What is Pommes de Terre Boulangères? Translated from French this potato dish is the ‘bakers potato’ or the ‘bakeries potato’ when the bread was finished baking for the day and the ovens began the long slow cooldown process, the bakers would put their potatoes in the ovens to cook for dinner. No sense wasting a hot oven! The long cooking time gave the potatoes plenty of time to soak up the intense flavors of beef stock, onions, and herbs. Pommes de Terre Boulangères is similar to a potato gratin only without the cream, just onions, stock, and potatoes. A very beautiful side dish, who doesn’t love perfectly roasted golden brown potatoes?
Then, I was watching Chef Adrian Richardson’s cooking show, ‘The Secret Meat Business’ and he made this recipe with loads of bacon in it. Well, anytime I can work in bacon into a potato dish I’m all for it.
As I began researching Potatoes Boulangères, it became evident that using bacon was not a traditional way of making this dish. But at this point I was Hell bent that this was my new way of making these potatoes. Then in a Google image search, I discovered a great French Food Blog by Chef Stéphane Décotterd. His traditional Pommes de Terre Boulangères recipe and presentation were so beautiful, unique, and elegant, that I knew I wanted to try to duplicate his presentation. I highly recommend his Food Blog, it’s in French, but google translate does a pretty good job of converting it to English. This recipe is my adaptation of Chef Stéphane Décotterd’s, go check out his blog!
My Pommes de Terre Boulangères recipe pairs perfectly with my beautiful and delicious Glazed Carrots and the equally beautiful and delicious Buttermilk Roast Chicken for an elegant dinner. If this doesn’t impress, nothing will!
This is my Pommes de Terre Boulangères recipe:
Pommes de Terre Boulangères
Ingredients
- 1/2 Pound Bacon Crispy
- 1 Cup Onions Sliced thin
- 1 Clove Garlic Crushed and chopped
- 2 Pounds High Starch Potato Yukon Gold
- 10-12 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
- 4 Bay Leaves
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 Quart Unsalted Beef Stock
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Slice bacon into ¼ inch pieces, in a hot skillet, fry the bacon until crisp, remove the bacon and discard all but 2 tablespoons of fat.
- Sauté onions and garlic in bacon grease until soft, add salt and pepper
- Peel and slice potatoes, cut a flat part on the bottom of the potato so they stand up nicely, keep the potato slices together to keep the original shape of the potato,
- Place the potatoes in the casserole dish as you peel them, it’s a bit of a puzzle to make sure the pieces fit and you don’t want to peel more than necessary
- Combine the onions and bacon and place in the bottom of an 8 x 10-inch casserole dish
- Arrange potatoes on top of the onions, pour the beef stock on top of the potatoes, up to the ¼ inch of the edge of the casserole dish
- Tuck the bay leaves and the thyme in and around the potatoes.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour 45 minutes
- Remove the aluminum foil and raise the oven to 400F, baste the potatoes every 10 minutes until they have a nice color, approximately 45-60 minutes
- Remove the cooked thyme and replace it with a fresh garnish for presentation.
The Pommes Boulangères is a bit like putting together an easy puzzle.
- Peel the potatoes, but leave them whole. Use them like puzzle pieces in your casserole to see how they fit.
- The base of the boulangères potatoes is a combination of bacon, onions, and garlic. Place the mixture in the bottom of the casserole and distribute them evenly.
- Slice the potatoes and fit them into like puzzle pieces. Add the remaining ingredients and bake the Pommes de Terre Boulangères per the recipe instructions. Roughly around 2 1/2 hours! The slow cooking time will leave the potatoes a beautiful golden brown with a creamy smooth center. The flavor of these boulangèrie potatoes is out of this world amazing.
Olley thompson
I must try this potatoes boulangere recipe, it looks delicious
Steven
You’ll love the pommes de terre boulangere!
Michelle
Looks great! So these potatoes are cooked for a total of 2.5 hours??
Steven
Yes, the pommes de terre boulangeres are cooked for a long time at a low temperature, but totally worth it!
Tami Kent
I must have done something wrong as my potatoes were literally swimming in the broth after the 1 hour and 45 minutes. How deep should the pan be, and did you possibly mean for the broth to be 1/4 inch deep? Up to 1/4 inch of the top of the casserole dish practically covers the potatoes.
Steven
Hi Tami, I’m sorry you had trouble with the pommes boulangere recipe. This recipe actually takes 2 hours and 45 minutes to bake.
Once you remove the foil after 1 hour 45 minutes, you then raise the oven temperature and continue baking the potatoes for another 45-60 minutes. It is during the last 60 minutes that the flavors concentrate and the broth reduces down.
Please try the Pommes de Terre Boulangeres recipe again Tami, I’m sure you will love it.