The Perfect Baked Potato... Really?

I'll admit I was skeptical when I first came across a pin to  blog claiming that it held the secret to the perfect baked potato. How hard can baking a potato be? I thought. But I'm always looking for new things to try, and improvement on the way I've always done things is not a bad thing, so I checked it out (here).

I grew up thinking that to properly bake a potato you need to wrap it in foil... not so, says this blogger. In fact, she was quite adamant that you should NOT EVER wrapped your potato in foil to bake it... hmmm... 

So, I followed her directions, and guess what... she was right! These potatoes are so good, so much better than any of the ones I had ever baked before. So, she made a believer out of me, and I will never go back to my old potato baking ways! 

In fact, since first pinning this pin over a year or so ago I've made them several times just like this, and they do always turn out perfect! 

Here's what you can do to also bake a perfect potato!

Start out by scrubbing your potatoes. Scrub them good, so you get all that yucky dirt off. I like to use the really big potatoes, but I've used smaller ones too, and they also turn out yummy. 

After they are thoroughly scrubbed make sure to prick them several times with a fork. This step is really important if you don't want to take the chance of a potato exploding in your oven. My hus... er, someone in my family, didn't believe me about the importance of this, and well, let's just say he had a nice mess to clean up! Not that I'm complaining that I got a clean oven out of it! 

Okay, then slather them with olive oil. The original blogger uses her hands, but I usually don't want my hands all oily, so I just use a pastry brush to help me get them nice and covered. 

Next, just sprinkle sea salt all over them. 

Then they are ready to pop in the oven (preheated to 400 degrees). I always put an old cookie sheet on the rack under them to catch the olive oil drips... I'm trying to NOT have extra reasons to clean my oven! 

Bake them for about an hour. Half way through you can flip them over. 

After I take them out of the oven I usually roll them in my hands to soften up the insides a bit. Use hot pads for this step. Hot potatoes really are hot! Who knew??

When it's time to eat them I put a shallow slice in them across the top (lengthwise), and push the ends together just enough for the fluffy insides to pop up and out of the skin a bit. A little butter and some salt and pepper later, and you'll also have, yes, the perfect baked potato! 

Try it, I think you'll like it too! 

I always make a few extra when I bake potatoes for my family, there are so many ways to use leftover baked potatoes... Here's a peak at what I made with one of those extras for breakfast the next morning! Delish!