Extra Crispy Baked French Fries

I meeeean....we all love french fries, right?? But generally frying them is a messy and unhealthy thing we don't wanna mess with at home. That's why baked fries are so awesome--but I feel like they're never quite crispy and flavorful enough...

until now!

The two things that really help crisp these fries up is soaking them in water (this helps get some of the starch out, which gets a crispier result) and making sure to dry them after that. As far as flavor goes that's on you: salt the heck out of 'em. Put some truffle oil and parmesan cheese on them (that's what I diiiid!). Do garlic or a spice blend. Whatever makes your french fry loving heart happy.

Have I told you all my french fry shame? The kind of gross way I used to eat (specifically McDonald's) french fries as a kid? I used to....*deep breath* suck off the salt and then dip them in ketchup. They were soggy and gross and I don't know what was wrong with me....I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I was a weird kid with weird food habits.

I'm a changed lady, now, and am in fact a bit of a french fry snob. These were definitely the best fries I've ever baked at home and they will be getting made again (so that Michael can actually try them because I maaaay have eaten them all before he got home. Oops!)

Baked French Fries with Rosemary

I LOVE FRENCH FRIES!!! I love 'em! They're crunchy and salty and you just wanna eat em and eat em up! But um...they're fried. So I know they're not good for me. *sigh* It's a very sad truth.

But hey...psst....guess what? You can make homemade, baked (NOT FRIED!), fries that are crispy and flavorful and PERFECT!

Lately I've also really been loving the combo of rosemary with fries, it's just a really yummy addition (especially if you've got an aioli dipping sauce--or a bearnaise...ooooh that sounds gooood!): I just so happened to have some rosemary olive oil hanging out in my pantry, so I used that for these fries. You totally can use normal oil but OH MAN it was a wonderfully tasty decision to use it!

Actually, now that I think about it, this recipe is crazy versatile. Instead of olive oil you could drizzle these fries with truffle oil. You can season them any way you want! And, of course, you can dip them in a number of sauces (including, of course, ketchup!). You can even put these in a sandwich, I hear that's a thing.

Omgee that just reminded me: there's this restaurant back home where they serve french fries with butter. At first you're all like "whaaaa? CRAZY!" But then...you remember. They're potatoes. And then you take a bite. And it's like "mmmmmm." So...I forgot about that. Now I want to make these fries again and try them with butter. And garlic aioli. And Parmesan cheese. And paprika...

The french fry sky is the limit!

Gravy Cheese Fries Poutine

I have yet to make baked in the oven french fries that taste as good as the real thing:

Now, this doesn't mean it doesn't exist, I just haven't succeeded yet.

But, you know what totally makes up for any sort of problems with baked french fries flavor?

Smothering them in homemade gravy and lots of cheese.

Oh yeah.

I've never been particularly in love with gravy, but I've started coming around to it in the past year. I'll never be anywhere near my brother's level of obsession (he used to order gravy anytime he'd get chicken fingers when we were out, or sometimes he'd just like...drink gravy, lol!), but I'll eat it on occasion-such as on these fries! And the cheese really adds a great sharpness and extra bit of gooeyness.

I warn you, this is a totally dangerous and addictive recipe. I couldn't stop eating these. Poor Michael ended up with only...like...a third of the recipe instead of half-I couldn't control myself from going after his bowl!

Rich, flavorful, warm, comforting-all good things in these fabulous fabulous fries. I'd never had "poutine" fries before this recipe but now I am totally in love with the concept-so all you Canadians/Frenchies should come make me some authentic ones sometime, k? In the mean time I'll just content myself with these.

Mmm!