Crispy, Buttery Potato Roses Are the Impressive Side You Need

These easy-yet-impressive potato roses have velvety centers with light and super-crispy edges. (Joe Lingeman/TNS)

Potato roses are thinly sliced potatoes that are soaked, seasoned, and formed into roses in a muffin tin. They’re a sweet way to show someone (or yourself) that you care, to demonstrate your artistic prowess, or to just have a little fun with your food.

Serve them with just about anything you’re cooking—I keep fantasizing about a perfectly cooked steak with pan sauce drizzled onto the potato rose petals. Hungry yet?

Pick Your Potatoes

Yukon Gold potatoes are the best choice for roses. They have a lower starch content than russets, which means they bake up with a crispier texture.

Do I Need to Soak the Potatoes?

Yes! Soaking the potatoes removes excess starch, creating a crispier end result. The batch I baked with unsoaked potatoes were starchy in the center with chewy edges. The soaked potatoes, however, had velvety centers with light and super-crispy edges—a much more pleasurable eating experience.

To soak the potatoes, you'll simply cover the slices with cold water and let them sit for 15 minutes. Then drain them and pat dry before coating with the garlic butter.

How Do You Make a Potato Rose?

Working from the outside in and starting with the larger potato slices, line the perimeter of a greased muffin cup with five slices, shingling and bending them as needed. Repeat with five more slices, placing them inside the first layer. Shingle three slices on a cutting board and roll them up into a coil, then place in the center of the cup. Repeat with three more slices. At this point, you'll have to use your artistic eye. Add more rolled slices as needed, placing them in the center until a rose shape is formed.

If you have small slices left over after creating all six roses, shingle them inside a muffin cup to create a mini pommes anna. Bake the roses in a 400 degree F oven until they’re tender in the center and the edges are deep golden brown and crispy. Run an offset spatula around the edges of the roses to unstick and remove, then serve warm.

Potato Roses

Makes 6 roses

• 1 pound small Yukon Gold potatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for coating the muffin tin
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Peel the potatoes. Using a very sharp knife or mandoline, cut the potatoes crosswise into very thin, 1/8-inch-thick slices. Place in a large bowl and add enough very cold water to cover. Let the potatoes soak for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat 6 wells of a standard muffin tin with unsalted butter.

Finely grate the garlic cloves. Melt 4 tablespoons unsalted butter in a small skillet over medium heat. (Alternatively, melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave, about 30 seconds on high power.) Turn off the heat. Add the garlic, kosher salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper and stir to combine.

When the potatoes are done soaking, drain, pat them dry with a towel, and return to the bowl. The slices will feel firmer and less malleable.

Transfer the butter mixture onto the potatoes. Working quickly with your hands, separate the potato slices and rub with butter mixture. Depending on how cold the potatoes are, the butter may solidify; just rub the butter into the potato slices and it will melt as it bakes.

Build the potato roses, arranging the potato slices in one muffin well at a time: Working from the outside in and starting with the larger slices, press 5 slices against the sides of the well, shingling and bending them as needed. Repeat, arranging and overlapping 5 more slices inside the first layer. Shingle 3 slices on a cutting board and roll them up together into a tight coil, then place in the center of the well. Repeat shingling and rolling 3 more slices, and place in the center of the well. Depending on what the rose looks like at this point, you may need to twist one or two more slices and place them in the center of the rose.

Repeat until you have 6 roses. If you have any smaller pieces that don’t twist well, stack them up in a buttered muffin well to make mini pommes anna.

Bake until the edges of the potato roses are golden-brown and crispy, and the centers are tender, 30 to 35 minutes. While the pan is still warm, run a small offset spatula around each rose to loosen and remove from the pan.

Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to four days.