Did you accidentally get a crispy mashed potato in the oven and enjoyed every bit of it? Now you’re wondering how to make a fresh batch of mashed potatoes crispy at the top?
It’s quite easy, and this article will show you exactly how to crisp up mashed potatoes at the top.
Brush the top with butter
If you want your mashed potatoes to have a bit of crispiness on the surface, then what you have to do is brush the surface with with melted butter or ven oil and then bake it in the oven. Over the course of baking, the oil on the surface of the mashed potatoes would result in quick heat transfer between and potato leading to slight overcooking at the surface (which is the hottest) that is seen as browning.
Now if you want to create a more interesting browning on your mashed potatoes, you could eliminate the slouchy by creating a rose type design on it and then oiling the ridges that rise up which cause them to brown and give your mashed potatoes an exciting look. You can create the design using a fork, spoon, spatula or whatever you have on ground.
Another great idea is to add the mashed potatoes into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and force them out onto a cookie sheet through the tip. This would create a really nice round shape with beautiful ridges on them that get beautifully browned when baked.
When you’re done, oiling the surface of your mashed potatoes, however you want it, make sure to pop it inside a hot oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the surface turns brown.
You have to be very careful and pay close attention to time so as to prevent running into stiffened or burnt mashed potatoes in the oven. Just remove the potatoes when you notice a nice light brown crust built on them.
How do you stiffen mashed potatoes?
When it comes to stiffening mashed potatoes, there are quite a number of ways you can achieve that.
One of the easiest is by cooking the runny mashed potato on the stovetop or in the oven for an extended duration of time so as to drive out the excess moisture in it.
This method is a bit risky because you could likely end up burning the mashed potatoes or even causing them to get way over cooked which destroys their texture and taste.
So make sure to pay very close attention to the mashed potatoes when you’re following this method, and take them out as soon as they begin to thicken up.
Another advice that can help with crisping up mashed potatoes is to pay careful attention to the liquids and semi-liquids you’re adding into the mashed potatoes, especially when you’re not following an exact recipe. This, most of the time, is the likely reason why mashed potatoes turn out very watery.
If you already have too much liquid in your mashed potatoes, what you can do to stiffen it up is to add more mashed potatoes into the watery one which would give it some body.
If you don’t want to go over the stress of boiling fresh potatoes and mashing them up, you can use instant mashed potatoes. These also work great to thicken up your watery mashed potatoes.
When using instant mashed potatoes, make sure to add one tablespoon at a time and consistently stir until you arrive at the desired consistency.
One very important thing to note also concerns the way you boil the potatoes. When next you are boiling potatoes for mashing, make sure to cut them in large forms and not into smaller cubes.
Boiling potatoes in very small cubes gives them a large surface area in the boiling water which ends up causing them to absorb a lot of water and as a result increases the likelihood of making a watery mashed potato.
Cutting the mashed potatoes larger on the other hand means less water is absorbed into the core and as a result you won’t run into a watery mess when you decide to mash the potatoes.
What to put on top of mashed potatoes?
When it comes to the things you can put on your mashed potatoes to build flavor or make them look well plated, there are a variety of them.
On one hand you can choose to add roasted seeds and veggies, and on the other you can add really tender meat, sauce, gravy, onion, cream butter etc.
