Cooking with Kids: Lazy Duchess Potatoes

I’m calling these “Lazy Duchess Potatoes” because I can’t be bothered making them the fancy way, with the icing bag and the star-shaped piping tip. Yes, I own an icing bag and a star-shaped piping tip, but Downton Abbey is on tonight and I really don’t feel like cleaning out my icing bag after I’ve filled it with garlic- and onion-seasoned mashed potatoes.

I’m making these because last night I made mashed potatoes with dinner. I made extra, because when I started cooking dinner there were two extra teenage boys here. But one of them was picked up before dinnertime, and the other one didn’t want any mashed potatoes. (I know! I couldn’t figure that out either!) In the interest in using up about 3 cups of mashed potatoes before they got pushed to the back corner of the fridge and became a science experiment, I googled “Duchess Potatoes” and then spent a few minutes reading recipes with my feet up and figuring out how to make this dish the easy way.

Yeah, they won’t look as pretty as the ones that come out of the icing bag, but when dinner’s over tonight, all I’ll have to do is toss the baking parchment, rinse the sheet pan and wash a serving utensil, one measuring cup and one spoon. That’s a cleanup WIN right there, especially since Downton is on soon.

This recipe is great to make with the kids, since they can do all the prep work, and it’ll be so much fun squirting mashed potatoes onto a baking sheet that they won’t care what the finished product looks like anyway.

Lazy Duchess Potatoes

Makes 4 servings

3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded (sharp Cheddar is best)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp salt (see note)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Place all ingredients in a gallon-size zipper-type freezer bag. After squeezing the air out of the bag, make double-sure that the zipper is tightly zipped. Squish the bag to combine the ingredients.

Line a half-sheet pan (or large cookie sheet) with baking parchment or foil (if using foil, brush with olive oil to prevent sticking). Press the potato mixture away from one of the bottom corners of your zipper bag and cut away the corner (I left an opening about 1/2-inch wide. That’s about as big as you should go.)

Pipe the potato mixture onto the baking pan in a circular motion, as if you’re piping icing onto a cupcake. You’ll use about 1/2 cup mixture per Lazy Duchess, so you’ll get 8 of these from this recipe.

Put the baking pan into the refrigerator for 20 minutes or until you’re ready to cook. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until potatoes are hot and the edges are golden brown.

NOTE: if your baked potatoes are already salted, you may wish to reduce or eliminate the salt here.