How to Make Fully Loaded Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes

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See "Fully Loaded Baked Potato Bread." This is a potato bread with bacon, chives, and sour cream added. It works as an accompaniment but mostly, it's a sandwich bread. The added flavor in the bread enhances many sandwiches. It's often used for after-holiday ham or turkey sandwiches.

Nine Ways to Make Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes

Twice baked potatoes are a great way to use up leftover baked potatoes, but they also make a delicious side for a nice dinner. You can make them partially ahead of time with only the final bake left, you can stuff them with your favorite goodies, and they’re so much more exciting than your basic baked potato.

In the image above, the goodies are mixed into the mashed potatoes, grated cheese is layered over the stuffed potatoes, and the potatoes are put back in the oven to heat through and melt the cheese.

In the image below, the potatoes are mashed and the goodies placed on top of the mashed potato. The advantage is that the toppings can be "customized". Each diner adds his or her toppings, both what and how much.

How to Make Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes

To make twice-baked potatoes, you remove the potato from the potato skin to leave room for adding extra goodies. When you scoop the potatoes from the skins, leave a little flesh next to the skin to provide a sturdier shell.

Potatoes come in different sizes, and people’s tastes vary. Add ingredients to taste. If the potato mixture is not flavorful enough, add more sour cream or cream cheese. Make sure that the salt is adequate.

Save time by making your potatoes ahead of time. Bake and fill your potatoes and store them covered in plastic in the fridge. When you’re ready to put them in the oven for the final bake, leave the potatoes in for an extra five minutes or so to ensure they’re heated through after sitting in the cold fridge overnight.

Basic Twice-Baked Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 8 large baking potatoes
• 1/2-pound bacon (optional)
• 1 cup milk or cream
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Select uniformly-sized baking potatoes that are free from major blemishes. Scrub and wash the potatoes. Bake them without aluminum foil as you would regular baked potatoes for an hour or until soft. Let them cool for fifteen minutes.
2. Fry the optional bacon until crisp, let cool, and crumble. If you prefer, cook the bacon in the microwave and snip the bacon into bits with kitchen shears.
3. Slice the potatoes lengthwise. Scoop the potato flesh from the skins, being careful not to tear the skins. Save the skins. Add the milk or cream, sour cream, butter, salt, one cup of grated cheese, and a desired amount of chopped chives to the potato flesh. Mix with an electric blender until smooth.
4. Spoon the potato mixture into the potato skins. Top each with the remaining cheese and optional bacon bits. Bake for another 15 minutes or until heated through.