Make My Day Camp: Twice-Baked Baby Potatoes

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Twice-Baked Baby Potatoes

Yesterday I posted a long story and non-recipe for twice-baked potatoes, today I'm following up with an actual recipe to make stuffed mini potatoes (you could follow this and fill large potatoes too, but the littles are so cute). A tip for getting the filling back into the small potatoes is to put the mashed filling into a large ziplock baggie, clip a corner, and squeeze the filling into each potato - way easier than trying to spoon it in!

I changed it up a bit this time and added bacon bits
and Italian seasoning to the filling

24 small to medium yukon gold potatoes (about 3 pounds)
2 T. olive oil
coarse salt
4 T. unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sour cream
milk to thin as needed
salt and white pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (or more to taste)

Preheat the oven to 375'.

Place the potatoes on a large baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt, toss to combine. Bake until you can easily stick a fork into the potatoes, about an hour. Let cool until you can handle them.

Cut off the top of each potato. Scoop out some of the insides of the cooked potatoes leaving a border around the inside edges creating little potato shells/boats (I used a teaspoon to scoop out the flesh, but you could also use a melon baller), also scoop out any potato under the skin of the top part you cut off. Put the scooped potato insides in a bowl; add the melted butter, sour cream, and a tablespoon or two of milk; beat the mixture with a hand-held mixer until it's the consistency you like (or use a potato masher or fork), add milk if needed. Season with salt and white pepper (black is fine if you want). Stir in the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.

Spoon the filling back into the potato shells, mounding a little on top so they are quite full. Bake until the filling is heated through, 12-15 minutes.

Note: you can make these ahead of time up to the point of filling the shells but before baking. Cover and put in the fridge up to 24 hours. Before serving, preheat the oven to 325'. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes; uncover and bake another 15 minutes or so until potatoes are golden brown and heated through. Another tip is to find a flat spot on the baked potatoes to be the bottom so they'll stand up after you fill them, cut off the opposite end to fill. You'll have less tipping over or leaning potatoes that way!