Growing up, my Thanksgiving assignment was always potato duty. I’d use the potato masher to work out all of the lumps and then make it creamy by adding melted butter and milk at the end. But it never seemed like the butter really worked its way into the potatoes using the masher. Well, not anymore! I use my handheld mixer instead of the masher to turn out creamier whipped mashed potatoes.
Whipping your potatoes takes a lot less time – and it gives them an airy consistency that just soaks up gravy. I add butter for flavor and milk as the liquid, but you can play around with both ingredients to make your potatoes healthier – or more decadent.
To lighten this recipe, you can use nonfat sour cream (or nonfat cream cheese) and nonfat milk to give the whipped mashed potatoes their smooth texture. But if you’re not worried about the calories (and hey, if this is for Thanksgiving, who is?!), you can add both the butter, sour cream and use half and half or heavy cream in place of the milk. I’ve included a balanced version here – just enough butter so that you can taste it but, not so much dairy that it overwhelms the potato flavor.
That brings me to potatoes. For mashing, I usually use whatever is on sale at the grocery store, which means I get the big bag marked ‘Idaho potatoes.’ But if you’re looking for something different, Yukon Gold potatoes have a yellow flesh that’s sweeter than the Idaho variety.
