Bring a large stock pot of water to a medium boil and add the potatoes and garlic. Boil until you can pierce a paring knife through the potato with absolutely no resistance, but the potato won't fall apart. This will typically be about 30 minutes.
While potatoes are cooking, saute the garlic in a saute pan on low heat with butter and a splash of cream. Don't let the garlic get any darker than golden...don't brown them, we just want to get the flavors to be released.
Drain the potatoes and rinse with water to get any extra debris off.
If you want to remove the skins, you'll do it in this step. You can easily remove them with a scrubby or thermal gloves. I advise against removing the skins, especially since we are only using half Russet potatoes (the Yukon Gold skins are very subtle in texture). But it's a personal preference
Rice the potatoes with the garlic into a bowl. If you don't have a ricer, you can skip this step and mash them when they're back in the pot.
Put the potatoes and garlic back into the stock pot and add the butter. Start mashing with the potato masher until every potato is opened.
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together. If you didn't rice them before going into the pot, mash them until it's the texture you like. I like chunkier. If they are too thick and chunky, add chicken stock 1/4 cup at a time.
Add salt and white pepper to taste.
Add cold butter cubes to the top and sprinkle with special salt (smoked, garlic, or truffle are the best) and bake it in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes to build a crust on top. Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve.