These adorable Potato Gratin Stacks are the mini version of Potatoes au Gratin (Dauphinoise). Layers of thinly sliced potato baked in a muffin tin with cream, cheese, garlic and thyme, the best bit are the crusty caramelised cheesy edges!
Serve as a potato side for dinner. Breakfast with eggs. Party food bites. So many possibilities!
Mini Potato Gratin Stacks (Dauphinoise)
All you need to know is that these Mini Potato Gratin Stacks are cheesy, creamy and ridiculously irresistible. I mean, let’s be blunt. Potatoes + cheese + cream + garlic + butter. BAM! That’s a home run right there!
Actually, they’re a mini version of French Potato Gratin / Dauphinoise. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – everything is better in mini form, not just because it’s cute. But because you get the whole thing to yourself.
Right? 🤷🏻♀️
Besides not having to share, making these in mini form means you get nice golden cheesy edges on each piece which might be my favourite part. No golden edges when you make Dauphinoise the usual way!
What you need to make Mini Potato Gratin Stacks
Here’s what you need to make these:
Potatoes – Use starchy or all-rounder ones so they become fluffy when cooked and absorb flavour. Sebago (the common dirt brushed potatoes in Australia), Russet (US), Dutch creams, King Edwards and red delight are all ideal.
If you use waxy potatoes, the layers sort of slip apart when you cut into them.
Shape – Opt for long thin ones so you have less offcuts when trimmed into a cylinder shape to cut slices that fit the muffin thin.
Cheese – Gruyere and Swiss cheese are my favourites here, for their melting quality and flavour. Any cheese that melts will work just fine – cheddar, Colby, tasty cheese. I tend not to use mozzarella because it doesn’t have as much salt / flavour as other cheese but you can if you wish.
Shredded and sliced – I find it best to use slices of cheese between the potato layers and shredded cheese on top.
Cream – Thickened / heavy cream works best because it’s thicker so it pools on the layers better.
Garlic – For flavour, to infuse the cream sauce.
Thyme – Classic herb flavouring for Dauphinoise.
How to make Mini Potato Gratin Stacks
Assembling each gratin stack does take a little more effort than making one big bubbly Dauphinoise for sharing. But it’s worth it – especially for the golden cheesy edges that you never get when you make one big gratin bake!!
1. Cutting the potato slices
Peel and trim – Peel the potatoes then cut the base so it is stable when standing upright. Then trim the potato to make a (rough!) cylinder shape. It doesn’t matter if they are not a perfect round – mine aren’t!. Once they are cooked, you can’t really tell if your potatoes are a little more hexagon-y or octogon-y, or even rectangular or triangular!!!
Check size – The cylinder should be the size of the muffin tin holes.
Potato cylinders – Repeat with remaining potato. To fill a standard 12 hoc muffin tin, you will need 3 potato cylinders cut from 1.2 kg / 2.4 lb of potato.
Slice thinly – Using either a mandolin or a sharp knife, cut the potato into 2mm / 0.1″ thin slices.
Separate slices – Use your fingers to separate the slices as they have a tendency to stick. We want to make sure the creamy sauce seeps between all the potato layers!
Cream sauce – Melt the butter in a saucepan then sauté the garlic for 20 seconds or until it smells amazing. Then add the cream and salt, and simmer for 30 seconds to bring the flavours together.
Now, we’re ready to assemble!
2. Assembling the gratin stacks
Fill halfway – Place a stack of potato slices in the muffin tin hole so they come up halfway.
Pour over cream – Drizzle about 1 teaspoon of cream over the potatoes. No need to be exact here, just use about half the cream.
Cheese slices – Top with a slice of cheese.
Potato and cream – Top each stack with another stack of potatoes so they are just higher than the rim of the muffin tin. We want to make them taller because they sink slightly once cooked.
Then drizzle the remaining cream over each stack.
3. Bake!
Thyme – Sprinkle each stack with most of the thyme. Reserve a bit to sprinkle on at the end. A hint of fresh thyme is a really nice finishing touch!
Cover and bake – Cover loosely with foil then bake for 40 minutes at 180°C/350°F or until the potato is cooked. Check by inserting a knife all the way to the bottom – there should be no resistance.
Cheese then oven – Top with the shredded cheese and return to the oven uncovered for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and there are some lovely golden spots on the surface.
Garnish with thyme & serve! Sprinkle the top with the remaining thyme, then serve immediately!
What to serve with Mini Potato Gratin Stacks
You will want to eat them straight out of the oven, and they are certainly tasty enough to do so! But actually, they are intended to be a side dish.
I tend to pull these out for special occasions when we want a side dish that’s a bit special. Think, holidays and celebratory gatherings, alongside things such as:
the most glorious buttery, herby, garlicky roast chicken
the roast pork of your dreams (because it’s completely encased in crackling)
a grand Thanksgiving Turkey (brined is the only way!)
a big juicy steakhouse steak
If you make these for just-a-usual-midweek-dinner, I wish I was you. I could eat these everyday and never tire of them. There’s a reason my nickname was Potato Girl when I was growing up!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cheesy Potato Gratin Stacks (Muffin Tin)
Ingredients
- Oil spray
- 1.2 kg / 2.4 lb starchy potatoes , large long ones (Note 1)
- 30g /2 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1/2 cup heavy / thickened cream
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or 3/4 tsp dried)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Black pepper
- 75g / 2.5 oz gruyere cheese sliced into 12 squares to fit into muffin tin (or other melting cheese, Note 2)
- 3/4 cup gruyere cheese (or other melting cheese), shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C (all oven types).
- Brush muffin tin with butter: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat then use what you need to lightly brush the muffin tin holes with butter. (Remaining butter is for the cream sauce)
- Cream sauce: Into the remaining butter, add garlic and cook for 20 seconds. Add cream and salt then bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 seconds, then remove from stove and keep warm.
- Slice potato: Peel potatoes. Trim base so it stands upright. Then cut into cylinder shapes that fit the muffin tin. Cut into 2mm/ 1/10" slices using a mandolin or sharp knife.
- Assemble stacks: Place potato slices into the muffin tin so they go halfway up the muffin tin holes. Try to match by size to make them into neat stacks.
- Cream: Drizzle each potato stack with 1 tsp of cream mixture – use 1/2 of the mixture.
- Cheese slice: Top with cheese slice.
- Top with potato, cream then thyme: Top each stack with remaining potato slices so the height is about 1cm / 1/3" above the rim of the muffin tin (they sink once baked). Drizzle with remaining cream mixture and sprinkle with most of the thyme (reserve some for topping).
- Baked 40 minutes: Cover loosely with foil and bake for 40 minutes or until potato is cooked through. A small sharp knife should go through without any resistance.
- Top with cheese, bake 10 minutes: Remove from oven, sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake without foil for 10 minutes or until golden.
- Garnish with thyme: Sprinkle with remaining thyme.
- Stand 5 minutes then remove to serve. Use a tablespoon or butter knife to help scope them out. (Note 3)
- To Serve: Dinner – serve as a side. Finger food – serve warm as is. Breakfast – serve with eggs and bacon.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published September 2015. Updated November 2021 with improved recipe, new instructional photos and better video.
Life of Dozer
Happy to help with the washing up….!
This is how I deal with dishes on big recipe development days for the cookbook – pile them into tubs to keep them out of the way then do giant loads at a time. The amount of dirty pots and pans we generate on big cook days is pretty phenomenal…!!!
Adele says
These look amazing! Cant wait to try them 🙂 – just one question, will they work as well in silicon muffin trays? I don’t have any standard type that’s all.
Nagi says
Hi Adele! Yup, they sure will work just fine!
Dawn Murray says
WOW! I made these for Easter yesterday and they were a HUGE HIT! Super easy, the only think I ran into as an issue was the size of the potato slices, my potatoes were a little to big, but I cut the slices in half and turned out great! I might try the baby gold potatoes next time! 🙂 Thanks! Dawn -San Antonio TX
Nagi says
I know what you mean Dawn! I have that problem sometimes too and I just cut them in half and when I stack them, just sort of do it in alternating directions so it kind of stacks into a round anyway! 🙂
Isabel says
I will be trying these for Easter dinner this weekend, really enjoyed reading all great comments and recipes in your blog and love your creativity, sense of humor and generosity, that in itself is a great recipe………I’m so hooked, keep it up Nagi this is definitely your calling.
Can’t wait to try these !!!
Nagi says
Thank you Isabel! I’m so glad you enjoy my site! HAPPY EASTER! N x
Alison says
Hi,
Your recipe looks great. I can’t wait to try it. One question please. When you say the ingredient “cream”, do you mean Half and Half cream, Heavy Cream or some other cream?
Nagi says
Hi Alison! Any type of pouring cream will work fine, the heavier and richer, the better!
Pam says
Made these potatoes tonight. And I messed up the recipe because I got distracted … BUT… They tasted fabulous. My husband who is not a big potato lover said they were the best ever . I printed out the recipe and wrote delish , Steve loves them! Across the top. Thank you
Nagi | RecipeTin says
YEE HA!!! ?
Barbara Brauer says
Recipe sounds soooooo delicious, can’t wait to try them.Greetings from Barbara South Africa
Nagi says
Hi Barbara, all the way from Sydney Australia!!! I do hope you enjoy them – N x
Kate says
Typo?? 305 F is 150C; 350 F is 180 C…. I think you meant 350 in the first line. Great recipe by the way and love your site.
Kate
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Oh GOSH, yes that is a typo! Thank you so much for picking that up Kate, fixing it right now. And I’m so glad you are enjoying recipes!! N x
Aubrey says
I really don’t like this recipe. I followed your instructions with care.
They came out of the oven and I tried one. Very good. I thought I will try one more. It was bliss on a plate. I ate a third. When it was gone I was reaching for a fourth and I realized I hate this dish.
Too easy to make. Just to much good taste. Too too tempting. I will be reporting your site to my cardiologist. If I try this again I will be forced to dial 911 and have the cardiologist team on standby.
God bless you!!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
BA HA HA!! I was getting prepared to write a response “I’m so sorry you didn’t enjoy this, it’s one of my favourite ways to prepare potato! I mean, how can you go wrong with cream, cheese and potato?”” Instead, I’m now worried about you OVERLOADING on this!!! ?
ellen says
Which Cream and percentage do you use for this recipe?
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Hi Ellen! I just use ordinary whipping cream – unwrapped. 🙂 But this will work with any cream – even light!
La Torontoise says
Dear Nagi, I only recently discovered your blog as I was searching for a food photography book. I love potatoes and am always on the search of low effort/high impact meals. I just did these gratin stacks. Used silicon muffin forms, to detach them easily.
Now, I used olive oil instead of butter. The resulting stacks however adopted the shapes of the muffin forms, this means small at the bottom and wider at the top (a kind of a conus). I used small potatoes too, so I had many slices that together formed a layer. I see on your picture that your stacks have a cilinder shape. Could you possibly suggest how I could achieve this? The cheese I used was Gouda (I’m living and working now in the Netherlands). Would you think that using cheddar made the whole difference?
Thank you very much!
In any case, regardless the shape, the taste was wonderful! Thank you so much, again.
iin the of the muffin shabisusti.
polerecidishes. recolove o
Leonie Wynne says
Hi Nagi, will make these over the weekend and see how I go – I also might add sweet potatoes i.e. 1/2 and 1/2. Will let you know how they turn out. Appreciate the recipe. 🙂
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Looking forward to hearing what you think!!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Oooh, I love gouda cheese! it’s the cheese I grew up with because it’s one of my mother’s favorites!! To make these cylindrical, I just tried to stack potato rounds of the same size (roughly). My potatoes were all about the same size. Not all of mine were perfectly cylindrical 🙂 If I was making this for a fancy dinner party, I might even use a cutter to make every single round the same size. But I’ve never done that! I’m so glad you enjoyed the flavour of this, thank you very much for taking the time to come back and let me know!! – N x
La Torontoise says
Nagi, thank you! I did enjoy it a lot! Tonight I did another bach, after our son went to sleep:-)
This time they look like in your picture – again with gouda cheese;
Will be tomorrow a big hit for the family!
Have a great weekend!
Greetings from the Netherlands!
La Torontoise says
Nagi, very sorry for the last symbols, a result of a wrong copy/paste operation.
Nagi | RecipeTin says
🙂 No worries! Happens to me all the time!
Marsha, Texas Road Warrior says
Nagi, I drive an 18 Wheeler for my payroll! Yeppers, it’s tough, but I love it! Two things I really appreciate… Home time and cooking! I am always looking for easy, tasty and classy looking recipes! I was blessed to come across your website! I am a fan forever! Could go on forever flattering and loving you. Enough said! Sharing your site with everyone! GOD bless you abundantly! Also, the people that share with you are awesome, too! 🙂 xoxo Thanks!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Woah! Hats off to you Marsha! 🙂 I bet being on the road for a living DOES make you really appreciate home cooking!! <3 This is such a delish recipe, I'm so glad you like the look of it! Happy weekend!
Jen says
I made these in the coffee cups because I didn’t have a muffin tin and they came out perfectly. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
I LOVE that!!! I really love hearing how people make recipes using what they have, that is very much my philosophy too! I’m so glad you loved them Jen!! N x <3
Linda Roisum says
Nagi, these look and sound absolutely amazing. I’ll be putting potatoes on my grocery list for this weekend and making them sometime next week. I think I better buy double the potatoes because I know my husband is going to love these. 🙂
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Thank you Linda! I do hope you both love them!
Cayanne Marcus says
I tried this out tonight and it was incredible! I did some eggplant stacks too and I think I liked them even better than the potatoes you have to try! Thanks for the amazing recipe
Nagi | RecipeTin says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Cayanne!! Ooh eggplant stacks…I must try them!!!
leslie says
I totally made these for my husband the other night. They were super amazing. The only thing I did a little different was cooked them at 350 instead of the 305 temp. I had them with my BBQ pulled pork. So yummy with BBQ sauce! Thanks again for the recipe!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
I’m so glad you loved it Leslie! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know!! N x
Kevin | Keviniscooking says
Shut the front door, hold the phone, stop the presses… these are SO up my alley and knock me out. Pinned.
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Ha! Why does that not surprise me!? N x
Paula Richard says
These were so good! Pretty too. Will use fresh thyme next time I make them.
Nagi | RecipeTin says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Paula!!
Amanda | The Chunky Chef says
You had me hooked from the word “cheesy” 😉 I’m pretty sure I could polish off at least half a pan of these lol. Delicious!!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Potato, cream and cheese. Can’t go wrong!! 😉
Cayanne Marcus says
I’m drooling over those stacks! It’s a great idea to use a muffin tin too… I’d like to try something like this with eggplant!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Oooh! What a fabulous idea! I can just imagine this with mini Eggplant parmigiana stacks!
maryam says
great idea about the eggplant stacks…..i bet it would be so yummy with zucchini also!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Oooh, that’s an idea! Zucchini stacks…yum….. 🙂
Lenneke says
You should definitely try them with zucchini. I’ve made them that way to trick my daughter into eating vegetables and it worked! They were so delicious. I’ve made them half potato and half zucchini but also zucchini only. We both loved them.
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Oooh! I can’t wait! Thank you for letting me know!
Marissa | Pinch and Swirl says
Just when I thought I couldn’t love you any more, Nagi. What a wonderfully thoughtful thing to do.
And of course these potato gratin stacks are absolutely drool worthy – as you said, “the possibilities are endless!”
xx
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Aww, thank you Marissa <3 As for these gratins...potato, cream and cheese....hard to go wrong!
easypeasylifematters says
This recipe is brilliant!!! My mouth won’t stop watering!!!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Ha! Brilliant? Ono….simple combo of no-fail ingredients!!! N x
Sabrina says
These look addictive!!
Nagi | RecipeTin says
Thanks so much Sabrina!