Gratin Dauphinois (Authentic Recipe)

Gratin dauphi­nois is a famous tra­di­tion­al French dish from the Dauphiné region (South­east of France). This gratin con­tains raw pota­toes, cream and milk, baked in a dish rubbed with gar­lic. Some recipes add grat­ed cheese to it, since gratins usu­al­ly include cheese. How­ev­er, the authen­tic gratin dauphi­nois does not include any cheese. Today, I am shar­ing an authen­tic recipe for the gratin dauphi­nois. Enjoy!

Recipe

The recipe I am using is from a local of the Dauphiné region, who claims he got the recipe from his moth­er, who got it from his grandmother…etc. You can find the recipe in French here.

Gratin Dauphi­nois

Print Recipe

• CourseMain Dish

Serv­ings	Prep Time
4 peo­ple	20 min­utes

Cook Time

100 min­utes

Serv­ings Prep Time 4 peo­ple 20 min­utes

Cook Time 100 min­utes

Gratin Dauphi­nois Print Recipe CourseMain Dish Serv­ings Prep Time 4 peo­ple 20 min­utes Cook Time 100 min­utes Serv­ings Prep Time 4 peo­ple 20 min­utes Cook Time 100 min­utes

Ingre­di­ents

• 4 pounds raw pota­toes (2kg)
• 1 bulb fresh gar­lic
• 1 stick but­ter
• 3 cups low fat milk (75cl)
• 1.5 cup Heavy Whip­ping Cream (40cl)
• salt (as need­ed)
• pep­per (as need­ed)

Serv­ings: peo­ple

Instruc­tions

1. Pre­heat oven to 480 degrees Fahren­heit.
2. But­ter a bak­ing dish and rub it with gar­lic. Cut the pota­toes in thin slices and arrange in one lay­er at the bot­tom of the dish. Sea­son with salt and pep­per. Add lit­tle chunks of but­ter every­where as well as lit­tle bits of gar­lic. (Tip: you can use a man­do­line or a food proces­sor to cut the pota­toes).

   
3. Repeat by adding oth­er lay­ers of pota­toes, salt, pep­per, but­ter and gar­lic until you get to about 3/4 of the dish. At that point, add the milk. The milk should reach the bot­tom part of the top lay­er, you should be able to see it, but it should not cov­er every­thing.
4. Bake in oven for 50 min­utes. Take the dish out of the oven and add the cream. Put it back in the oven, and bake again for about 35 min­utes. It is ready when the top lay­er of pota­toes is brown and the milk is gone. (check with a knife to see if there is still milk in the dish). If it is not quite ready yet, bake some more in 10 minute incre­ments to check if it is ready. Enjoy!

   

Recipe Notes

Bak­ing the gratin dauphi­nois for a long time at low tem­per­a­ture makes for the best gratin. This recipe calls for a high oven tem­per­a­ture, so feel free to choose a low­er oven tem­per­a­ture to bake your gratin. It will take longer, but it will be deli­cious. Just check on it reg­u­lar­ly, to see if it is ready (pota­toes are brown, and milk is gone).

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Enjoy as a full meal or with red meat on the side!

Bon Appétit!

French Mom

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