About this Recipe

As a kid, THIS was the dish I craved the most at holiday meals. I would literally PILE it on my plate and just drowned it in gravy. I was a small girl...and to this day have a hard time understanding how I could eat so much! Maybe it was the non-stop playing we would do out in the garden, on our bikes, on the lake...we were like little machines needing all the fuel we could fit in to feed our ever active imaginations and our busy bodies always on adventures. A variation of this mashed potato recipe is Grandmother's Creamy Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe. You can use either of these in this yummy Shepherd's Pie Recipe.

Grandmother's TIPS for Creamy Mashed Potatoes Recipe:

1. Choose a starchy Russet or Idaho potatoes for a nice fluffy creamy finished mashed potato recipe.

2. For a perfectly pure looking finished recipe, garnish with white pepper rather than black pepper. We like the black pepper flakes, but it's just another way of doing it, and white pepper is a great addition to your pantry.

3. Use UNSALTED butter so that you can then be in control of the saltiness of the final product.

4. The thicker the dairy product, the creamier the mashed potato. So choose cream like half and half versus just a thick milk.

5. If you are using a hand blender like we have don't overmix the potatoes, or they will get sticky. Your best tools are a classic potato masher for this job if you like them fluffy.

6. If you only need to keep them warm for 15-20 minutes, you can keep mashed potatoes warm with a tea towel.

7. If you need to keep them warm longer - you can set your bowl of potatoes over a pot of simmering water, like a double boiler. Cover potatoes with a tea towel while doing this.

8. If you plan to make the day before and reheat, add an extra scoop of butter or cream, so you can reheat in the oven and they will not dry out.

9. You really cannot make too many mashed potatoes when you are a preparing a mashed potato recipe. The fact is, they will likely be gone from the table, and if they are not gone, it is easy to save in the fridge and then fry on the next day for breakfast with a fried egg. In fact, if you're really wise, you will save a small portion from the main holiday dinner event so you can enjoy them fried up the next day.

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Ingredients

(Print)

Makes:

One serving size is 6 to 8 ounces.

A 5 pound bag of potatoes would make about 10 servings. Use this as a guide to calculate how many pounds to do.

A medium size potato is 5 to 7 ounces, of course depending on the size.

For 10 servings

10 medium size potatoes

1/4 butter

1/8 cup cream or whole milk

1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Start with peeling the potatoes. Cut off any black spots or bruises.

2. Cut the potatoes into even size pieces. They will cook more at the same rate of time if the sizes are similar. We quartered and halved our medium sized potatoes in this recipe.

3. Put them into a bowl and wash the ready potatoes with cold water.

4. To cook potatoes for mashed you start with cold water.

5. Transfer the potatoes to your cooking pot and put enough cold water to just cover the potatoes.

6. Add one teaspoon of salt.

7. Bring the water to a boil then set the timer for 20 minutes. If you cut the potatoes into really small pieces the time will be shorter.

8. Do a test by poking with a fork at about the 15 minute mark. You will easily be able to pierce the potato with a fork when they are cooked through.

9. Don't overcook as they will be very mushy.

10. Drain the water.

11. You could do the mashing in the cooking pot or transfer to a large bowl.

12. Do the mashing while the potatoes are still hot.

13. Add the butter. We used 1/4 cup butter for 10 potatoes.

14. Add the cream or milk. We use 1/8 cup for 10 potatoes and it was very creamy.

15. Using a hand immersion blender mash the potatoes together with the butter and cream. NOTE - if you use a blender, go easy, so you don't make the potatoes sticky or gummy.

16. The potatoes will be fluffier if you use a potato masher.

17. Do a taste test and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Tip: We like the look of the black pepper, but if you prefer not to see the pepper you could use a white pepper instead.

18. Transfer to a serving dish and serve if using right away.

These potatoes are delicious in our Shepherd's Pie although we used Creamy Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe in the recipe.

ENJOY!

Return to this Creamy Mashed Potatoes recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

We all love a good helping of mashed potatoes whenever they're served up. Usually, they go best with other easy dinner ideas like a nice roasted chicken or even some roasted vegetables.

This potato recipe makes a big serving of mashed potatoes or, you could make a smaller serving if you want by cutting the recipe in half. But the truth is, having leftover mashed potatoes is always a good thing. Typically, a 5-pound bag of potatoes will make about ten servings of 6 to 8 ounces. So if you need more, just add more potatoes, if you need less, take some out.

Some simple tricks and tips will give you thick, creamy and delicious potatoes. Great mashed potatoes start at the grocery store by choosing the best type of potato to use in your recipe. Since there are many different ways to cook potatoes, different types of potato are going to be best suited for certain recipes.

For mashed potatoes recipes, starchy potatoes are key. So the high-starch Russet potato is perfect for mashed potatoes. These potatoes will crumble as they cook making them really easy to mash up and absorb the butter and cream or milk resulting in those thick and creamy potatoes we all love. When you use other potatoes for mashed potatoes recipes, you may find that your potatoes end up with a gluey and sticky consistency which is not favorable.

If you want more of that potato flavor in your mashed potatoes recipes, add in half Yukon Gold potatoes which will add more flavor to the recipe. Mashed potatoes aren't just delicious; they are also good for you too. Potato nutrients include being very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. They are also a good source of potassium, vitamin B6 and vitamin C, so that's another reason to love these mashed potatoes.