twice baked potatoes…

 from Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible… page 251

okay see the last entry to see why i’m doing this lol….

earlier today i decided to make these to go with dinner…we had potatoes that needed to be used and i had extra time… which really they don’t take much time at all other than cooking time… 

what you’ll need: 

6 large baking potatoes (as large and as oval as possible; about 5 pounds)

vegetable oil, for coating the potatoes

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into small bits

2 cups sour cream

salt and black pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

paprikia

 

Step 1: preheat the oven to 350*F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Prick the potatoes lightly in several places with a fork. coat each potato entirely with the oil. Place on the prepared baking sheet and bake until the potato skins are very crisp and teh insides are very soft, 1 to 2 hours. remove the potatoes but leave the oven on.

Step 2: drop the butter into a large bowl. carefully as the potatoes will be hot, slice off the top 1/3 of each potato lengthwise. gently scoop out the insides of the potatoes with a spoon (leaving enough so the potato skin will stay intact and not tear) and add to the bowl with the butter. using a potato masher, mash in the sour cream and salt and black pepper to taste, mashing until it’s the consistency you like. (be careful not to over mash)

Step 3: Stir in the parsley flakes. Gently stuff the mixture back into the potato skins, being careful not to break them. pile the potato mixture as high as you can above the tops of the potato skins. Sprinkle lightly with paprika. The potatoes can be frozen at this point for serving later.

Step 4: Return the potatoes to the baking sheet and bake until the potato tops are golden brown, 20-30 minutes. the potatoes will be crunchy on the outside and creamy and buttery on the inside.

 

 okay so these were really really good…sinful in my opinion! i did alter the recipe slightly, only because i didn’t have paprika or parsley flakes…i used mrs. dash original blend… worked just great! and of course i added shredded cheddar cheese to the tops for the last five minutes of baking 🙂 

it passed the kid test, my daughter asked if we could have them again tomorrow night lol…. mom said they were good and she was way full from the one and barely ate the rest of the food she had….

for me, i think i needed to let them bake longer the first time around… the skins weren’t as crunchy as i would have liked… i let them bake for an hour and a half… so next time i think i’ll push the time out to at least an hour and 45 minutes…. but overall this was very yummy and easy to make… i mean most of the cooking time, was in the oven….. i did put them in the fridge after stuffing them earlier in the day….instead of the freezer step..but i believe i will be getting some potatoes this weekend and making at least one or two dinners worth for the freezer!

i plan on making something tomorrow…just haven’t decided what yet…

if you try this recipe let me know what you think…and if you’d like to see me post more…or to just not share at all lol! (believe me this is much more interesting than me talking about scrapbooking or reading!)

more later….