Dauphinoise potatoes

Made this for lunch on Mother's Day and it was gorgeous!!! Definite Do's: ☆ DEFINITELY Use Maris Piper or King Ed or similar variety potatoes (I used *approx.* 1.2kg as no large ones to be found in store) as it's the starch in this kind of potato that helps thicken the sauce!! ☆ Slice them as thinly as possible - I'd just got a hand mandolin (think its a good grips one?) so that helped. ☆ I put a whole half of onion (peeled but not sliced) in the milk and cream with the garlic cloves, oh and a few gratings of fresh nutmeg (just cos we like the flavour) ☆ Gently simmer potatoes about 5-6 mins I personally found 3 mins not quite long enough. ☆ Loosely layer the potatoes (don't just dump 'em in the dish) and season well between layers - salt and *white* pepper (i think I got about 3 ish layers?) ☆ I cooked on low shelf in oven while finishing cooking lamb, about an hour-ish, *didn't put cheese on until I knew dish well cooked* as didn't want it burning. Then cooked on middle shelf until cheese golden brown n bubbly. This change in cooking didn't harm it at all. Definite Donts: ☆ Forget to lightly butter dish before putting in potatoes... ☆ Rush it. Slow is good. ☆ Put cheese on until you know potatoes cooked through (saves horrid burnt fromage!!) ☆ Dont worry if potatoes break up a little or don't look pretty when slicing - who cares?!?!? Cant see 'em under all that gooey cheesy gorgeousness anyway! ☆ Don't use more than 500ml milk n 500ml double cream - it'll probably be way too runny otherwise. :-) I've made it since using Skimmed and Semi-Skimmed milk and it worked just as well.

Time and again I've baked these dauphinois with brilliant results. Just a subtle change by using low fat fromages frais instead of cream. Mmmmmmm ......

Awful. Cooked for an hour and the potatoes were still raw. And what about the seasoning??? Wish I'd read the comments as I would never have bothered even trying this recipe. How it's got five stars on average is beyond me.

So I followed the instructions. I even made sure I didn't add all of that milk/cream mix into the potato dish to bake. But it didn't turn out right and the potatoes are raw. My mum is currently yelling at me about how I'm useless and ruin everything. But she's right. I do literally ruin everything I touch so maybe I'm the problem and the recipe is all good. So don't listen to me.

Gorgeous! Simple to do and went down a treat.

Cooked this last night and was delicious. Added a sprinkle of nutmeg as previous suggestions with the milk and cream mixture, along with seasoning. Also, noted previous people had mentioned too runny so changed to 400ml milk with 500ml cream and slightly reduced for approx 4 mins. We also used the suggested cheese and sprinkled between layers. I will definitely cook this again as was yummy!

I attempted to make this ahead for a Sunday lunch with family. I cut the potatoes finely and then cooked them for closer to 10 minutes in the cream then chilled. After an hour in the oven at 200C the next day, many of my slices were still crunchy and not at all cooked. Even after 10 minutes in the microwave and a further 10 minutes on the hob, some slices were still firm. If you are using large (Jacket sized) spuds, this needs a lot longer cooking time initially in the cream - I think as the slices tend to stick together the fact they are thinly cut doesn't matter - I think they almost need to be treated as whole potatoes and cooked through accordingly. Fortunately this was being served alongside a beef bourguignon so the extra cooking time wasn't an issue.

Just made this, it's in the oven. With regards the comments about too much liquid, I followed the recipe which says: "Pour over the garlic infused cream (discarding the garlic) – just enough to seep through the layers and leave a little moisture on the surface" So you use the liquid for par- boiling, but not all of it for baking. I've reserved the rest in case it dries out in the oven.