Pommes Anna (Sliced Potato Cake)

Here is a justly-famous French potato dish that you will be proud to have mastered. It’s deceptively simple, but a truly memorable dish: a fine cake of beautifully arranged sliced potatoes, crusty and golden without, creamy and buttery within.

You’ll need a heavy, oven-safe 9” skillet that’s either nonstick or of very well-seasoned cast iron or carbon steel. Sticking in the great peril with this dish, so choose carefully. Finally, you can make this taller or thinner by using more or less potatoes. You might need a little extra butter if you go big. The cooking time will increase a bit, but it’s very easy to tell when this is done — the tip of your paring knife you sink effortlessly through the tender interior.

Ingredients #

Instructions #

Melt the butter and set it aside to cool for a bit.

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Brush the bottom and sides of the pan generously with about a tablespoon of the butter.

Peel one potato and slice it thin, using a food processor with slicing disc, or a mandoline, and pat the slices dry on a kitchen towel. Arrange the slices in a circular pattern on the bottom of the pan, overlapping them slightly. Using your brush, sprinkle a bit of butter on the potatoes and season the lay with salt and pepper. Repeat this process of layering, sprinkling with butter, and seasoning with salt and pepper. Peel and slice potatoes as you need them, 1 at a time.

Sprinkle butter over the top layer and season it. If you have any left, dab it around the rim of the pan so that it will flow down into the bottom. Use the very last butter to grease a square of foil large enough to cover the cake. Cover the potatoes with the buttered foil, and weight them down with a heavy oven-proof saucepan or skillet.

Put the pan over medium heat. When you hear the butter begin to sizzle, cook for 5 more minutes. Transfer the weighted skillet to the middle of your preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the weight and the foil, and bake for 10 minutes more or until a knife slips easy through the tender potatoes in the interior.

Let it sit for a few minutes, and then invert a cutting board or platter over the pan. Carefully but without hesitation (lest hot butter run out the side of the pan), take a firm grasp of both the pan and the platter, and invert them to unmold the cake. If all has gone well, it should come out all in once piece, golden and fragrant.

If things go less perfectly…do what you can. Sometimes a few pieces detach from the top and can be easily put back in place. But even if it’s a real mess, it will still be delicious. Sprinkle on some chopped parsley, call it hash browns and serve it proudly anyway.

All that said, this recipe has turned out of the pan beautifully every single time I’ve made it. Follow the instructions, and it will do the same for you!