Twice Baked Potatoes

Posted by Vanessa in Cooking, February 18, 2010

I’ve had a few good twice baked potatoes in my years. Like the ones at The Keg in Arizona. And the ones at The Blue Mill in Illinois (unfortunately, that place closed years ago, but I still remember their potatoes. Yum.) But none, let me repeat, none, this good.

Not even close.

We fought, well as much of a fight as you’ll have at our house, over the last potato the first time I served these. The Phoenix let me have it because he’s a gentleman, and that’s what gentlemen do. My daughter didn’t have a fighting chance, I mean, c’mon, she only weighs like 25 pounds. I can take her in my sleep.

Okay, okay, I might have shared with her. Maybe.

Another great thing about these magical twice baked potatoes: they can be refrigerated for up to three days or frozen so any extras you don’t bake for dinner the first time can come in handy as a quick side dish another night. To save for another day, do all steps up until the final bake and refrigerate or freeze in a ziplock bag. You can bake them straight from the freezer, they will just take a few extra minutes to heat through. Oh, and I learned from Pioneer Woman, if you’re not going to bake them right away, do not include the green onions. Apparently they’ll ruin the whole batch. And we wouldn’t want that to happen.

These would be fabulous for a special dinner party, or if you’re like us, any ‘ol day of the week will do. You might say we have no self-control. Or maybe you might say we just like eating great food all the time. After all, I was raised by a mom who firmly believes you don’t need a special occasion to break out the china, for pete’s sake.

And now for your play-by-play…

Wash and dry your potatoes and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake your potatoes until cooked through.

Using a towel to prevent your hand from burning, cut the potatoes in half…

…and scoop out the flesh in a large bowl.

Like so.

Mash ’em up with a potato masher with the butter and sour cream.

Then add in the rest of the goodies and stir it up real good.

Then, generously, fill up the potato skins. Out of 16 skins, I was able to fill 13 of them, just to give you an idea.

Bake again to heat through and, tada, an amazingly decadent potato. Just waiting for you to savor every bite.