Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese

Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese

Mashed potatoes can be made in a wide variety of ways. I’ve made wasabi mashed potatoes to go alongside seared Ahi tuna, traditional Irish colcannon with sautéed cabbage, and mashed potato with sage and walnut pesto.  The combinations are endless and limited only to your imagination. What I’m doing here is giving you a rich, luxurious, consistent garlic mashed potato recipe enriched with cream cheese. Delicious!

Traditional Commercial Method

Traditionalists will tell you the best old-school way is to press the mashed potatoes with a potato ricer.  That’s true, but we use giant 3HP floor mixers in many commercial kitchens that can accommodate 1/2 case or 25 lbs+ of potatoes at a time.  These types of mixers are potent and make smooth and fluffy mashed potatoes.

Home Kitchen

Most residential mixers have a 4.5 to 6-quart bowl size. The maximum you can put into this size mixing bowl is 3 lbs of cooked potatoes at one time. That translates to around 4-5 large russets, to give you an idea. If you plan on making more potatoes, you will need to mix them in batches. If you are using an electric hand mixer, the size of the bowl you are using will determine how many potatoes you can mash at one time. Never put all the hot potatoes into your mixer and turn it on high. You will end up with hot potatoes all over your kitchen!

Alternatively, the old stainless steel potato masher does an ok job.

Peel the potatoes and try to cut or slice the potatoes into the same size. Submerging in water after peeling and cutting will keep the potatoes from oxidizing and turning black.

Heat butter, milk, cream cheese, and garlic until piping hot but not boiling. Never add cold milk and butter to hot mashed potatoes!

When boiling the potatoes, once they are fork-tender, drain, and then add 1/4 of the potatoes to a mixing bowl along with some of the hot milk/cheese/garlic mixture. Slowly lower the whisk or paddle attachment into the potatoes on the lowest power setting and blend until smooth. Keep this first batch in the bowl to help hold the rest of the potatoes.

Add the rest of the hot potatoes and start the mixer again at low speed, lowering the whisk or paddle into the potatoes as needed. Doing it this way will help keep pieces of potato from leaping out of the bowl. Slowly add the remainder of the milk/cheese/garlic mixture, testing as you go for consistency, blend at medium speed until smooth. Adjust seasoning by taste with salt once you have whipped the potatoes.

Mashed potatoes should be able to stand up on their own. The starch content of potatoes varies, so test the consistency as you add the last of the milk/cheese/garlic mixture. You might find that you don’t need all of the milk/cheese/garlic mixture.

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Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese

I prefer using large, or 'A' sized Yukon Gold potatoes, but any potato will do. Use the best you have in your area. Peel or don't peel depending on your taste, but cut the potatoes into equal-sized slices or pieces. The idea being, if the potatoes are the same size, they will cook for the same amount of time. This avoids lumpy or overcooked mashed potatoes. The technique used here might be new to some. The idea of making really smooth mashed potatoes is to have all of your liquids hot as well. Don't pour cold milk onto hot potato chunks and expect them to break down into a smooth product. If you like chunky mashed potatoes like I sometimes do, then don't follow this technique.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine New American, New Southern

Keyword Mashed Potatoes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 6 people

Author David of Sunset & Sewanee

Equipment

• 2-3 large pots for soaking boiling the potatoes
• potato peeler
• chef knife
• cutting board
• measuring cups and spoons
• stand mixer or large mixing bowl and hand potato ricer
• large mixing bowl (if needed)

Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs potato, russet, or Yukon Gold, peeled cut into 1-inch slices (About 4-5 large Russets)
• 1 pot of water, cold, enough to soak the potatoes completely
• 1 pot of water, boiling with (1 tbsp salt)
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 8 oz cheese, cream, or Neufantel at room temperature
• ¾ cup milk, whole or 2%
• 1 ½ tsp salt, Kosher
• ½ tbs parsley, chopped (optional), or chives

Instructions

• Preheat the same amount of water that you place the raw potatoes in. Bring to a boil, add salt and reduce the heat to a simmer: cover and reserve.
• Slowly heat the milk, cream cheese, garlic, and butter in another smaller pot. The milk mixture should be hot enough to melt the cream cheese and butter when whisked.
• Peel and cut the potatoes into roughly the same universal size and place them into a bowl/dish with cold water. This will keep the potatoes from oxidizing (turning black) while you get all of them done. Make sure all of the potatoes are covered by the water.
• Using a colander, drain the soaking, cold water from the potatoes and place the potatoes into an empty pot. Pour the reserved hot water over the potatoes and bring the water to a boil.
• Boil the potato pieces for about 15-20 minutes or until fork-tender. Drain the potatoes into a colander. Immediately transfer half of the potatoes to a mixing bowl and start mashing with a potato masher, or (if you are like me) add 1/4 of the potatoes to an electric mixing bowl fitted with a paddle or whisk, and on the lowest speed, smash the potatoes until they are smooth.
• Next, slowly add a few potatoes at a time until they are mashed up. This would prevent mashed potatoes from flying out of the bowl if you were to add all of them at once. You can also manipulate the mixer head itself if you need to by raising or lower the paddle/whisk attachment as needed. Once all potatoes have been incorporated, slowly add the last half cup of the milk, butter, cream cheese, garlic mixture. Adjust seasoning (salt) to taste.