Dauphinoise Potatoes in Muffin Tin (as seen on Masterchef)
So, as the title suggests, we watched one episode too many of Masterchef lately, and the idea of making dauphinoise potatoes stuck with us. What looks like a super fancy and hard-to-make side dish, it’s actually pretty straightforward and only looks nicer. Also, there’s a lot of butter. And we love our butter. Not the healthiest — and not the best for our “diet” — but hey, it’s too late for that.
Since it was just the two of us being fancy, using a classic baking tray seemed a bit too much. So we switched to a muffin tin (again, thank you Masterchef) and managed to make them look even nicer. We served this with a lovely venison steak loin and a berry compote and garlic kale.
Catch us after the recipe for all things potatoes.
Masterchef-inspired Dauphinoise Potatoes
Equipment
- Mandolin (optional)
- Chef's Knife
- Muffin Tin
Ingredients
- 600 gr potatoes
- 80 gr butter
- 1/2 medium yellow onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- 200 ml single cream
- 350 ml chicken stock
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Start by preheating the oven at 170°C/340°F. Grease the muffin tins with butter (we used 6). Cube the rest of the butter and put aside.
- Slice the onion, garlic and potatoes very thinly – they should all be very light and almost see-through, but still maintaining a sort of shape. Ideally, this can be done with a mandolin. If you don't have one, a good knife will do.
- Start assembling by creating the first layer of potatoes, and then adding a couple of slices of onions, garlic, and a couple of cubes of butter. Salt and pepper lightly. Repeat this process for each layer. Make sure that the potatoes are well-pressed together and that there are no gaps between the layers.
- Prepare your stock and add to the single cream. Add the Dijon mustard. Mix well and pour over each tin. Don't overflow the tins. It should be enough to cover the potatoes, but not too much that it turns into a soup.
- Cover with foil and put in the oven for 15 mins. Remove the foil and keep cooking for another 45 mins. The top should be nice, crispy, and slightly brown.
On Dauphinoise Potatoes and our obsession with Masterchef
So if you’re a hardcore Masterchef fan, you know that they do love their dauphinoise potatoes. In fact, it only took me one minute of scrolling to find an example of that on their Instagram feed.
We’ve been unashamedly binge-watching two old seasons back to back on Netflix and unsurprisingly, we’ve been feeling particularly inspired. So we ended up having a night-in shouting in the kitchen “ONLY 5 MINUTES LEFT GUYS, START PLATING” to each other, just for the sake of it, not to mention the “Greg” and “John” faces that we give to each other pretty much every single day. That’s a story for another day.
Back to the potatoes, this recipe could not be easier than this. Although a chef’s knife is gonna do the job if you have the right knife skills, the process is gonna be much easier with a mandoline slicer. We still don’t have one, but I got my eyes on this one from OXO. If you do have one, please please please, use the grip to avoid a trip to the A&E.
Best side for everything
So after the celebration of potatoes in our Roast Potatoes recipe, it was only fair that we showed some love for these fancy dauphinoise potatoes as well.
Potatoes are so versatile that they can go with almost anything, especially in the range of British and European food. While I wouldn’t serve this with that Moroccan-inspired chicken we made a few weeks ago (but then again, wouldn’t I?), I can think of very few things this wouldn’t go well with. I can definitely see myself switching the roast potatoes for those in our Sunday roast recipe.
Point is if you’re tired of eating fries and roast potatoes (if that is even possible), we’d strongly advise for you to put on your nice clothes and treat yourself to some fancy dauphinoise potatoes tonight. Depending on how clumsy you are, we might recommend putting the nice clothes on after, because when you cover the potatoes in cream, there’s a chance of spillover.
Final Thoughts
It might just be that we got older, but these dauphinoise potatoes were part of a bigger fancy dinner that included a venison loin steak and a poached pear as dessert (again, the Masterchef influence is undeniable), and that was our idea of a perfect Saturday night.
While we do love going out for a nice meal, we also found that making that ourselves in our kitchen is as rewarding and still feels like a massive treat. In fact, I’ll go even further and say that it feels even better to know that we can have a good looking, varied, and tasty meal that we can have on a random night before payday.