Smoked Gouda and Goat Cheese Sweet Potato Gratin

Let me take a minute and paint the scene of pure bliss I’m in right now.  I’m sitting at my kitchen table, which is flanked by two doors that are wide open to the morning air.  The four windows in front of me show about a hundred shades of green, blue, purple and pink from everything beginning to sprout in my yard and the birds outside are saying things to one another that I can’t make out, but could listen to for hours upon hours.  I’m wrapped up in a blanket, in one of the two cozy chairs at my table, with Iris curled in a half-moon around my thigh and backside acting as my own personal heating pad.  There’s a steaming hot cup of coffee to my left, and a bowl of apple crumble (very un-springlike, I know) with ice cream to my right, because why wouldn’t you have apple crumble with ice cream for breakfast on a random Tuesday?  And I am doing what I love most, sharing creations from my kitchen with you all. I could live this moment a thousand time over and it would never get old.  Disclaimer: This is not a typical Tuesday, which is why I had to bottle it.
Moving along to today’s recipe, this is a similar gratin to the one I told you about from the girl’s weekend I had up in Asheville, North Carolina last month.  We went to a restaurant called Blackbird and this was a side dish that several of the girls got with their dinner.  I tried a bite off of one of my friend’s plates because she insisted I needed to try and recreate it.  We agreed that there would be several ways you could make this.  First, just plain as-is.  Sweet potatoes are delightful all on their own and made even more so with a little bit of smoked gouda cheese and a touch of cream.  Next, I’m pretty sure that adding bacon to this would make it crazy over the top, because bacon has that effect on a dish, and of course you could add fresh herbs such as rosemary or sage to make this very fall-like.  For it to be a really pretty spring day, I sure am bringing a lot of fall elements to the table, aren’t I?  Oh well, most foods are interchangeable, so we’ll just run with it.
I have never made a gratin before.  I’m sure there are a couple ways you can achieve the same result, but I was pretty happy that this particular way consisted of three main ingredients, came together in minutes and was quite possibly one of the most rich, decadent dishes I’ve ever made.  It was so rich, the small dish I made (that you see pictured) would probably serve up to 6 people.  The cheese is what made this dish.  I found a smoked goat cheese at Whole Foods and it has smoked gouda in it as well.  The twinge of smokey flavor is what makes this dish.  It is absolutely divine, so I highly suggest making it any time you want to serve an indulgent dish at a dinner party or holiday.  Although, who’s to say you can’t have it on a random tuesday?  I know I probably would.;)

Smoked Gouda and Goat Cheese Sweet Potato Gratin

serves 4-6
3 small sweet potatoes
1 cup of heavy cream
3-4 oz of smoked goat cheese, use regular if you can’t find it.
6-8 oz of smoked gouda cheese, shredded
1 Tbsp of butter
salt and pepper

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes.  Thinly slice the sweet potatoes.  To get uniform thickness, use a mandolin slicer.
Butter the bottom and sides of a baking dish.  You won’t need anything larger than and 8×8.
Place a layer of sweet potatoes on the bottom of the dish, slightly overlapping each slice.  Sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt and pepper.  Crumble and dot the goat cheese over the potato slices.  Add a thin layer of gouda and drizzle a little cream over this layer.  Repeat until all the sweet potatoes are used up and you end with a layer of gouda.  Drizzle the last bit of cream over the top.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.  Cover the top with foil and continue baking for another 30 minutes.

Let the gratin stand for about 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Taken by : http://www.carolinagirlcooks.com/smoked-gouda-and-goat-cheese-sweet-potato-gratin/