Potato Candy Roll
By Yankee Magazine|Oct 01 2008|
Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Potato Candy
Credit: Aimee SeaveyMother made this when we couldn’t afford store bought candy.
Ingredients
1 medium potato, boiled and mashed
1 2-lb. bag of powdered sugar
1 18 oz. jar of peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
Dash of salt
Instructions
Peel cooked potato and mash with salt until smooth. Add sugar a little at a time. At first, the mixture will be thin, but as you add sugar it will become very dense. After all sugar is added, roll flat in a circle on wax paper or clean dish cloth. Spread peanut butter on top. Start at one side and roll up until you have a log. Place in refrigerator until firm to the touch. Slice with slightly buttered knife into spirals and enjoy. Keep refrigerated.
Notes
The original recipe submitter did not specify, but our tester found that letting the mashed potato cool until slightly warmer than room temperature worked best when making the potato-sugar “dough.”
When adding the powdered sugar; you need to add enough until the dough is the constancy of pie dough. How much depends on how big your potato is but this will solve the “melting” issue. A dash of vanilla is nice too. Also, after it has “ripened” in the refrigerator for 24 hours, after you cut it, it will last longer if it is kept in a loosely covered container allowing it to dry out a little. This makes it taste even better and a lot of the sugary taste goes away, leaving more of the peanut butter flavor. It can be refrigerated after it has dried out for a few days (if it lasts that long). You can also use crunchy peanut butter or other nut butters for a different taste. For very festive occasions, add some food coloring to the mashed potato (I usually rice mine to get a smooth consistency).
Here’s an alternate recipe to produce a more standardized, consistent product. Used Betty Crocker Potato Buds w/good results – tasty, crusty, all-round good job. For 1/2 C tater, use 1/3 C water, 1 T milk & 1/3 C Potato Buds as per instructions on box. (The water/milk ratio is 16/3, or 5.3/1, w/the water & Potato Buds amount being the same.) As to the sugar – too much results in a too-stiff fondant which cracks as you roll it. Suggest adding the 1st 4 C, beating well after @addition, evaluating the consistency & adding the remaining in maybe 1/4C amounts til you get the proper fondant. NB – when 1st C of sugar’s added to the tater/salt mixture it gets very liquid – not to worry.
This is the recipe I was taught as a child in the 80s. It’s the easiest thing to make and so amazing. You can add food coloring if you want, I’ve even used cookie cutters to make “sandwiches” instead of rolling it into a log. Anyone can make this, it’s so easy!