the potato so it takes less time to bake and it makes handling them easier.