Scalloped Potatoes with Garlic and Swiss cheese (Gratin Dauphinois)

My dad would always make these super rich and flavorful garlic-infused sliced potatoes in a rich heavy cream sauce during holidays, especially Easter as they go well with ham. A food processor makes life so much easier as it slices the potatoes into perfectly uniform slices. The heavy cream and potatoes are layered into a casserole dish, placed in the oven and completely forgotten about until they come out golden brown, delicious and creamy. My dad always used Julia Child’s recipe and I do just the same as there is no one better suited to combining potatoes, milk, butter, and garlic to create a truly sublime dish. 

Scalloped Potatoes with Garlic and Swiss Cheese (Gratin Dauphinois)

Serves 6

Adapted from Julia Child

Ingredients:

  • 1½ cups milk or heavy cream
  • 2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced thin
  • 2 tablespoons butter, plus room temperature butter for coating the pan
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 1 cup freshly grated Swiss cheese

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and coat a 9×13 inch baking dish with room temperature butter. Heat milk or heavy cream in a small sauce pan over med-high heat until it just reaches a boil
  2. Meanwhile, layer half of the potato slices on the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and ½ cup Swiss cheese. Break 1 tablespoon of butter into small bits and sprinkle it over the potatoes. 
  3. Arrange the remaining potatoes on top of the first layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and the remaining ½ cup of Swiss cheese. Divide the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter on top. Pour the boiling milk over the potatoes. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are tender and the top is golden brown. 

Related Recipes:

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.