Cheddar Bacon Potato Gratin Stacks

"Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips." ~ Charles Dickens

I'd like to say that the third time's the charm, as this is the third time I've made cheesy potato gratin stacks in a muffin tin in the past month. But this is actually my fifth attempt at these, and I think I'm definitely getting better at it. These might have been my prettiest ones ever!

And when I sat down to have one as a snack around 10 p.m. - put a bit more shredded cheese on top, added a few more bits of bacon, heated it in the microwave, drizzled some ranch dressing on it - I realized it might just be my tastiest effort ever! They are just delightful, and I've got the prep time down to about an hour.

For the curious, here are links to all of my attempts, and I must admit that all of them, even the ones I might consider failures in one way or another, were delectable:
A cheesy experiment: potato gratin stacks (03.25.23)
Second attempt, cheesy mini potato gratin stacks (04.02.23)
Best ever cheesy potato gratin stacks (12.29.24)
Oops, I did it again: cheesy potato gratin stacks (01.06.25)

My ingredients: 4 medium potatoes, 1/2 cup half and half, 1 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp celery salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, a shake of black pepper, a shake of paprika, a few tbsp of crumbled bacon, and a few shakes of parmesan cheese.

I am always a person who uses too much of everything, so sue me. Too much butter, too much bacon, too much cheese. (As if there IS such a thing.) But this time, just to be different, I backed off on the amount of cream and butter. Basically, you've got two things to make for this recipe: the cream sauce, and the potato part in the tins.

My cream sauce was 1/2 cup half and half (last time I used 2/3 cup), 2 tablespoons butter, 1/2 teaspoon celery salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, a shake of paprika, and a shake of black pepper. I warmed it up gently in the microwave, mixed it, and set it aside. Oh my, did it smell good!

My potatoes were just four regular medium potatoes, not particularly long and thin, or anything like that. I just peeled them and rinsed them and then I cut the pieces up thin, and sliced them to a size that would fit in a standard size 12-hole muffin tin. My shredded cheese was cheddar, and I used something more than a cup of that, probably a cup and a quarter.

I preheated my oven to 350 degrees F, greased my muffin tins with vegetable oil, neatly stacked potato slices in each hole, about half-way up the tin, drizzled each one with about a half-teaspoon of the cream mix, and sprinkled on top about half of the shredded cheddar cheese.

Then I finished stacking my potato slices, and I drizzled the remaining cream mixture (which was a fair amount) on top. Here's a new twist: my husband had just made fresh bacon a day or two ago, and we had a small container of crumbled bacon in the fridge. Perfectamundo! Bacon makes everything better! On top of those potato stacks, I sprinkled bacon crumbs, and then I topped it all with a couple of liberal shakes of parmesan cheese. 

I put foil on top, slid the muffin tin into the oven, baked it for 35 minutes, pulled it out, removed the foil, slid a butter knife around the edges of each tin to loosen up the crispy stuff, sprinkled the rest of the shredded cheese on top, and put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes, checked it, and put it back in for another 5 minutes. As soon as they came out, I took my butter knife and ran it around the edges again, to loosen them up.

I am happy to report that I ended up with 12 perfectly beautiful little cheddar bacon potato gratin stacks, which you may see resting on one of my mom's pretty blue plates! With slightly less moisture in my cream sauce than before, they were golden and lovely, and crisped right up (a friend had suggested a final minute or two under the broiler, which I was prepared to try; but as it turns out, I did not need to do that).

In fact, as I type this, it is all I can do to hold myself back from running to the fridge and freezer (yes, we froze a few for later) and EATING THEM ALL BY MYSELF!!!! HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Now, my only snafu was that my muffin tin is just absolutely NOT nonstick, no matter what I do to it. I've been using vegetable oil, and I am probably going to try some Pam cooking spray or something like that. The clean-up, even after I nibbled all of the crunchy bits out of the tin (like my dad would do: crispy bits were his - and my - favorite!), was still substantial, and sort of a pain. Does anybody have a nonstick muffin tin that actually IS really nonstick? If yes, message me and tell me more!

I suspect we've become addicted to these pretty little potato snacks. So here's my soundtrack song for this (fifth) effort: Robert Palmer, with Addicted to Love.