Buttermilk Ranch Twice-Baked Potatoes

April 8, 2012Katie

I made these potatoes today on my Rise & Shine segment..miss the show? You can watch it here by clicking Play below!

Last night was family Friday night. Tori comes home on the weekends from college to work, and so I texted her and asked her what she wanted for dinner. The reply text came back quickly.

Twice Baked Potatoes.

Hmmmm.

How can I make these a little different? A little snappier I thought?

Buttermilk Ranch came to mind. Plus I had some buttermilk leftover from my Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Sunday.

I started by asking Mr. Wonderful to prep and bake the potatoes.

Here’s the deal. You don’t wrap the potatoes in foil. You don’t coat them with anything oily. You just scrub them good, give them a rinse, dry them off, poke some holes in them with a fork, and put them in your 375 º oven for about an hour, directly on your oven rack. No pan allowed! This causes the potato to heat evenly on all sides and keeps them from being soggy/steamed. Potatoes come in different sizes, so check them with a fork after an hour and see if it goes in easily. If not, put them back in the tanning bed and check again in 10 minutes.

We used roughly about 7 or 8 medium size potatoes for this.

Okay, you have an hour on your hands, so make the filling.

In a bowl, dump 1/2 cup of sour cream.

To this, add 2/3 cup of chopped bacon bits.

Yes, I am using them right out of a package. It’s the thing to do here…trust me. I mean, you could cook bacon…but why on a Friday night? Plus, our room is right next to the kitchen and when we fry bacon, I dream about it all night because of the smell.

However, I have made them with freshly crisped bacon..and it’s wonderful as well! Pick your difficulty level!

NO, you can’t use those fake bacon bits. Those things are evil.

Next, chop up 2 green onions and add them to the pot.

Dump in 1/2 cup to one cup of shredded cheddar cheese.

We were running out, so mine is closer to 1/2 and it was fine.

Dump in 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

Add one envelope of Hidden Valley Ranch dry dressing mix.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

When your potatoes are done, take them out and cut them in half.

Using a large spoon, scraped the insides out.

Leave a little bit for support on the inside and start putting them on a lined cookie sheet. We don’t want to scrub a pan on Friday night. Do I hear an AMEN from all my sisters?

Dump the insides of the potatoes that you’re scooping out into your filling bowl.

Now for the fun part. Get your potato masher.

Smash all of this stuff up together but good! C’mon…mash baby!

You want a mashed potato consistency that has some small chunks in it, but overall, it’s fairly smooth.

Using your large spoon, scoop some of your filling back into one of your potato shells.

We started out sparingly, then once all were filled, we went back and mounded the filling over the tops until all were evenly filled.

Then we popped them into the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Do you ever realize that you forgot an ingredient? I was going to add 1/2 stick of butter cut up in pieces, but you know what? We didn’t miss it at all…maybe on account of the buttermilk. You could add these to your hips and the recipe if you so desire.

After 15 minutes, get a fork, and a sharp knife and a plate of these babies.