Roasted Garlic Velvet Mashed Potatoes

Waylando's Note:

Though they are such a simple thing to prepare, potatoes can be mashed in an infinite amount of ways. This is my favorite; these smooth and fluffy mashed potatoes are perfect alongside your Thanksgiving turkey or your Christmas ham. I enjoy them especially with fried chicken. They're sure to be a hit!

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

Yield: 1.0 quart

• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 lbs yukon gold potatoes
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup buttermilk
• salt and pepper
• chives

Directions:

1. Set oven to 400°F.
2. Slice off top of garlic head, barely cutting of the top of each clove.
3. Take a piece of aluminum foil and scrunch it into a "snake." Wrap this around the side of the garlic head.
4. Brush the top of the garlic head with the oil, roast in oven until top of cloves are golden brown and the cloves look to have separated from the side walls of the head, about 1 hour.
5. Meanwhile, wash and Peel the potatoes. Split in half, then cut half into four similarly sized pieces.
6. Place potatoes in a large, deep pot. Add enough water to come one inch over the potatoes. Cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Keep and eye on the pot, so as to prevent boil-overs.
7. Boil until a paring knife can easily stab through a potato piece. When appropriate doneness is reached, drain and pour into the workbowl of a stand mixer (or keep in the pot and use a hand mixer.)
8. Whip the potatoes alone on high speed until thy are all broken down. Add the butter, continue to whip for 1-2 more minutes. It is important that the butter be added first - this will help to keep the starches in the potato from becoming gummy or gluey.
9. Slowly add the Buttermilk while the mixer is going. Slowly add the half-and-half, stopping periodically to see if he potatoes actually need the extra moisture. They may need more or less than perscribed, it is really a matter of personal preference.
10. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into the mashed potatoes, add the salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly.
11. Garnish with snipped chives.

Reviews

[Lavender Lynn]

I did this exactly to the recipe, roasting the garlic ahead and all. They came out creamy and rich-flavored and delicious! These are a soft-moist variety of mashed potatoes and some will prefer less liquid, but we thought they were great! Made for PAC Fall '08.

[Sandi (From CA)]

Oh, mymymymyMY. This is the perfect garlic mashed potato recipe - so glad I found it! I halved the recipe, but retained the full amount of garlic. The tip pertaining to the addition of the half-and-half was perfect and I ended up using about half of the stated amount for perfectly creamy, garlicky, delicious mashed taters! Thank you for sharing this keeper, Waylando! *~Made for PAC Fall 2008~*

[Psalm AKA Typo Qween]

My family loved the mashed potatoes. They were light and fluffy. I may have added just a tad to much half and half, but was my fault. I only gave it four stars because there were not any time frames for the measurements other than ther garlic head.....FYI if you have a setting for convection or regular oven make sure you do not use the convection setting or you will burn your garlic.