Twice Baked Potatoes with Cream Cheese

Bacon and cheese topped Twice Baked Potatoes with Cream Cheese is the perfect side dish for any weeknight or holiday meal!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 1 45

Servings servings

Calories 403kcal

Author Whitney Wright

Ingredients

4 large baking potatoes or russets, 1 lb each *see note #1
2 oz cream cheese softened
1/2 cup sour cream can use lite or regular
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature or melted
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese freshly grated, divided
1 teaspoon paprika for topping
2 green onions thinly sliced, for topping
1/4 cup bacon cooked and crumbled

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Scrub the potatoes well. Pierce the potatoes with a fork in 3 places.
Place the potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake for 1 hour or until fork tender (since I used large potatoes mine baked for 1 hour 15 minutes). Remove from the oven and let cool enough to handle them. Reduce oven temp to 375°F.
Cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop the white interior into a large bowl, doing your best to keep the potato skins intact. Place the potato skins on a foil-lined baking sheet.
To the large bowl with the potato pulp, add the cream cheese, sour cream, butter, salt, pepper, and milk. Using a hand mixer, whip the mixture until smooth. Be careful not to over mix as this can make the potatoes gummy. Alternatively you can use a potato masher. Stir in ¾ cup of cheddar cheese.
Scoop the filling back into the potato shells. Top with remaining ¾ cup of cheddar cheese and a sprinkling of paprika. Bake for 20 mins or until heated through.
Remove and garnish with sliced green onions and crumbled bacon. Serve immediately.

Notes

You can use smaller sized potatoes and bake more of them, just have the total weight of the potatoes equal at least 4 pounds.

Potatoes: Use russet or baking potatoes as they hold up best.

Make sure your potatoes are warm when whipping or mashing them, as cold potatoes tend to get gummy.

For fluffier potatoes, whip them with a mixer just be careful not to overmix as this can make them gloppy.

Once the potatoes are stuffed you can freeze or refrigerate them. Freeze them individually on a baking sheet. Once they are solid remove from the freezer and store them in a freezer-safe ziplock bag. Bake frozen twice baked potatoes as directed but add an additional 15 minutes to the bake time.

Nutrition