Baked Potatoes

Baking potatoes
vegetable oil
coarse salt
scallions
cooked, crumbled bacon

For many years, we bought in to the idea that by using a microwave oven we could obtain a good baked potato in less time, but that is not true. Using the microwave to "bake" potatoes produces a cooked potato, and it is speedy, but that is all. You can stick a fork in a microwaved potato, but is that enough? If you are not satisfied with speedy, uninspired microwaved potatoes then you will want to go back to the old ways, and bake the potato in an oven - that is where the baked potato earned its reputation as one of the great foods!

The baked potato is the staple restaurant starch for the gluten free community, and we always want to reproduce that excellent baked potato at home. Here's how!

First, obtain some really excellent, large potatoes - Prince Edward Island (PEI) potatoes are that kind of potato, but a nice big russet baking potato will work also. Scrub the potatoes with a brush and clean water, remove any imperfections on the potatoes, and all of the larger "eyes" on the potatoes, with the point of a sharp paring knife. Oil the potatoes with vegetable oil - we use safflower oil. Then, sprinkle them with coarse salt, and be generous about the salt. If you haven't had to carve out any parts of the potatoes, then prick them each in several places with your knife or a fork. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees - a hot oven - even hotter is ok - for 2 hours! That's right, cook them for an hour longer than the cookbooks tell you to!

This long-roasting recipe will give you a beautiful baked potato experience with a crispy tasty skin that you will want to save for last - it is that good. You will be wanting to skip the rest of dinner and just have that baked potato as the main course! Serve your perfect potatoes with butter or margarine or sour cream, some chopped scallions and some freshly cooked bacon crumbled up in pieces, and pass the salt and pepper.

© Gf-Zing! | Alice DeLuca