The BEST Bakers

My five-year old will NOT eat potatoes. Except for french fries. But no mashed potatoes, no bakers, no breakfast potatoes, no potatoes in soup, no nothing. Until we found these bakers.  They. Are. Awesome! He is actually excited to have them, and will eat them skin and all.

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2: Wash your bakers, and poke them all over with a knife. This allows the steam to escape from the bakers while they are in the oven.

Step 3: Put oil and kosher salt into small bowls. Take a small amount of oil (enough to lightly coat the potato), and rub it on the potato skin. Then take some kosher salt and rub it over the newly-oiled potato skin. This will be a little messy. We have tried both olive oil and vegetable oil, and have found we like vegetable oil best. Canola oil would be great too, I’m sure. Don’t worry about over-salting at this point – you can always brush salt off at the end – but you don’t need a ton of oil. You could use less than a teaspoon per potato and it would be enough. This helps keep your fat down to keep the oil down.

Here is what they will look like before you put them in the oven:

Step 4: Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and put on the bottom rack of your oven (this will keep the oven clean while the bakers are cooking). Place the potatoes on the top rack in the oven, and bake for 45 minutes. If you have more than four bakers, you may need to increase the time by up to 15 minutes. When they are no longer firm, they are done.

Step 5: Take out the potatoes (using tongs or oven mitts), and carefully brush off the extra salt – the bakers are hot! You just want to leave enough salt on to have tasty bakers, but not to make you sick. :)

Step 6: Cut open and marvel at the fluffy yumminess inside.

For the bit of extra time this takes, it is totally worth it. The skin is slightly crispy and delicious, the inside is perfectly cooked, and even potato-haters will be happy with it. Enjoy!