The Secret to These Excellent Garlic Mashed Potatoes Is an Straightforward Cooking Technique You are In all probability Not Utilizing

Yearly, my household has a listing of “will need to have” dishes for the Thanksgiving desk, and creamy, garlicky mashed potatoes are on the record each time. Starch loaded with butter, cream, and large garlic taste—what could possibly be higher? 

As universally cherished as garlic mashed potatoes are, they nonetheless could cause hushed arguments within the kitchen. Ought to the feel be extra fluffy or silky, what’s an appropriate quantity of cream and butter, and simply how garlicky ought to the potatoes be?

I like mine to be wealthy and creamy because of loads of butter and heavy cream, a bit peppery, and loaded with candy—not harsh—garlic taste. Sadly many variations are unpleasantly gloppy from waterlogged potatoes, lack garlic taste, or, worse, endure from an aggressive raw-garlic afterburn. 

To nail down a recipe of good garlic mashed spuds, we requested our take a look at kitchen colleague Julia Levy to determine a formulation that works each time. They’re particular sufficient for a big vacation meal, however simple sufficient to whip up any evening of the week.

The Key Methods for Creamy, Garlicky Mashed Potatoes

For candy garlic taste, roast—do not toast—the garlic. Many garlic mashed potato recipes supply fast and environment friendly strategies of incorporating garlic into the mashed potatoes, however these strategies come at a value. Some recipes, for instance, name for sautéing slivers of garlic in oil or butter, which may brown the garlic however typically with the danger of introducing acrid flavors because the garlic scorches within the fats’s excessive warmth. Different recipes have you ever boil the garlic with the potatoes or within the cream to melt it; this removes its harsh edge however does little to develop the garlic’s taste past “cooked”.

In our opinion, there are few substitutes for the candy, complicated taste of slowly roasted garlic (garlic confit is one other strategy we like, however it’s fussier and slower). When roasted, garlic’s sharp edges give method to a rounded, nearly candied sweetness that’s without delay mellow and intense. As soon as the garlic is cool sufficient to deal with, the browned, softened cloves tackle a creamy, paste-like texture and may simply be squeezed out of the skins (squeezing from the foundation find yourself) into the potato combination. 

Use yellow potatoes. On the subject of mashed potatoes, not all spuds are created equal; some are extremely starchy with a drier, cottony texture, whereas others are rather more moist and silky. Yellow potatoes, equivalent to Yukon Gold, fall into the candy spot that exists between these two extremes, starchy sufficient whereas being satiny comfortable. They’ve skinny pores and skin, shallow eyes, and creamy, moist flesh that is greatest described as naturally buttery, nutty, and barely candy. Within the potato world, yellow potatoes fall into the “medium starch” class; they’ve simply sufficient starch to absorb loads of wealthy cream and butter and keep away from a watery texture, whereas nonetheless producing a splendidly silky outcome.

Skip boiling, and bake the potatoes as a substitute. An excessive amount of water can contribute to gluey, gummy mashed potatoes. Starch granules exist inside all potato cells. In uncooked potatoes, these granules are arduous and tightly packed. If you boil potatoes—the most typical cooking methodology when making mashed—the starch granules take up water, swell, and ultimately burst, making a sticky gel. With no fats current at this stage within the course of, there’s nothing to cease that gluey, starchy mess for changing into even stickier as you additional agitate the potatoes throughout mashing.

One of the simplest ways to keep away from waterlogged potatoes? Skip boiling them altogether and roast the potatoes complete as a substitute. This cooks the potatoes absolutely with out introducing further water, leaving the starch accessible to absorb as a lot cream as attainable—and with all that fats current, gluiness is way much less more likely to develop.

For this recipe it’s not solely a greater cooking methodology for the potatoes, however it’s additionally sensible; the potatoes bake till tender on the identical time the garlic roasts proper subsequent to it within the oven. It’s an extended cooking course of, however it’s all fully hands-off.

Keep away from overmixing the potatoes. For super-creamy mashed potatoes, it’s value investing in a potato ricer or meals mill, that are each in a position to flip the cooked potato right into a comfortable and clean mash with out an excessive amount of threat of over-mixing (though poor-quality and/or too-small meals mills do run some threat). When you don’t thoughts a chunkier mash, a handheld potato masher is okay, however you’ll wish to be cautious about overmixing. No matter you do, skip the meals processor and stand mixer—until garlicky elastic potatoes sound like a good suggestion to you.