Easy to make and well loved, Potatoes Anna, or Pommes Anna, is one of those recipes you’ll find yourself making again and again. So much more than tender potatoes with a golden crispy crust, Pommes Anna serves us one of our favorite comfort foods with elegance. It’s a beauty and makes a fabulous side dish! It’s also a joy to make.
There’s no arguing that potatoes are delicious, whether baked, fried or mashed. But its hard to come close to the elegance of Potatoes Anna, a beautiful ensemble of thinly sliced potato layers. If you haven’t made potatoes this way before, get ready to add to the addictive properties of potatoes, butter and salt, a dose of elegance. This dish requires pairing with a great entrée, or Potatoes Anna can easily steal the show.
Classic French Pommes Anna is commonly made as an upside down potato cake, a gateau de pomme de terre of soft white layers of potatoes, butter and salt with a golden shell. But we enjoy changing up the presentation in different ways depending on the occasion — some not so traditional. Here, I share some beautiful and fun ways we love to make Potatoes Anna at our house. All are included for you on the recipe card.
Skip to House Favorite Ways to Make Potatoes Anna
Potatoes Anna Ingredients
Salted potatoes and butter. That’s all you really need for the classic version. Anything else is optional. In case you are wondering, we’ve tried this with olive oil — and it turned out fine. However, we usually stick with butter for Potatoes Anna because it exalts the taste and golden crispness.
The Potatoes
High starch potatoes, which soak up butter and tend to soften and stick together better, such as Idaho/Russet, or all purpose, medium starch potatoes like Yukon Gold.
Aim for long potatoes of close or equal diameter to each other. If this is not possible, you can always trim them to size.
La pomme de terre is French for potato. However, une pomme without a descriptive like “de terre” (of the earth) or “Anna” attached, as in Pommes Anna, is not a potato at all, but an apple.
Paring the Potatoes
You can always use a paring knife to peel the potatoes in lieu of a vegetable peeler. This way you can also trim odd shapes to size as you go. (Leaving the potatoes unpeeled is fine too. I do this a lot because I love the earthy flavor of potato skins — although the taste is almost imperceptible when sliced so thin like this.)
Pro Tips
- Don’t wash or soak the potato slices in water, for it washes away the starch that helps them stick together.
- The thinner the slices, the more compact and tender the potatoes become, and the less they slide when piling high. However what you gain in stability, you loose in crispness. Experiment to see what you like best.
Tools for Thinly Slicing Potatoes
You can accomplish the thin potato slices for this recipe with various tools:
- A mandolin is first choice for quick accurate work, and consistency. Cut resistant gloves are highly recommended when using a mandoline.
- A favorite sharp chef knife is slower work, but it’s the tool we have used the most through the years to slice potatoes for Potatoes Anna — before finally getting a mandolin. (Why did we wait so long!)
- Vegetable peelers, and the slicer on the side of box graters, work well for extra thin slices. I like to use them sometimes for lining the sides of the pan for potato cakes or for mini potato stacks. In these cases, the malleability of these super thin slices makes them easier to work with.
Buttering the Potatoes
No pastry brush? No problem. If you don’t have a pastry brush, or are pressed for time, just toss the potato slices, melted butter (or olive oil) and seasonings together with your hands in a bowl. Assembling your masterpiece is quick work from there.
One thing I love to have is a good melting pot for butter. Specifically, I love cast iron melting pots, because they retain heat so well, keeping the butter nice and warm, even in a cold kitchen. (our cast-iron melting pot)
The Aromatics
- Thyme & Lemon Zest – We love potatoes with a variety of herbs — rosemary being our usual favorite. But, I can’t think of any better herb than thyme on Potatoes Anna. And the lemon zest! Don’t forget the lemon zest! It is an absolutely beautiful addition, the perfect final touch. And the two look gorgeous together sprinkled on the potatoes! Once you’ve tried it, you may be sprinkling lemon zest on your baked potato next.
Cheese Variation
- A little cheese between the layers of potatoes interest you? Lightly sprinkle a little freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, Gruyère or Comté, on the potato slices as you assemble. Cheese can help to prevent some possible slip-sliding of the potatoes, but I can’t promise. I can promise it will be delicious.
Pommes Anna: Did you Know?
Pommes Anna, a gâteau de pomme de terre, or potato cake, also goes by Pommes Élysée, or Les Pommes Moulées Élysée.
Adolphe Dugléré, the chef of the Café Anglais in Paris, is said to have created Pommes Anna in the mid 19th century after a woman named Anna, presumed to be Anna Deslions.
Marcel Le Servot, chef at the Élysée palace in the second half of the 20th century, also has credits for the gâteau de pomme de terre. The Pommes Élysée has the addition of alpine cheeses such as Gruyère and Comté, the Italian Parmigiano Reggiano and nutmeg.
Potatoes Anna: House Favorites
Pommes Anna are made in many ways. Most are cooked in the oven, with some, the potatoes are blanched first, others are cooked just on the stove top, and some a combination. We like to keep it as simple and easy as possible. And we don’t always go by the rules (if indeed there are any).
Below are our favorite ways to make Potatoes Anna. All are cooked in the oven and use the same recipe. They’re just assembled differently in different kinds of pans.
Potatoes Anna Wreath
On the weekend when we have a few extra minutes to spare, we like to assemble a potato wreath. The results are very different depending on whether we make it in a cast iron skillet or a round cake pan.
Fancy Wreath (Round Cake Pan)
This more classic version makes a compact wreath like the photo above. The top is beautifully caramelized, and the sides are softer and lighter colored than with a cast iron skillet, since the potatoes are snuggled up against the walls of the pan.
In the photo above, I used a 6×2″ (15x5cm) round cake pan, which we thought would be enough for two. It never is! This recipe uses an 8″ (20cm) round cake pan. If you’d like to make multiple smaller ones, 5″ (10cm) round pans are as small as I’d go to get a nice circle.
Relaxed & Casual Wreath (Cast Iron Skillet)
Think a relaxed wreath of tender yet crispy golden chips (like photo above), casually strewn on the plate (see photo at top of page). We take the whole skillet to the table, where it is dismantled with a serving spatula, letting the golden slices elegantly tumble on to everyone’s plate.
The wreath of potato slices can shift and slide more easily in an oversized skillet, since there is nothing but starch to bind the layers (See Pro Tips though). We love to make them this way, however, because it allows the potatoes to cook better, and get crisp edges all around. (Filling the gap in the middle and closing in the sides, as in classic styles of pommes anna, would result in a soft white cake throughout, somewhat like a tortilla espanola, but without eggs.)
Note: If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, you can use any skillet as long as it, and its handle, are oven-proof.
Potato Roses or Potato Stacks (Muffin Pan)
When we want to get a little fancier, we take a little more, but not much more, time with it, and make individual mini Pommes Anna roses, or potato stacks (quicker), using a muffin tin. These beautiful mini versions have a tender potato cake texture with a golden crust. They are great for small intimate dinners and gatherings alike.
- Potato Roses. So easy to do, but doesn’t look like it!
- Mini Individual Potatoes Anna Stacks of crispy layered potatoes. These are stunning!
- Potato Stack Variation: Line the buttered sides of the muffin pan walls with super thin potatoes slices before stacking the potatoes. This results in very cute golden packages with a crispier exterior and a softer muffin-like texture.
Domino Potatoes (Baking Sheet)
A favorite, and the easiest variation, this is our choice for a relaxed weeknight. Potato slices are cooked on a rimmed baking sheet like rows of fallen dominoes, producing rows of crispy golden potatoes, closer to the texture and look of potato chips, but still tender in the middle. Assembly is quick, with delicious crispy results that look great served up on individual plates. Everyone gets a row!
Recipe for Thyme Potatoes Anna
Potatoes Anna, or Pommes Anna, is a gorgeous side dish for special weekends, holidays, and dinner parties, but also adds tasty and easy elegance to everyday meals and casual relaxed get-togethers. Whether you want to go casual or dress it up, this easy recipe has you covered for any occasion. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- zest of 1 lemon
- 4 Tbsp butter, melted (or olive oil)
- 2 lb medium potatoes (about 4 to 6 medium potatoes) (Idaho/Russet long baking potatoes or Yukon gold), of similar diameter, peeled or unpeeled according to your preference
- kosher salt (or other slightly coarse salt such as Malden sea salt or Guérande fleur de sel)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C), with the rack set in the middle.
- Combine thyme leaves and lemon zest in a small bowl.
- Melt butter in a small melting pot or saucepan.
- Slice potatoes to ⅛ inch (2mm) thick, with a mandolin, box grater or sharp knife.
- Assemble in the presentation of your choice, brushing every few layers with melted butter, and sprinkling with salt, thyme and lemon zest. (Alternately, you can toss all the ingredients together with your hands before assembling.) Potato Wreath (8" (20cm) Round Cake Pan, or Cast Iron Skillet) Brush bottom of pan generously with melted butter (and sides if using cake pan), and sprinkle with salt. Arrange layers of halfway overlapping potato slices in the pan in the form of a ring. Overlap each layer in the opposite direction, until it reaches the top of the pan (around 2-inches (5cm) high).Potato Roses (Muffin Pan) Yield: 10 Butter walls of muffin pan, and line with the biggest potato slices first. Continue to fill cup with vertical layers, from the outside in, from bigger to smaller slices, until cup is full. Roll up a final slice, made ultra thin with a vegetable peeler, and fit it tightly into the center of the rose.Mini Potato Stacks: (Muffin Pan) Yield: 15 Butter bottom of muffin pan. Stack potato slices up to the rim, starting with the smallest diameter on bottom. Variation: To make an outer crispy potato crust, first butter pan walls and line with potato slices that have been made ultra thin with a vegetable peeler, making sure to keep them below the rim.Fallen Domino Chips (Rimmed Baking Sheet) Arrange rows of overlapping potato slices on rimmed baking sheet lined with a baking mat or parchment paper. (Makes crispy potatoes, closer to the texture and look of potato chips, but still tender in the middle.)
- Bake for 1 hour, or until potatoes are tender with golden brown edges. For extra color: Once the potatoes are tender, turn heat higher, or on broil, until top is golden brown to your liking.
