Individual Cheese & Potato Bakes

I’ve always loved cheese and potato pie, you’ll see various reincarnations of this in my posts!  Growing up it was a staple, weekly, meal.  However, as time’s gone by, I’ve tended to stop at the Cheesy Mash stage – and eaten cheesy mash instead of going the whole hog and baking the cheese and potato pie in the oven.

There’s not a great deal of difference, except the crispiness of the exterior and the slightly different taste of cooked cheese (which is lovely!).  So today I decided that instead of microwaving my cold cheesy mash I’d made yesterday and stored in the fridge, I’d actually bake it.

This, for me, is where the mini oven, or toaster oven, comes into its own.  I was only going to use a few scoops of the cheesy mash.

Ingredients: 

• Mashed potato, cold
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Oil just for greasing the tin foil

Method:

1. Take your cold mash and mash it together with grated cheddar cheese.  How much you use does depend on personal preference, or by eye, but, for me, the cheesier the better!
2. Oil a sheet of foil – just so the cheese & potato bakes don’t stick
3. Take a scoop of your mash/cheese mix and shape it into a round with your hands, place on the tin foil.
4. Poke a hole in the top of the potato cake and place a cube of cheddar in the hole.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 15-20 minutes, until you can’t wait any longer, or the colour you like it to be is reached!

Serve!  I serve these with baked beans.

Toaster Oven Instructions for cooking individual cheese & potato bakes:

No need to pre-heat.

• Set temperature gauge to 190°C
• Place the potato cakes on the bottom shelf.
• Turn both the top and bottom elements on.
• Set the timer for 12 minutes.
• Remove the tray from the oven and move the shelf up to the top of the oven.
• Turn just the top element on.
• Set the timer for 5 minutes.

I served my cheese & potato bakes with some belly warming baked beans – and topped them with a little more grated cheddar cheese!

How to Freeze:

If you want to freeze these, then wait until they’re cold, then place on a tray and into the freezer, so they freeze separately.  Once fully frozen you can pop them into a freezer bag.  To reheat from frozen, put them on a tray in the oven for 15 minutes.