Fondant Potatoes

One of the most decadent potato dishes after pommes anna in my opinion are these melt in your mouth fondant potatoes. Using an unhealthy amount of butter, these fondant potatoes are a bit more time consuming, but well worth it. They are also one of my perfect entertaining side dishes because most people have never tried them before. Serving at least one dish guests have never had before is one of my keys to throwing a good dinner party.

Simply put, these easy fondant potatoes only need 4 ingredients, plus rosemary if you want to add it. You just need potatoes, oil, butter, and salt. The real trick is the technique involved to making these large pieces melt in your mouth.

How To Prepare Fondant Potatoes

For this recipe you’ll want to choose rather large potatoes. This is because you will need to cut them down to size, and the larger they are, the easier they are to trim. Now, you can use a cookie cutter if you want to get a perfect cylinder or set shape, or you can just use a knife.

I tried the cookie cutter method with this flower shaped one and to be honest it was more trouble than it was worth. I think the best method is to just cut a hexagonal prism with a knife and them round it out with a peeler.

I also like to round the tops of the potatoes on one side. This helps prevent burning in the hot oil, and gives the fondant potatoes a nice finished shape.

There you have it. Whole potatoes prepped to be made into fondant potatoes. If you want to get really fancy you can make them all the same height and circumference, but it’s not necessary if you don’t feel like doing the extra work.

Cooking Fondant Potatoes

In a pan on max heat add a glug of neutral oil. Something with a high smoke point like sunflower oil or grapeseed oil works well. Place the potatoes with the rounded side down and fry for a few minutes. Use tongs to lift the potato and if it is evenly browned then they are good.

Turn down the heat to medium, flip the potatoes, and add the aforementioned unhealthy amount of butter. For 8 potatoes I use two hundred grams of butter, but you could probably get a way with just one hundred (although why). If you really want to elevate the flavor, replace the butter with duck fat. Learning how to cook duck breast means you’ll always have leftover fat, and it can be used in so many dishes.

Add the rosemary sprigs if you want and let the butter melt completely. Then place the entire pan into an oven preheated to 210 Celsius for 20 minutes. I place the pan on the highest rack so the top crisps up a bit more, but you can place them anywhere you prefer. When the 20 minutes is up test them with a toothpick. If it goes in and out with zero resistance they are finished, otherwise pop them back in for 5 more minutes.

Fondant potatoes make a great side dish to pretty much any meat dish. I made these ones to pair with my European style beef tongue (which is already the fattiest piece of meat ever) and it was probably one of the richest meals I’ve ever made myself.