Potato Candy

We have been making potato candy every year in our family for about 8 years now. My children look forward to this treat every year on St. Patrick's Day. I don't remember now where I got the recipe from, but it's simple enough that it's hard to forget:

1 russet potato (the smaller the better)

1 lb powdered sugar

1 jar peanut butter

However, over the years I discovered a trick to make this work better. If you're anything like me, HUGE amounts of sugary potato candy is not something I enjoy having around the house. So the trick is to scratch the potato called for in the recipe and replace it with 1/4 c mashed potato. That will soak up 1 lb of powered sugar all on it's own and then you can decide if you want more. So your new ingredient list should look more like this:

1/4 c mashed potato

1 lb powdered sugar

1 jar of peanut butter

1. Take your mashed potatoes and add in a cup of powdered sugar at 

a time, and stir until incorporated. Add more until it becomes 

a dough. (It will get really soupy, but that's ok- add more sugar.)

2. Once it's firm enough to roll out, place a piece of wax paper on your 

counter and sprinkle white flour to coat it. (With all that sugar, 

a little flour is not going to be tasted. In fact, if there's more sugar than

you'd like, you can always add a little white flour to your potato

dough.) Roll out your 'dough' and shape into a rectangle.

3. Once the dough is flat and rectangle (thickness is up to you- thin means

lots of layers in your finished log, thick means not so much), get out your 

jar of peanut butter and spread it on thick. All that gooey peanut butter

will help to cut the sugar in the dough. And taste delicious.

4. After the peanut butter has been spread, roll your dough into a log (like

you do when making cinnamon rolls). I found that using a rubber scrapper 

worked well at getting any sticky parts up.

5. Wrap the wax paper (or be like me and get a new piece because the

old one is a sticky mess) around your log and place in the fridge for

at least an hour. Once the potato dough has firmed up, it's good to 

eat!

*My dough turned out browner this year as I decided to try powdering my sucanat and adding a little

in place of the white powdered sugar. It tasted delicious and helped to cut down some of the sugariness.