Cheesy Potatoes and Apples au Gratin

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cut garlic cloves in half then rub one of the cut sides all over the inside of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish (or similar-sized casserole dish), then mince cloves.

In a large bowl, toss together potatoes, apples, minced garlic, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Place a layer of potatoes across bottom of pan, followed by a thin layer of apples. Repeat, alternating potatoes and apples, until the pan is full.

Slowly pour cream over mixture until it covers potatoes if you’re pressing them down with a spoon. You may need slightly less or slightly more cream. If you’re like me and you filled the dish a tad too full, I recommend placing it on a baking sheet before slipping it into the oven. Put it into the oven.

Bake potatoes for 20 minutes then remove pan from oven and use the back of a spoon to gently crack the surface, allowing cream to re-moisten any potatoes that are sticking out the top. Return to oven, and continue to bake for another 20 minutes, then crack crust again. Place potatoes back in oven a final time, bake for 20 minutes, then remove from oven. Don’t crack the crust this time! Most of the cream should be absorbed and crust should be starting to brown.

If you’re making this dish ahead of time, allow potatoes to cool, cover and refrigerate overnight. Otherwise, sprinkle cheese and prosciutto on top of crust, and return to oven for another 30 minutes or until dish is bubbling and cheese is nice and browned.

If you made the dish ahead of time, simply remove it from the fridge and uncover while you’re preheating the oven, then cover in cheese and prosciutto and bake for 30–40 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted and browned.

Allow to stand for about 10 minutes to set up before serving.