Sick day Baked potato soup

I ended up doing quite a bit of cooking and baking over the weekend--it's pretty much all I did in my sickly state other than laundry and groceries which could not be avoided!  

I had a large bag of potatoes hanging out and decided that potato soup sounded absolutely perfect for my sore throat so, despite the fact that the weather is finally getting warm and spring-like, I made a large pot of soup in my new dutch oven and used it to sustain myself for the rest of the weekend!

I looked through all of my cookbooks and favorite blogs and finally settled on this recipe from Annie's Eats based on the ingredients I had on hand and the amount of work that I wanted to put into it.  I made some adaptations, and found this to be quite delicious for a sick lady needing a bit of comfort,

Baked Potato Soup


Ingredients:
4-5 russet potatoes (i used probably 6-8 b/c my potatoes were quite small)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
½ cup all-purpose flour, divided
6 cups 2% milk (used 1 cup cream, 3 cups skim milk, and a block of cream cheese)
2 tsp. salt (I used kosher--just threw a few pinches in to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
¾ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (i probably used at least a cup--just a large handful)
½ cup green onions, chopped (omitted b/c I didn't have any)
1/3-½ cup light sour cream
For topping:
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped green onions
Bacon pieces
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° F.  Prick the potatoes with the tines of a fork.  Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour.  Remove from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle.  Scoop the insides of the potatoes into food processor, discarding the peels.  Pulse until the pieces are broken into small chunks. (I didn't do this part b/c my processor bowl was dirty.  I just scooped out the insides and kind of crumbled them in and cut some in bits I left rather large chunks but would pulse them some with an immersion blender next time)
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, melt the butter.  Add ¼ cup of flour to the pot and whisk into the butter.  Cook, whisking constantly, until golden brown, about 2 minutes.  Whisk in the milk and the rest of the flour (I added the cream cheese, cut into chunks here).  Cook until thick and bubbling, about 6-8 minutes.  Mix in the potato chunks.  Whisk in the salt, pepper, and cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese is melted.  Remove from the heat, stir in the green onions and sour cream. (I also stirred crumbled bacon into the soup at this point instead of waiting to use it as the topping)
Serve immediately.  Garnish with sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions and bacon as desired.
Source: adapted from For the Love of Cooking