The late Laurie Colwin had a great and simple method for making scalloped potatoes both rich and creamy: Slice your potatoes (nice starchy Russets are best), put 'em in a pot along with the cream, s&p and garlic, and bring it all slowly to a boil on the stovetop. Cook until the spuds are just short of done, then pour or spoon into your baking dish. Do several layers with the desired cheeses and herbs in-between. Top as desired, and finish in the oven.
The advantages to this method are several: the potatoes cook more evenly than when layered raw; the final dish tends to be neater, with fewer boil-overs; and last-but-not-least, it's a whole lot faster, so your oven space is freed up for other things.
The disadvantages: you have to be careful not to let the potatoes get too done/soft on the stove, or they'll crumble when moved to the baking dish (although once it's all baked into a wonderful gratin, you really don't notice imperfect slices); it's harder to arrange the slices into perfect patterns.
It's easy to use this method for smaller batches. For larger ones, I use a hotel pan across two burners, so the potatoes can cook evenly w/out having to be stirred too often.  |