These “Christmas Baked Potatoes” Are So Good, I Guarantee They Won’t Last 5 Minutes at Your Family Dinner

I thought I knew everything there was to know about potatoes. That was until I fell down a TikTok rabbit hole a couple of years ago after I discovered Poppy O’Toole, better known as “Poppy Cooks,” the Michelin-trained chef and self-proclaimed “Potato Queen” who has many ingenius ways with spuds. When I first watched her demonstrate the Christmas Pudding Potato recipe, transforming an ordinary baked potato into a gloriously decorated, carb-loaded gift, I was impressed. Her creativity is always a 10 out of 10. She cut a crispy-skinned, cooked (baked) potato into a star pattern, stuffed it with a heavenly mixture of garlic-herb cheese and bacon, then drenched it in a garlicky butter sauce that would make any carb-lover weak in the knees. So, it was a no-brainer when I was asked to try this recipe for myself. 

Get the recipe: Christmas Pudding Jacket Potatoes

It starts with selecting the perfect potatoes. You’re looking for a sturdy baking potato that will get fluffy on the inside. I used large Russet potatoes since Maris Pipers aren’t readily available where I’m from. After giving them a good scrub and rubbing them with oil and salt, they went into a hot oven for an hour. While they were baking, I prepared the filling, a mixture of crispy bacon bits (she suggests starting the bacon in a cold pan for rendering out the fat), creamy garlic-herb cheese, like Boursin, and a dollop of Dijon mustard.

When the potatoes were done cooking, I cut them into a star pattern on the top, giving them their signature Christmas appeal. Then, I stuffed (and piped) the cheese and bacon mixture into the crevices. Lastly, I finished the potatoes with a generous pour of garlic butter overtop before putting them back into the oven for another 15 minutes. After a final oven stint and a flourish of sour cream, chives, and extra bacon bits, we dug into some delicious potatoes.

These potatoes are ridiculous — in the best possible way. The exterior develops this incredible crispiness while the inside stays fluffy and light, creating the perfect contrast of textures. The garlic-herb cheese melts into the nooks and crannies, and the bacon adds smokiness and crunch. It’s like an elevated, fully loaded baked potato. I don’t think using the whole quantity of bacon and butter was necessary, though. The ingredients are so rich on their own that a little goes a long way.

While it was delicious, I found the star pattern particularly hard to navigate, both with handling a hot potato and adding the filling. Next time, I’d split the potatoes down the middle, cut a small well in the center, or cut them in half and make a crosshatch pattern on the inside surface before adding the filling. It would be much more efficient and maybe even look a bit prettier in the end. Aside from these minor tweaks, it was a great recipe, and I’m glad to have discovered it!

• Season the potatoes. Don’t skip the initial oiling and salting of the potato skin. It creates an amazingly crispy and tasty exterior.
• Cheese options. Room-temperature garlic-herb cheese blends much more easily. But if you’re in a pinch, use a hand mixer to whip it up. 
• Scale back. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the richness, it’s perfectly fine (and even advisable) to scale back — the recipe is pretty forgiving with slightly less cheese, half the amount of bacon, and, at most, a third of the butter.  
• Skip the star. Though it could be cute, festive, and, of course, Instagrammable, the cross pattern is finicky and cumbersome and, honestly, doesn’t allow for easy stuffing or piping of the cheese mixture. Maybe this would have been different with Maris Piper potatoes, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort to try it out. The potatoes would be just as delicious and perhaps even look better if they were split, scooped, or cut in half instead.

Get the recipe: Christmas Pudding Jacket Potatoes