Twice Baked Potatoes – Russet potatoes are baked to soften them up and then the filling is mixed with cheese, sour cream, and bacon and stuffed back into the potato skins to make a side dish suitable for any event!

Who else is in dire need of new recipes to switch thing sup at home? *Raises hand* After weeks of making the same pork tenderloin and rice, we decided that it was time for new recipes. And now that we’re always home, we could easily make a lot of recipes that we would avoid during the week since they took a little extra time.

One of those recipes is baked potatoes. I love a great baked potato. But baking a potato takes about an hour in the oven, which is time we just didn’t have during the week. After waiting for the oven to preheat and the potatoes to bake, we’d be halfway to bedtime.

Since we’re working from home now, we can easily pop the potatoes in the oven a hour before dinner time so they’re ready for us to eat when we want them. But instead of making boring plain baked potatoes, I’ve got a creamy and flavorful way to enjoy them.

Say hello to my Twice Baked Potatoes!

What is a twice baked potato?

I first had a twice baked potato when my mother-in-law made them for us for the holidays. I asked her if she could make a potato side dish and she brought these over. They were a huge hit! So much flavor with an incredible texture, all served in an easy-to-serve potato skin.

A twice baked potato essentially combines all the flavors of a loaded baked potato with the texture of mashed potatoes. Like mashed potatoes, all the toppings are whipped together. No longer do you have to continually add toppings to your baked potato to give it some flavor – every single bite is loaded with toppings!

How are these potatoes made?

To make twice baked potatoes, there are just a few steps:

1. Bake the potatoes
2. Scoop out the potato filling and add to other filling ingredients
3. Scoop back into potato skins
4. Bake until warmed through

The process is really quite simple – it just takes some time because the potatoes take a while to bake. But after that, it’s just another 20 minutes until the potatoes are ready to go.

The filling

The filling for these potatoes has all the classic flavors of a loaded baked potato:

• Butter
• Sour Cream
• Bacon Bits
• Cheese

All of these are added to the potato filing, along with milk to make it smooth and salt and pepper to flavor it up.

Once the filling is made, the potato skins are loaded up again, topped with more cheese, and baked until nice and warm and the cheese is melted.

Tips & Tricks

1. Your potatoes may take more or less than an hour to bake in the oven the first time, depending on the size of the potato. To check for doneness, poke the center of the potato with a fork. If the fork breaks the skin easily, the potato is ready.
2. You want to be careful not to add too much milk or else the filling will be too runny. Therefore, I add about half of what the recipe asks for and then add more if the filling is too dry.
3. Don’t worry if you rip the skins of the potato when scooping out the potato filling. Once you fill them back up with the prepared filling, you can use it as glue to keep the skin together.
4. You can easily make these potatoes ahead of time. I suggest baking them and filling the skins but don’t bake again until it’s time to serve.

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Potato Skin Bites

Loaded Totchos

Sage & Browned Butter Hasselback Sweet Potatoes