Fancy Piped Potatoes

Posted by Lori:

I mentioned in yesterday's post (here) about these "fancy" potatoes.  They're really not fancy at all.  They just look fancier because they're piped from a pastry bag.  However, my kids thought they were awesome and that I had done something really special, so I thought I would share this idea with you.

Use your favorite mashed potato recipe or the following recipe:

Mashed Potatoes

6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/2 cup milk

1 stick butter

1 teaspoon salt

Sour Cream (optional)

 In a large pot of water, boil potatoes over high heat until tender.  Using electric mixer, beat potatoes until all big chunks are gone.  Add milk and butter, plus salt.  You want the mixture fairly stiff - not too thin - so you may want to add the milk and butter a little at a time.  I also like to add sour cream to my mashed potatoes, but didn't have any on hand this day.  Slightly allow mixture to cool before piping.

Using a pastry bag (this one happens to be disposable) with a large decorator tip (this one is a 4B tip), fill bag full of mashed potatoes.  An easy way to fill pastry bags is to place the bag in a tall, narrow glass.  Fold the top edge of the bag over the edge of the cup, leaving the middle of the bag open.

Pipe potato mixture onto buttered baking sheet. To make the swirled designs, begin piping in a circular motion and swirl around in circles, getting smaller and smaller. End by making a small peak at the top. I also made some large regular star tip shapes. The possibilities are endless!

I refrigerated the piped potatoes and then baked them before dinner at 400 degrees for 15 minutes (or bake until lightly browned), but you could bake them immediately, if desired.