Cloud Potatoes, or The Ultimate Mashed Potato Recipe

Nine times out of ten, I prefer my potatoes crispy – with lots and lots of crunchy, crackling bits. Hash browns. Crispy fries. Roasted baby golds. Heck, tater tots. However, the thing that keeps that number at a hard nine is a Thanksgiving mashed potato. On that day and that day only (or okay, any holiday-related celebration from Thanksgiving until essentially New Year’s Eve, tbh), I like my spuds decadent and rich, creamy and velvety, luscious and frankly, sinful. It’s just how things need to be, you know? As such, I’ve gone and developed what I think is basically my idea of a perfect holiday mashed potato recipe – it’s pretty dang ultimate if I do say so myself. These, my friends, are what I like to playfully refer to as “Cloud Potatoes,” or the ultimate mashed potato recipe, and I need to detail for you the architecture of this utterly decadent holiday (or any day you want) recipe.

For starters, the name “cloud potatoes” refers to the general fluff status of the whole thing – they’re quite airy and creamy and fluffy. You know, like a cloud. However, what really seals that name right in is the creamy cap of cheese-laced mornay sauce that lays ever so fetchingly across the top of our whipped potatoes. Yes. If you look closely at the photos here, you’ll notice that extra layer and hopefully be even more intrigued than you already hopefully are. Hopefully.

So here’s the deal: Many mashed potato recipes whip up boiled potatoes and then add in some flavored heavy cream and whatever else seems right at the time and everyone calls it good (because it is very good). But since we’re dealing with the holidays and the time to SERIOUSLY BRING IT is nigh, I decided I’d try kicking things up a notch or five and see how I fared.

With our cloud potatoes, instead of just adding in some hot cream, we’re going to actually make a cheesy béchamel sauce (called a mornay), fortify it with some beaten eggs, and then stir that all into our whipped potatoes. Whoa. It can’t help but be obnoxiously rich and delicious. It’s like that friend who’s suddenly come into money and doesn’t have the couth to not talk about how very rich they are now. These potatoes are that friend.

I actually was inspired by a baked Greek lamb and tomato dish called Pastitsio when developing my ultimate mashed potato recipe, as that classic casserole tops the ground, spiced lamb and tomato mixture with a creamy, egg-laced béchamel of sorts – and I find that so alluring. Why not use that same concept – Pastitsio’s cloudy white topping, and apply it to other things? World is your oyster there, honestly, but today, we’re employing that concept via the garlicky, creamy, cheesy sauce we’re making to both flavor the potatoes themselves, AND to create that fantastic cream topping. It’s doing double duty, our mornay. Like a pillow top mattress or the foamy cap on your cappuccino, this layer of extra special decadence on the top of our Cloud Potatoes really makes them standouts on the table, and definitely helps put my affection for crispy potatoes to the test.

NOTES: I like to add some fruity olive oil to my potatoes, as an extra flavor agent, along with the mornay sauce. But this is optional. Delicious, special, but still optional.

The eggs are in the recipe to help give the potatoes some lift. They will help the potatoes rise up, clouds as they are, and will really help to set that creamy topping as well.

Lastly, I’m using garlic powder rather than fresh garlic here, because it translates the garlic flavor very effectively into every bite of the dish. But you could infuse the olive oil with some smashed garlic before adding that, or you could do that with your hot milk, or your could simply use a few cloves of fresh garlic, minced, and add that in just before you add the hot milk into your mornay sauce. Or you could skip it if you loathe garlic. There’s that option, too.

Here is a ready-made pin for you! Simply save it to your “holiday recipes” or “vegetarian recipes” or “side dishes” boards and you’ll be all set when you need it.

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