Copycat Cheesecake Factory's Mashed Potatoes Recipe | CDKitchen.com (2024)

FAQs

Why do people add sour cream to mashed potatoes? ›

Sour cream adds a little bit of tangy flavor and a boost of richness to mashed potatoes. It's a fun change from the standard milk or cream and butter combo usually flavoring mashed taters. You can even try your hand at making homemade sour cream from heavy cream!

Cream cheese: Use full-fat for a rich, luxurious texture. Sour cream: Adds a subtle tanginess and creamy texture. Butter or margarine: Softened to work easily into the potatoes without overmixing. Milk: Adds moisture and helps thin the potatoes for a perfect consistency when baked.

The Mistake: Using the Wrong Kind of Potato

Thick-skinned varieties like russets will give you the fluffiest results. Steer clear of waxy red-skinned potatoes, which turn gluey when mashed.

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

Adding egg yolks to a pot of mashed potatoes is an easy, dairy-free texture and taste upgrade that doesn't require any special techniques. The yolks harbor all the flavorful fats and emulsifying components and will thus effectively unify the fat and water in potatoes, translating to a smoother, uniformly creamy pot.

By adding butter before the milk, we are coating the starch molecules in fat to impart a smooth, silky feel. The rich butter has a moment by itself to meld with the potatoes for a noticeable butter-forward taste. The warmed milk then comes in to give a finishing, creamy touch—loosening things up in the process.

When potatoes are mashed, starch is released. The more you work the potatoes, the more starch gets released. When too much starch gets released, the potatoes become gummy, gluey, and unappetizing.

Waxy potatoes, such as peewee potatoes, fingerlings, and red potatoes, hold their shape when boiled, making them great for roasting or tossing into a potato salad—not so much for mash, where they'll turn into bitsy, unappetizing pieces.

Heavy Cream - While you, hypothetically, could use whole milk or something, I don't recommend it. Part of what makes these the creamiest mashed potatoes is the CREAM! Use the cream, we aren't eating mashed potatoes for our health. Sour Cream - This recipe is rich and it needs some tanginess for balance.

Buttermilk mashed potatoes have the same consistency as traditional mashed potatoes. Buttermilk is substituted for the typical milk, half and half, or heavy cream. Buttermilk lends them a slight tang while keeping the overall dish a tad bit lighter, due to its lower fat content.

Should you salt the water when boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes? ›

Cooking your potatoes in very generously salted water—about a tablespoon of water per pound of potatoes—means the potatoes will be seasoned all the way through. Once mashed, they'll need a lot less salt on the back end.

That said, you should also be cognizant when using a hand or stand mixer not to overmix the 'taters, because when your cooked potatoes are overworked in the mashing process, the potatoes release too much starch and that silky texture you crave will head south very quickly.

Add a Thickening Agent

This is the most common way to thicken mashed potatoes. You can use what you have on hand: Flour, cornstarch, or powdered milk are all solid options that are probably already in your pantry. Potato flour and potato starch would work as well.

The very best mashed potatoes start with a ricer, a relatively inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment that forces your cooked food through tiny holes. "If you don't have a ricer, you could use a stand mixer, a hand mixer and you could even use a whisk if you've cooked your potatoes properly," Harvey said.

If you'd like to replicate his mouthwatering recipe, the chef used peeled Yukon Gold potatoes. He was sure to not rinse them too much as he wanted to keep the starch, explaining that the starch gives the mashed potatoes their depth and richness.

Potatoes, Dairy Blend (Milk, Butter [Cream, Salt], Soybean Oil, Salt, Natural Flavor, Monoglycerides), Water, Sour Cream (Cultured Cream, Food Starch-Modified, Sodium Citrate, Locust Bean Gum, Potassium Sorbate [Preservative], Carrageenan), Onions, Pasteurized Process Cheddar Cheese (Cheddar Cheese [Milk, Cheese ...