I made roast potatoes with 1 surprising ingredient - it's genius

Autumn is well and truly here, so the only way to survive the dipping temperatures and shorter days is with comfort food. A few weeks ago I tested out a cooking hack which suggested that mayonnaise is the key to perfecting wonderfully crispy skin on roast potatoes.

I'll be honest, it even took me by surprise. But now I've seen another viral recipe that takes the term 'cooking hack' to a whole new level. Recipe developer and TikTok creator Madeleine Wilmshurst, better known as @fannychupp, previously created a spud recipe that puts clotted cream at the forefront. Yes, the cloying, semi-sweet cream that's usually reserved for scones and jam.

In a recent TikTok video, Madeleine recreated the recipe that went viral earlier this year. She described the hack as being "quite possibly the most British way to cook your potatoes".

I don't disagree with her on that point. However, there's only one way to see if her hack is actually worth it.

Parboil the spuds like normal for around 15 minutes. Now when they've been drained, the spuds should be left to steam dry in the colander with a towel covering them. A hack I'd never heard of before.

Leaving the potatoes to dry helps to get rid of excess moisture that will prevent them from crisping up when roasted. No one wants a soggy spud.

Adding the clotted cream to the saucepan after the potatoes had been chuffed felt wrong. It's all in the name of journalism, but something still didn't sit quite right with me

A liberal coating of cream made the potatoes resemble something not too similar from cauliflower cheese. The clotted cream didn't melt as easily as the mayo had done, but as long as the potatoes were cloaked in its fatty film, then it didn't matter.

Much like my previous roast potato attempt, I preheated a baking tray, where the cream sizzled delightfully once poured in. The cream's anaemic colour, truthfully, is slightly stomach-churning.

With a few more dollops of clotted cream on top, it takes 45 minutes to an hour to transform the spuds. Thankfully there's no anaemic cream left, but wonderfully indulgent crispy bits flaking at the bottom of the tray.

The clotted cream worked some type of magic, mostly. Where there was crunchy skin, the crisp was thick and crumbly.

However, not all of the potatoes - no matter how coated they were - seemed to crisp up. Some roasties had slightly flabby outsides, not too unlike the spuds school used to serve up for school dinners.

Fortunately, there were only a few. All of the potatoes were beautifully tender on the inside like fluffy little pillows. The flavour of the clotted cream was more prevalent than the mayo had been, giving the potatoes an ever so slightly sickly sweet taste.

The fat in clotted cream mimics the flavour of brown butter, so if rich foods don't agree with your palate, I'd advise not gorging on the potatoes all at once.

So why is clotted cream a good fat to use instead of the likes of oil or goose fat? Much like the mayo, the fat content in clotted cream is relatively high.

When it melts, the clotted cream caramelises, creating a rich, brown butter flavour and a golden, crispy exterior while keeping the inside soft and fluffy.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the clotted cream flavour, but I definitely think it would benefit from some additional seasonings to tone down the sweetness. If I were to do a repeat, I'd make sure that the spuds have been turned at some point to ensure every single potato has a crispy edge.

Clotted cream for roast potatoes? I would've said you were mad. As Madeleine said: "These definitely feel illegal."

Ingredients

• Half a tub of clotted cream
• Maris piper potatoes
• Salt

Method

Chop your potatoes into quarters, before placing them in a sauce pan of heavily salted water. Boil the potatoes for around 15 minutes until they are tender. You can test with a fork.

Drain away the water, keeping the potatoes in a colander. Allow to steam dry over the saucepan for five to 10 minutes, covering the colander with a clean towel.

When the potatoes are dry and still hot, return them to the saucepan. Spoon the clotted cream in the saucepan and give them a mix, allowing the clotted cream to melt.

Add a small sprinkle of salt. Pour the potatoes onto a pre-heated baking tray, separating them slightly.

Roast in the oven at 200 for around 45 minutes to an hour, or until the potatoes are golden and crispy. Then serve and enjoy!