Baked Potatoes - what is the secret to cooking them perfectly?

[Carrotsandcelery]

I would love to serve baked potatoes more often to my family but find when I cook them in the oven they are a bit too crispy on the outside.

How do you oven cook them so that they have the brown, tasty skins but without the skins going so crunchy?

I put mine on low(ish) heat for a good couple of hours, about 150. I just wash them and dry them, then bung them in and leave them. My mum puts hers on a higher heat and hers do go crunchy.

if you cook in microwave first till they are soft and then wack them into over for 30 mins or so on 200

DH said that to cook JP in the oven from start to finish was a waste of energy and expensive so he suggested I parboil them for 10 mins with skins on in boiling water and then cook them in hot oven for 20 mins.

Perfect jacket potatoes!! Soft and moist in the middle and crispy on the outside.

The microwave tip except I only do mine for 10 minutes. Ollive oil black leper and Salt on skins helps crisp them

oh i have never heard of that collision

I usually bung mine in the micro, four biggish ones get about 15-20 mins and then half an hour in the oven.

Yes, I hate too-crispy/burnt skins as well.

Most important thing is to choose the right variety - I think Estima are the best, closely followed by Marfona or Sainsburys Vivaldi.

I give em 10 minutes in the microwave and then a fairly long cook in the oven on a not too high heat.

If doing oven only, wrap them in foil for the first half of cooking time.

what kind of potatoes are best to use?

mine never go all fluffy and nice in the middle. i have tried jsut buying big loose potatoes, buying the ones labelled "baking".... but is there a particular variety that make good jackets?

Collision that sounds like the technique I am after - thank you! I am trying to get them with browned but relatively soft skins. The ones I do just now are just too crunchy.

lol totally x-postd with bibbity!

gaston how do you prepare the black leper? just rub it all over? lol

Damn iPhone.. Pepper

Scrub potato then prick with fork all over. Olive oil, garlic salt and medium chilli powder. Potatoes at room temperature. Blast them on top shelf, highest possible temperature for twenty minutes, then reduce to gas mark 5, middle shelf for an hour or so.

Crispy skin, fluffy middle.

My parents used to have an excellent metal skewer type thingy on an axis that you drove into the middle of each potato. Was brilliant, always perfect JPs.