Ever been served a perfect slice of classic Dauphinoise Potatoes in a French restaurant? Buttery-soft layers of potato, cooked in a cream infusion flavored with garlic and herbs. It's an elegant accompaniment to any meal. Here is my professional restaurant-level recipe that gives perfect results every time, as well as several ways you can tweak the original recipe and add different flavors.
A proper Dauphinoise potato will be buttery soft and tender; every bite will melt in the mouth. It shouldn't be swimming in cream; there needs to be just enough to cook the potatoes and make them nice and rich. The top should be crispy, and the center soft and decadent, flavored with garlic, nutmeg, and herbs.
Making fancy potato sides doesn't have to be tricky, and this is one of those side dish recipes that actually freezes really well. There are a few tips and tricks to making and freezing dauphinoise potato, and I'll share them all below.
Jump to:
- Ingredient Notes
- Prepare Your Baking Dish (choose the right one!)
- Start With The Cream Infusion
- How To Make Classic Dauphinoise Gratin
- Top tip
- Assemble The Dauphinoise & Cook
- Always Rest Dauphinoise
- How To Make Ahead & Reheat
- Expert Tips To Make Potato Dauphinoise
- Five Dauphinoise Flavor Variations
- What To Serve With Gratin Dauphinois
- What if I have leftovers?
- Can I freeze it?
- 🙏🏻 If you try this recipe...
- Recipe
- Comments
Ingredient Notes
For the best dauphinoise potatoes, choose the right type of potato. Too waxy, and the slices slide all over the place. Too floury and it all goes too mushy.
The best potatoes to use for dauphinoise include Desiree, King Edward, Red Potatoes, Maris Piper, Charlotte, Russet, Yukon Gold, or Sebago. I personally like to use red potatoes for Dauphinoise.
I prefer to use half milk and half cream in the infusion, and I use full-fat/whole milk and double cream (heavy cream if you are in the US). I personally do not add cheese, but some like to include a little grated Gruyere or Parmesan.
There's a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post with quantities and step-by-step directions for how to make Dauphinoise Potatoes.
Prepare Your Baking Dish (choose the right one!)
For the best dauphinoise that you can slice up like a chef, use a metal square or rectangular oven dish with vertical sides. A metal sheet cake pan is the best! Mine is a 20cm X 20cm / 8-inch x 8-inch pan, and it serves 6-8 people depending on how big you want your slices to be. Don't use a loaf pan; the sides are too high. A glass or ceramic dish will also work, but you won't get such clean sides.
Line the pan with baking/parchment paper or aluminum foil that overhangs the sides slightly, which will mean you can lift the whole thing out once it has baked and set.
Start With The Cream Infusion
Prepare your infusion first. Measure the milk, cream, and grated garlic into a large saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. Add the bay leaf, grated nutmeg, and (optionally) a handful of grated Gruyere or Parmesan cheese.
Bring this infusion to a steaming point or a gentle simmer, but do not let it boil.
How To Make Classic Dauphinoise Gratin
Peel and cut your potatoes into 2mm slices. Any thinner and they sort of melt, any thicker and you don't get that buttery softness.
Cut roughly a quarter of them in half so that you have a flat side to use against the edges of your dish.
Top tip
Use a mandolin to slice your potatoes so that you can keep the width consistent, which will make layering them much easier and ensure even cooking, too. If you want that perfectly compact restaurant-style dauphinoise with no gaps, your slices all have to be even.
Add the slices to the cream infusion and gently simmer for 5 minutes to allow the starches to release and help build flavor. Strain the infusion mixture into a bowl to separate the potatoes and remove the bay leaf and thyme.
Assemble The Dauphinoise & Cook
Layer the potato slices into the greased, lined baking dish, using the halved slices for the sides of the pan. Press down with a fish slice or your palm to compact each layer. Pour the cream infusion over the top, and add some knobs of butter.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160 °C/320°F for one hour. Then remove the foil, press down again to compact the potato slices. and return to the oven for another 30 minutes, turning the temperature up to 190°C/375°F.
Always Rest Dauphinoise
This deliciously creamy potato gratin needs to rest in the pan for 20-30 minutes before you slice it, or the potato slices will slide around.
Once it has had its time, lift the whole thing out of the pan onto a chopping board and cut into shape. You can also wait for it to cool completely and refrigerate it to reheat later.
How To Make Ahead & Reheat
If you want to make this dish ahead of time and reheat it, let it cool completely on the counter before putting the foil back over it and placing it into the fridge to chill down. It is then very easy to cut into shapes
To reheat dauphinoise potato, preheat the oven to 200 °C/400 °F. Place slices of the potato dauphinoise onto a tray lined with greased baking paper/parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes or until the top is browned and bubbling.
Expert Tips To Make Potato Dauphinoise
- Don't wash or rinse your potatoes once you've peeled them; we need the starch to help keep the dauphinoise potato in shape.
- Use a mandolin! It is very (very) hard to cut perfectly even slices of potato otherwise.
- Compact the layers as you go, pressing down firmly.
- Starting with the oven at a lower temperature helps avoid the dairy splitting.
- The dauphinoise is perfectly cooked when the top is golden brown and no liquid bubbles to the surface when you press a fish slice or spatula onto it.
- Rectangles, squares, or triangles give you the least waste if you are making shapes. If using cookie cutters, grease the inside with a little butter beforehand to make sure the Dauphinoise comes out!
Five Dauphinoise Flavor Variations
- Truffle & Parmesan. Add 1-2 teaspoon truffle oil or paste to the cream infusion (off heat) and grate fresh parmesan over the top of the dauphinoise before baking. Shaved fresh truffle optional!
- Caramelised Onion & Thyme. Slow-cook thinly sliced onions in butter until deep golden and jammy, then layer them with chopped fresh thyme between the potato slices.
- Smoked Garlic & Gruyère. Replace the garlic with smoked garlic and grate Gruyère in between layers and on top of the dauphinoise.
- Blue Cheese & Walnut. Melt gorgonzola into the cream infusion, and add chopped walnuts in between layers of the potatoes.
- Leek, Mustard & White Wine. Sauté thinly sliced leeks in butter, then add the cream and milk to form the infusion. Add a splash of dry white wine and stir through 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard.
What To Serve With Gratin Dauphinois
Potato dauphinoise is the perfect side dish for roast lamb, roast duck, roast ham, or roast beef! And any of my other side dishes from my roast section, like portobello mushroom stuffing, and sausages wrapped in bacon.
What if I have leftovers?
Store leftovers covered in the fridge for 2-3 days. Or wrap individual slices and freeze.
Can I freeze it?
Yes, you can freeze. Double-wrap the whole slab of potato Dauphinoise gratin, or individual slices, in plastic wrap and foil to freeze.
You can reheat Dauphinoise from frozen for 25-30 minutes at 180°C (350°F), but you may need to add an extra tablespoon of cream or milk over the top to prevent it from drying out.
🙏🏻 If you try this recipe...
If you make this recipe, I'd love to hear how it went! Please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe card and consider leaving a comment as well. Your feedback helps other readers and is greatly appreciated.
Recipe
Restaurant-Style Dauphinoise Potatoes (including how to make ahead)
Equipment
- 1 8X8inch or 20X20cm square metal pan
Ingredients
- 1 kg (2.2 lb) Potatoes Desiree, King Edward, Red Potatoes, Maris Piper, Charlotte, Russet, Yukon Gold, or Sebago
- 200 ml (1 cup) Cream double cream/heavy cream
- 200 ml (¾ cup) Whole milk
- ½ teaspoon Nutmeg
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 1 Bay leaf
- 3 tsbp Butter
- Flaky sea salt and cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160 °C/320°F and prepare a metal cake pan by lining it with parchment/baking paper. Let the sides overhang to make it easy to lift the Dauphinoise out in one slab.
- Peel and slice your potatoes into 2mm thick rounds. Use a mandolin for precision, as they need to be uniform. Cut around a quarter of them in half to use the flat edges against the sides of the pan.
- Make the cream infusion by heating the cream, milk, grated garlic, grated nutmeg, bay leaf and salt and pepper together until simmering point.
- Add the sliced potatoes to the hot cream infusion and stir to coat them. Heat gently for 5 minutes, then strain the potatoes but reserve the cream.
- Layer the potatoes into the pan, using the flat edges of the sliced potatoes against the sides of the dish. Compact each layer as you go by pressing down with the palm of your hand or a fish slice/spatula.
- When all the potatoes are in the pan, pour over the cream infusion. Add some knobs of butter over the top, and some more salt. Cover the pan with foil and bake for one hour.
- Remove the foil and turn the oven up to 190°C/375°F and bake for another 30 minutes.
- The Dauphinoise is ready when the top of golden brown and no liquid floods the surface when you press it.
- Allow the potato Dauphinoise to rest in the pan for 20-30 minutes before removing it and slicing it up.
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