These Dauphinoise Potatoes with Cheese are utterly perfect; thinly sliced layered potatoes and meltingly decadent cheese topped with a crispy, chewy, buttery topping.
Don’t skip the butter! As it helps to give it that gorgeous, crispy coating you can see on the top!
Ingredients for Dauphinoise Potatoes with Cheese
Potatoes: I’ve used every and any type of potato in this recipe and it’s worked pretty much every time so I wouldn’t worry too much about variety.
Double Cream: called heavy cream in USA, double cream adds luxurious richness to the sauce. I have previously added more double cream than milk when making this recipe. So if you’d prefer to increase the richness, then sway the ratio more in flavour of cream next time!
Milk: whole milk is best for it’s higher fat content
Salt
Nutmeg (ground): not necessary, but I feel it adds a hint of something special to the Dauphinoise with Cheese that sets it apart from the rest. It’s subtle enough that most people won’t pinpoint exactly what it is, but enough they’ll know something interesting is going on.
Garlic: you can substitute fresh garlic for 2 tsp garlic paste (puree) if required.
Comte: an Alpine cheese which is semi-hard and slightly sweet, Comte cheese is a perfect partner to the Dauphinoise Potatoes. I also use it to top my French Onion soup; the French know what they’re doing, trust me!
You could substitute Comte for Gruyère as it is another great Alpine melting cheese. They both have the same recipe and the same aging process – they simply hail from different countries. Essentially, if you try them both – you are tasting the difference between two neighbouring European regions.
You can totally skip the cheese in this recipe if you prefer to – I used to make it without lots. But once I introduced it, there was no going back!
Butter: as it’s adding the finishing touch to the dish, I go for grass-fed pure Irish butter Kerrygold – and I use salted as it helps to further season the dish.
Method for Dauphinoise Potatoes with Cheese
Add double cream, whole milk, ground nutmeg, salt & garlic to pan and heat through slowly on medium heat until warm and gently bubbling.
Whilst cream is heating, peel and thinly slice 1 kg potatoes (I use a mandolin, but cut them as finely as you can if you don’t have one)
Grate 100 g comte and 100 g Gruyère and mix together then start layering the potatoes into a casserole dish (size in notes below) with mixed grated cheese in between the layers.
Pour cream mixture over potatoes and cover dish with kitchen foil.
Put in oven at 180C for 45 minutes (Bake 1).
Take kitchen foil off, add little knobs of salted butter over the top of the potatoes and put back in oven for approx 30-45 mins (Bake 2). Then bring out of oven and allow to ‘settle’ for 10 mins before serving.
FAQs
My dish is 18cm x 24c m x 5cm / 7in x 9in x 2in – but use any you have available and see what works for you.
You’re aiming for 5mm (1/2cm) thick. If they’re thinner or thicker, this may impact cooking time, so use the knife test (pass knife into the potatoes) to check they’re adequately cooked before serving
Dependant on how thick you’ve cut the slices, you may need to bake a little longer. Cover the Dauphinoise Potatoes with Cheese with tinfoil again and bake until you can comfortably pass a knife into the potatoes (i.e. they’re soft).
Storage and Re Heating
Storage: Dauphinoise Potatoes with Cheese will store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Re Heating: to reheat, I would recommend pre heating oven to 200C and baking them again until piping hot throughout. Dependant on volume, I would transfer leftovers into a smaller dish to bake. You can microwave as well, and although it might look as if it’s split a little, it will still taste great.
In both scenarios, you’ll see the butter melt and pool around the potatoes – don’t worry about this. The potatoes will still taste great, it just can’t be helped when reheating in this scenario.
I wouldn’t recommend freezing them, simply due to the high dairy content. Arguably, they can be, but when re-heating from frozen the dairy will separate and it will change the consistency.
To Prepare in Advance:
Follow the recipe below until you have completed ‘Bake 1’.
At this point, you can refrigerate your Dauphinoise with Cheese (with tinfoil) for 3 or 4 days.
When serving, remove the tinfoil, add the cubes of butter onto the top and complete ‘Bake 2’ with an additional 10-15 minutes (so increase time to 45-60 mins) to allow for the fact you’ve just removed them from the fridge and they’ll be cold.
And finally …
If you have any questions, or want to tell me what you think of my recipe, then leave a comment below!
If you like this recipe and are looking for more potato side dish recipes then why not try my Airfryer Beef Dripping Roast Potatoes?
Dauphinoise Potatoes with Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 kg potatoes approx. 0.8kg peeled & then thinly sliced
- 350 ml double cream
- 350 ml whole milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 200 g comte grated
- 80 g salted butter cubed
Instructions
- Add 350 ml double cream, 350 ml whole milk, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp salt & 2 cloves garlic to pan and heat through slowly on medium heat until warm and gently bubbling
- Whilst cream is heating, peel and thinly slice 1 kg potatoes (I use a mandolin, but cut them as finely as you can if you don’t have one)
- Grate 200 g comte
- Start layering the potatoes into a casserole dish (size in notes below) with mixed grated cheese in between the layers: potatoes, cheese, potatoes, cheese etc.
- Pour cream mixture over potatoes and cover dish with kitchen foil
- Put in oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes (Bake 1) – see 'To Prepare in Advance' section above for advice on how I would make these in advance
- Take kitchen foil off, add little cubes of 80 g salted butter over the top of the potatoes and put back in oven for approx 30-45 mins (Bake 2)
- Bring out of oven and allow to ‘settle’ for 10 mins before serving
