Pass the Cook Book Club: Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

I am so excited for today's post because it is part of a new monthly feature I will be doing here at The Taste Tester. Kita, from Pass the Sushi, started a cook book club this year. Once every month I will review a recipe here from the cook book she has chosen for that month. Today I will be sharing a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's second cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier. 

Next month all of the members of this club will be reviewing recipes from Guy Fieri Food: Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It. So if you want to join in on the fun, click on the image below! You don't necessarily have to be a food blogger and you don't have to own any of the cookbooks Kita chooses (she emails three recipes from the book to everyone). If you would like to see other posts from food bloggers who participated in the club this month, you can scroll down to the bottom of this post.

Let me start by saying that the only thing I did not love about this recipe was that fact that it is LOADED with fat. I mean, hard core artery clogging fat. The recipe calls for one and a half cups of heavy cream and half a cup of whole milk. I thought about calculating the nutrition facts for myself but then I figured ignorance would probably be the best choice in this situation.

The good news about these potatoes is that they are perfect (like the recipe title boasts), creamy, perfectly seasoned, cheeeeeeeeeeesy and tender potatoes. There's really nothing better. Around Christmas and Easter my mom always makes a side dish called funeral potatoes. If you have not heard of funeral potatoes they consist of frozen hashbrowns, butter, onion, sour cream, cheese, and cream of chicken soup. They too are yummy, but after eating the Pioneer Woman's recipe for potatoes au gratin, I have decided that these will be my choice for a potato side dish at holidays because there's no cream of crap soup here. 

At some point I am also going to try making this side dish with cauliflower so that my brother can have a side dish to eat during our holiday feasts (he is type 1 diabetic). Whenever I give that I go I will add an update to this post and let you know how it turns out!

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

Recipe Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier

2 tablespoons salted butter, softened

4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed clean *not peeled

1/2 cup whole milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons flour

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon salt

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

2 green onions, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan with the softened butter (yes, all of it). Cut the potatoes into sticks and then dice. Place potatoes in prepared dish.

Combine milk, heavy cream, flour, garlic, salt and pepper and whisk. Pour over the potatoes. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 20 more minutes. Just before serving sprinkle with cheese and return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Sprinkle green onions over hot potatoes and serve.