Jacket potatoes are an incredibly tasty dish often consumed in winter, with lots of different hearty toppings.
However, mastering a super crispy but fluffy baked potato can be tricky, and take hours in the oven.
Mary Berry’s recipe notes said: “Baked potatoes are surely the ultimate comfort food, great for feeding a crowd.
“Choose one or more of these lovely fillings to make a change from plain jacket potatoes.
“Each topping is enough for four potatoes or eight halves.”
Ingredients:
For the potato:
Four large baking potatoes, washed and dried
Two tablespoons of milk
Knob of butter
Olive oil, to drizzle
Two tablespoons of chopped flatleaf parsley
Salt and pepper
For the pesto topping:
Three tablespoons of basil pesto
75g Parmesan, coarsely grated
For the bacon and mushroom topping:
Four rashers of bacon, cut into small pieces
50g button mushrooms, sliced
75g mature cheddar, grated
For the spring onion and soured cream topping:
One tablespoon of olive oil
Four spring onions, chopped
Four generous tablespoons of soured cream
Paprika, for dusting
For the pepper and goat’s cheese topping:
Two large red peppers, halved, seeds removed and roasted until soft, or two chargrilled peppers from a jar
One tablespoon of soft goat’s cheese
One tablespoon of chopped fresh basil leaves
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan and bake the potatoes for about an hour, or until soft in the middle.
Slice the potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Stir in the milk and butter. Stir in the pesto or other topping of your choice and season with salt and pepper, spooning the mixture back into the potato skins.
For the bacon and mushroom topping, fry the bacon until crisp, then add the mushrooms and fry over high heat for a few minutes.
For the spring onion and soured cream topping, heat the oil over high heat and fry the spring onions until soft. Stir into the potato flesh along with the soured cream.
For the pepper and goat cheese topping, cut the roasted peppers into strips and stir into the potato flesh along with the goat’s cheese and basil.
Transfer the potatoes to a roasting tin and scatter over the parmesan, cheddar or dust with paprika, depending on your chosen filling.
Drizzle over a little olive oil and return to the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the skins are crisp.
Sprinkle with some chopped parsley and serve immediately whilst they are hot.
