Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Twice Baked Potatoes

 I made these twice baked potatoes as one of our last home-cooked meals before we left for North Carolina. B and I just fell in love with them. He loves baked potatoes (especially the twice baked variety) and I love anything with garlic and rosemary.

The only problem is that twice baked potatoes are a pretty big investment in time. You have to bake the potatoes, let them cool, take out and make the filling, re-stuff them, and bake them again. You get the idea.

First, the potatoes need to get baked. I guess you could microwave them to save some time, but you really want that crispy potato skin that comes with baking. I like to rub the cleaned potatoes down in some olive oil and then bake them straight on the oven rack

Meanwhile, I peeled 3-4 cloves of garlic, and set them on a piece of aluminum foil. I drizzled with a small amount of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and wrapped up the foil.

I placed the garlic in the oven with the potatoes, and roasted them for about 30 minutes, or until the were golden brown and soft.

After about an hour minutes, the potatoes were done baking, and I let them cool until they are cool enough to handle, which was about 20 minutes. Then I cut the potatoes, lengthwise, about 1/4 from the “top” so that 3/4 of the potato remains to be re-stuffed.

 I then spooned out most of the inside, including from the “top” that I just cut off, and tossed everything in the bowl of my stand mixer.

I left a little bit of the flesh in the potato so that they held their shape and didn’t break apart.

To that, I added the butter, Greek Yogurt (our sour cream, if you prefer), salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic, and Parmesan.

And then let the stand mixer to the work and whip it all together. I like to leave some chunks in there. What can I say, I’m a chunky mashed potatoes kind of girl.

Once everything is mashed together, I just spoon the potato back into the potato skins. If you want, you can add some extra cheese to the top to make them extra delicious. Or you can leave them plain, like I did. I promise, they are still wonderful without the extra cheese.

THEN, the stuffed little potatoes go back in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until they are nice and roasted. I like to also blast them with the broiler for a few minutes to finish them off and give them that nice golden brown top.

By the way…these smell delicious when they are baking. You will want to dig right in!

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
2 large russet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil, divided
2 tsp salt, divided
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp Greek yogurt
1 tsp butter
2 tsp milk
1 tbsp rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese grated

Directions
1) Wash and dry potatoes. Pierce holes into the skin of the potato with a fork. Rub the skin of the potato with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
2) Bake the potatoes in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
3) Place garlic cloves in a piece of aluminum foil and pour over the other teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Wrap up foil and bake in the oven with the potatoes for 30 minutes.
4) Remove potatoes from oven and let cool. Cut off top, and remove flesh with a spoon and put in the bowl of a stand mixer.
5) Add salt, yogurt, butter, milk, rosemary, salt and Parmesan cheese to potatoes, and mix together.
6) Spoon the potato mixture back into the potato skin and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.