Gratin Dauphinois
Sliced potatoes baked in cream
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Join HomecookedIngredients
- 1200 g Potatoes
- 400 ml Heavy cream
- 200 ml Milk
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 30 g Butter
- 1½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black pepper
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg (optional)
- 2 sprigs Thyme (optional)
Method
- Smash 2 garlic cloves. Halve the third for rubbing the dish.
- Combine cream, milk, smashed garlic, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in the saucepan. Bring to a bare simmer over medium. Turn off and steep 10 minutes. While it steeps, move on to the next steps.
- Start the oven preheating to 180°C (350°F) now so it's ready when the gratin is assembled.
- While the cream steeps and the oven preheats: peel the potatoes and slice them 2-3 mm thin (a mandoline is ideal). Don't rinse them — the starch helps thicken the dish.
- Rub the baking dish with the cut garlic. Butter generously.
- Strain the cream into a bowl, discarding garlic and thyme. Tip in the potato slices and toss to coat.
- Bring potatoes and cream up to a simmer on medium. Cook 8 minutes, stirring once, until cream just thickens and potatoes are flexible.
- Tip the potatoes and cream into the buttered dish. Press flat and even. Dot with remaining butter. Bake at 180°C (350°F) 45 minutes until golden and bubbling.
- Rest 10 minutes (cream will thicken). Spoon onto plates.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.
About Gratin Dauphinois
Gratin dauphinois is the definitive potato gratin of the Dauphiné region in southeastern France, and it is far stricter about its identity than most cooks assume. The authentic version contains no cheese at all: just thinly sliced potatoes baked slowly in garlic-infused cream and milk, with butter, nutmeg and thyme, until the whole thing sets into something closer to a savory custard than a casserole. This recipe honors that, steeping the cream with smashed garlic, thyme and nutmeg before straining it over the potatoes, so the aromatics perfume the dairy without leaving raw garlic in the dish. Rubbing the baking dish with a cut clove adds one more gentle layer of that flavor.
The technique detail that makes or breaks it is not rinsing the sliced potatoes: their surface starch is what thickens the cream and binds the layers into a sliceable whole, so washing it away would leave you with a loose, watery bake. Cut 2 to 3 millimeters thin, ideally on a mandoline, the potatoes cook into tender, cream-saturated sheets with a golden, bubbling top and edges that catch and brown. It takes about 90 minutes and rewards patience rather than shortcuts. Serve it as a rich side to roast lamb, beef or chicken; it's an anchor of the French holiday table and a lesson in how few ingredients real luxury requires.
Gratin Dauphinois: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Gratin Dauphinois?
One serving of Gratin Dauphinois has about 406 calories, with 8g of protein, 30g of carbs, 29g of fat and 5g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.
Is Gratin Dauphinois gluten-free?
Based on its ingredients, Gratin Dauphinois has no gluten-containing components, so it's naturally gluten-free — as always, check that any packaged ingredients you use are certified gluten-free to be safe.
Is Gratin Dauphinois dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Heavy cream, Milk, Butter. Swapping those for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
How long does Gratin Dauphinois take to make?
About 90 minutes start to finish, but only around 25 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Gratin Dauphinois?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out nutmeg, thyme — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Gratin Dauphinois make?
This recipe makes 6 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.