Gratin Dauphinois
A fuss-free French side built around floury potatoes, double cream and whole milk — roughly 55 minutes start to finish, and rated easy to make. Below: the ingredients split into pantry staples and a quick shopping list, a built-in serving scaler, and the method in 6 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and pan. At easy difficulty across 6 steps, it's a good one for a busy evening. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (1)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Peel the potatoes and slice them about 3 mm thick, then keep the slices in a workable pile rather than rinsing them, as the natural starch helps the gratin set as it bakes.
- Warm the cream, milk, a pinch of grated nutmeg and one crushed garlic clove in a pan, season well with salt and pepper, then add the potatoes and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes to part-cook them.
- Rub a baking dish with the cut face of the remaining garlic clove and grease it generously with the butter.
- Layer the par-cooked potatoes into the dish, overlapping the slices neatly, then pour over the seasoned cream so they are just submerged.
- Bake at 160 C for about 1 hour until the potatoes are completely tender to the tip of a knife and the top is golden and bubbling.
- Rest the gratin for 10 to 15 minutes before serving so the layers firm up and slice cleanly.
You'll use: Oven · Pan · Large pot · Saucepan · Baking dish
Ingredient substitutions
- Double Cream
- heavy cream · whipping cream
- Milk
- any unsweetened plant milk · ½ cup evaporated milk + ½ cup water
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
What to serve with Gratin Dauphinois
- Baguette Vegan
- Clafoutis Dessert
- Croissant Vegetarian
- Croissants Dessert
Tips & common questions
How long does Gratin Dauphinois take to make?
About 55 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 6 steps and 8 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of double cream?
Try heavy cream. See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Gratin Dauphinois vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Gratin Dauphinois is an original French recipe developed in-house by Consomee. Photo: Gratin dauphinois.jpg by Ludovic Péron, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. We add the serving scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure on top — how we source recipes.