Twice Baked Potatoes

I had never had a recipe for twice baked potatoes, I just mashed the potatoes with butter and milk. But when I saw this I thought it was definitely worth a try. They were so delicious. I'm sure I'll only be making them for special occasions with all the cheese, butter and sour cream, but they were so yummy!

INGREDIENTS
4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed clean
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Pierce each potato three or four times with a fork and place in the oven (or on a baking sheet). Bake for about an hour, until a fork can easily be inserted into the potato.
Remove the potatoes from the oven. Let them cool for about 10 minutes.

Carefully cut each potato in half lengthwise, so you get two “boat” shapes from each potato. Using an oven mitt or potholder, hold the potato in one hand and with a spoon scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Leave a thin border (a little less than 1/4-inch) of potato innards around the skin so that it isn’t too fragile to hold the pumped up potato mixture.
Mash the potato flesh with a potato masher or fork until mostly smooth. Stir in the melted butter, 3/4 cup cheese, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Preheat the broiler and move an oven rack about 3-4 inches away from the broiler heating element.Scoop the potato filling into the shells, mounding each potato shell full of the good stuff. Sprinkle the potatoes with the remaining cup of cheese and broil the potatoes until the cheese is golden and bubbly, about 5 minutes.

Serves 8 as a side dish.

*If I am making this ahead of time I will skip the broiler step, pull the prepared potatoes out of the refrigerator, and place them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Adapted from: Melanie Andrews