Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes
Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes feature thinly sliced potatoes layered with garlic and Gruyère cheese, drenched in cream, then baked, overturned, and sliced for an elegant presentation that's perfect for special occasions and holiday dinners!
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below and we'll send it to your inbox. Plus get our best recipes every week!
If you enjoy potato side dishes, you'll also love Garlic + Herb Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes, Creamy Crockpot Mashed Potatoes, and German Potato Salad!
Well, we're creeping through December and my Christmas to-do list is still a mile long. (Please tell me I'm not alone. I'm not alone. Right???) But one thing that I have checked off my list is deciding our Christmas dinner menu, and today I'm going to share with you the starring side dish: Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes!
These aren't your ordinary scalloped potatoes, folks. No sirree. Paper thin potatoes are layered with minced garlic and flavorful Gruyère cheese before being doused with a cream-laden custard.
The dish is then baked until golden and bubbly. But the real magic happens when your otherwise ordinary-looking scalloped potatoes are overturned (think scalloped potato flan) and then sliced before serving.
Truly, how beautiful would these Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes look on your holiday table?
They're perfect for any special occasion. But they also have the ability to elevate an everyday dinner from ordinary to extraordinary!
And though they take a bit of time to bake, there's nothing complicated or difficult about these Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes. The ingredients are simple and the preparation is straightforward...but the presentation and flavor will earn this dish a spot in your favorite recipe file! It's been in mine for a number of years now, and each time I fix it, we all marvel at how tasty it is.
Ingredients
So what do you need to make Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes?
Hint: I bet you can guess just about all of the ingredients! 😉
- Butter. At room temperature for greasing the baking dish. Salted or unsalted will work.
- Garlic. Freshly minced. As written, this recipe has a definite garlic undertone. However, you can go as light or heavy with the garlic as you'd like!
- Yukon gold potatoes. Peeled and very thinly sliced...I recommend using a mandoline slicer to get your slices as thin and uniform as possible (scroll down for more info on using a mandoline). If you can't find Yukon golds, regular yellow or gold potatoes will work.
- Gruyère cheese. Freshly grated.
- Eggs + heavy cream. For the custard.
- Seasonings. Specifically, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. If you've got freshly ground nutmeg, even better! I have a nutmeg mill, but you can also grate fresh whole nutmeg using a microplane zester.
How to Make Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes
(The below photos are intended to be helpful, but please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for FULL DIRECTIONS.)
The steps for this Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes recipe are simple, straightforward, and pretty standard as compared to most variations of scalloped potatoes.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Grease an 8-inch square baking dish and line it with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in the cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and then set your custard aside.
- Lay the potato slices in overlapping rows until the bottom of the dish is completely covered. Sprinkle with a little bit of minced garlic and a handful of grated cheese.
- Repeat the layers about halfway up the side of the dish. Pour half of the custard over the potatoes, alternately lifting up the layers with a fork and then pressing down on them to ensure that the custard gets in between all of the layers.
- Repeat layering the potatoes, garlic, and cheese until everything is used up and you reach the top of the dish. Pour the rest of the custard over the potatoes, once again lifting and pressing on the potato layers to make sure that there are no dry spots.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 1 ½ hours.
- Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the potatoes in the center of the dish are completely tender when pierced with a small knife.
- Remove the flan to a wire rack and allow it to cool for 15 minutes before placing a platter over the top of the dish. Carefully overturn the flan onto the platter.
- Slice your glorious Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes into portions. Serve warm and enjoy!
Slicing Potatoes with a Mandoline
As mentioned in the ingredient overview above, this Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes recipe is particularly amazing when the potatoes are sliced as thinly as possible. Since it's difficult to get potatoes uniformly thin with a knife and it takes forever (at least for me), so I find a mandoline slicer to be invaluable when making this dish.
I have a few different mandolines, but this simple ceramic blade mandoline is the one I reach for time and time again. It's handheld and nothing fancy. But with it, I can slice 3 pounds of potatoes paper-thin in just a few minutes. It is extremely sharp, so it requires careful handling (use the hand guard!), but it's a pretty handy tool when you require thin slices.
(I also use mine often when I need thinly-sliced apples or cucumbers.)
Tips, Tricks, & Special Equipment
- This Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes recipe was created to be baked in an 8- by 8-inch dish, and if you use exactly 3 pounds of potatoes, the ingredients will go all the way to the top of your dish but should not overflow. However, it might not be a bad idea to put a sheet pan under your baking dish, just in case there's any overflow!
- Lining your dish with parchment paper ensures that your potatoes will come out like a true flan once overturned, so I wouldn't recommend skipping it.
- If you're feeling adventurous, feel free to sprinkle some fresh chopped herbs in between the potato layers (thyme would be delicious!), or even some crispy, crumbled bacon. YUM.
- Scalloped potatoes are notorious for taking a long time to bake. They should be tender after the time allotted in this recipe...but that's only if your potato slices are very thin, as directed. If not, you can always re-cover your potatoes to prevent over-browning and continue cooking until they're completely tender.
I think these Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes would be lovely alongside just about any holiday dinner entree, from beef tenderloin to clove-studded ham to crown roast of lamb to Christmas goose!
Whatever it accompanies, just beware that this side dish may very well overshadow the main course and become the star of the show!
Luckily, it's so darn delicious that nobody will even mind.
Make this one soon, friends...you'll be happy you did. 🙂
More Elegant Holiday Side Dishes
- Brussels Sprouts Gratin
- Holiday Honeycrisp Salad
- Green Bean Bundles with Bacon + Brown Sugar Glaze
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic, Pistachios, + Cranberries
Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- 1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
- 3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced
- 8 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Prepare an 8- by 8- by 2-inch baking dish by greasing it with butter and lining it with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs. Whisk in cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- Lay the potatoes in overlapping rows until the bottom of the dish is completely covered. Sprinkle with a little bit of minced garlic and a handful of grated cheese. Repeat layers about halfway up the side of the dish. Pour half of the cream mixture over the potatoes, alternately lifting up the layers with a fork and then pressing down to ensure that the cream gets in between all of the layers. Repeat layering potatoes, garlic, and cheese until it's all used up and you reach the top of the dish. Pour the rest of the cream mixture over the potatoes, once again lifting and pressing on the potato layers to make sure that there are not dry spots.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 1 ½ hours. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until top is golden brown and potatoes in the center of the dish are tender when pierced with a small knife.
- Remove the Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes to a wire rack. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then place a platter over the top of the dish. Overturn the dish onto the platter and then carefully peel away the parchment paper. Slice into portions and serve warm. Leftovers may be transferred to a tightly-sealed container and refrigerated for up to four days.
Equipment Needed
Notes
- I cut the parchment paper to the width of the dish and then lay it so that it covers the bottom and goes up two sides. You may either lay a second sheet of parchment paper in the other direction to cover the other two sides, or generously grease those sides with extra butter. If any parts of the dish interior aren't covered by parchment paper, you'll need to carefully run a thin knife along those edges after the potatoes come out of the oven and again before overturning the dish, just to make sure there's no sticking where the parchment paper is missing.
- If you use more than 3 pounds of potatoes, all of the ingredients will not fit in an 8- by 8-inch dish. If you use a larger dish, you may have to adjust the cooking time accordingly if your layer of potatoes ends up being thicker or thinner than usual.
- Garlic is a prominent flavor in this dish. Use 1 tablespoon for a moderate garlic flavor and 2 tablespoons for a strong garlic flavor. Or feel free to use less if you prefer milder garlic flavor. 🙂
- This recipe has never overflowed for me, but it does go all the way to the top, so use a baking sheet under your dish in the oven if you're concerned about potential spills.
- You may slice your overturned flan into wedges or squares.
- To reheat this recipe after it's been fully cooked, remove the baking dish from the fridge 1 hour ahead of time and allow it to come to room temperature. Cover with foil, preheat the oven to 350°F, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through.
Nutrition
Post originally published on December 14, 2013, and updated on April 12, 2014, January 11, 2024, and December 5, 2024.
I tried to make this but I think I used too many potatoes because they weren’t very creamy. I wasn’t fussy on the garlic flavour. So next time I will adjust the measurements and not use garlic. The cheese for this recipe is so delicious. I’ve never had it before. Thanks for the inspiration for our thanksgiving supper.