Melting Potatoes Recipe - The Cookie Rookie® (2024)

FAQs

How to make Paula Deen's baked potatoes? ›

Rub the skin with vegetable oil. Sprinkle with salt. Pierce the skin of the potato in several places with the tines of a fork. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the sides are soft when pressed.

Waxy potatoes, like new potatoes, have smooth, dense flesh that holds its shape well when cooked. They work well in salads or simply boiled. Key waxy varieties include Charlotte, Maris Peer, and Jersey Royals.

Melody – this potato is a smooth skinned potato with a yellow flesh, which is quite dry. Ideal for mashing, boiled or wedges. Charlotte – is a winner for salads. Its long oval shape, yellow flesh, firm waxy texture and a hint of chestnut flavour, makes it a tempting portion.

There are lots of recipes that call for par-boiling the potatoes first to reduce the amount of cooking time, but it's an extra step and an extra pan to wash. If you cook the potatoes over medium heat and keep them covered for most of the cooking time, the lid traps in steam, which helps cook the potatoes through.

People are often accustomed to placing their taters on a baking sheet with parchment paper or wrapping their spuds in foil. But one of the reasons why restaurant baked potatoes taste so good is because kitchens know that using wire racks or oven grates allows all sides of the spuds to be exposed to hot air.

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.

So, Jersey Royals are a unique potato grown only on the island of Jersey in the Channel Isles. The potatoes have an amazing taste which supposedly comes from Jersey's rich, fertile, earth, the gentle climate and the use of seaweed as fertiliser (though this seems to be less common nowadays).

Jersey Royals have a distinctive nutty flavour, making them the most sought-after new potato. Their firm texture makes them ideal for salads.

Despite their past popularity, Jersey Royal potatoes are somewhat challenging to find in present-day markets and are only sold for a short season on the island of Jersey and in Great Britain.

Examples of waxy potatoes include red potatoes, fingerlings, new potatoes, and baby potatoes.

What brands are waxy potatoes? ›

Well-known waxy potatoes include Red Bliss, Red Adirondack, French fingerlings, and baby potatoes.

Yukon Golds are our choice for Perfectly Roasted Potatoes. Semi-starchy and semi-waxy, they're simultaneously more plush than waxy potatoes and less crumbly than floury ones (which makes sense, since YGs are a cross between a starchy North American white potato and a waxier South American yellow one).

This sure sounds a lot like potatoes that have been stored too long, in too cold of an environment before cooking. When potatoes are held below 41°F for too long a period, the starches convert to sugar and it changes the cooking chemistry.

The reason is to prevent the potatoes exposure to air, which causes dehydration, oxidation, and discoloration.

Summary: Good news for chips lovers everywhere -- new research in the journal Science of Food and Agriculture shows that pre-soaking potatoes in water before frying can reduce levels of acrylamide.

Some say wrapping baked potatoes in aluminum foil helps them cook faster (aluminum conducts heat, then traps it), and it does keep them hot for longer once they come out of the oven, which is why we think restaurants use this method. Wrapping potatoes will also give you a softer, steamed skin, if that's what you like.

"I see a lot of people using foil to wrap their potatoes in but this is a big no-no and causes soggy skins!" he says. Foil holds in moisture and steams the potatoes, resulting in a "boiled" taste and texture. Plus, without the use of foil, the skin will get extra crispy and flavorful.

Is it faster to bake a potato in foil? Technically, it could decrease the cook time a little bit, but it's not worth it. Trust us! Wrapping potatoes in foil produces a soggy potato because the foil holds in moisture and steams the potato.