Twice-Baked Potatoes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Remove any loose papery skin from head of garlic, leaving head intact. Cut top from head, just to tip of cloves (do not cut into cloves).

Place head on sheet of heavy-duty foil; drizzle with olive oil. Loosely wrap foil around garlic, being careful that seam is folded to seal in oil.

Place potatoes and wrapped garlic on oven rack. Bake 45 minutes or until potatoes and garlic are fork-tender. Remove to wire rack; cool slightly.

Open garlic package carefully and discard foil. Separate cloves from head and scrape or squeeze out pulp from each clove into a large mixing bowl. Slice each potato lengthwise in half. With spoon, carefully scoop out potatoes, placing flesh in bowl with garlic and leaving potato-skin shells intact.

Place the 12 prettiest potato shells in 15 1/2-inch by 10 1/2-inch jelly-roll pan. If you like, refrigerate remaining 8 shells for use another day.

With mixer at low speed, beat garlic and potatoes with parsley, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup Parmesan until garlic and potatoes are broken up. Add cream and beat until almost smooth, about 30 seconds (do not overbeat; potato mixture will become gummy).

Spoon mixture into potato shells on jelly-roll; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan. If desired, cover and refrigerate potatoes up to 1 day.

To complete, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove cover from potatoes. Bake potatoes in jelly-roll pan until hot on the inside and golden on top, about 30 minutes.

Tips & Techniques Editor's note: It's easiest to find small baking potatoes in 5-pound bags.