The Creamy Ingredient That Adds Brightness To Mashed Potatoes

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As far as comfort food potato dishes go, mashed potatoes wear the crown. Butter and milk go a long way, but you can make the dish even better with vibrant, decadent crème fraîche. It's essentially soured heavy cream, thickened with live cultures. It's like a richer, punchier sour cream. Paired with starchy spuds, salted butter, and milk or cream, crème fraîche imparts bright tang to every bite and cuts through the richness of the other components. Sour cream or yogurt are solid substitutes, as they provide moisture, richness, and tang, but crème fraîche offers a more velvety texture with less acidity.

See, this potato hack goes deeper than flavor. Crème fraîche is pure heavy cream, resulting in a butterfat content of about 40%. This makes it incredibly stable against heat, meaning it can be stirred into fresh mashed potatoes and retain its silkiness, as the butterfat stays suspended rather than breaking. It's also a great topper for dishes like soup or chili, because it won't curdle when stirred.

Rule of thumb? Use whatever you have on hand to spruce up your mashed potatoes, but spring for crème fraîche for a flawless consistency that still delivers the brightness of its more sour, less stable alternatives. (Even Bobby Flay uses crème fraîche as his secret ingredient for mashed potatoes, so you know it's legit.)

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Heavy cream, sour cream, or yogurt can curdle in a hot recipe. You won't have to worry about that with crème fraîche, since its high fat content will keep it from breaking. That said, some home cooks say it becomes less stable when whipped. But there's still a way to incorporate it into your favorite side. Crème fraîche should be at room temperature when stirred into mashed potatoes to help the spuds absorb the dairy faster without vigorous mixing. If you add it cold, you're more likely to overmix and end up with gummy, dense mashed potatoes. The same goes for milk and butter, which should be warmed before being incorporated.

Most mashed potato recipes that call for crème fraîche add it last. Adding butter first covers the potatoes' starch molecules in fat for a supremely luxurious texture. Warmed liquid dairy (like milk) is usually added next to reduce the thickness of the butter-only spuds, thinning them while keeping them creamy. Next, crème fraîche is gently stirred in, adding richness and tang without compromising texture or flavor.

With these tips, your next batch of mashed potatoes might just be the tastiest you've ever made. Some Redditors say Trader Joe's still sells crème fraîche, but if you can't find any at the supermarket, our crème fraîche recipe is easy enough to make at home.