Surviving the Hard Times

Sounds strange, doesn't it? But so does rice as a sweetener. It's all in the treatment and the additional ingredients. Potato candy uses three ingredients: a boiled potato, powdered sugar and peanut butter. It's a simple old fashioned candy. UPDATE: I found my actual recipe. The candy should have a teaspoon of vanilla and a dash of salt.

First scrub a potato and boil it in a saucepan of water. Yesterday, I used just an average sized potato from a 10 pound bag. It was about the size of my fist. A woman's fist. How long to boil? Until you can stick a fork in several places and it goes in easily. You don't want to have any hard undercooked areas. Those undercooked areas are very hard to mash.

Once the potato has boiled until tender, take it out. Just stick a fork in it and use the fork to hold it while you pick the skin off with a paring knife. It will be one of the easiest potatoes you've ever peeled.

While the potato is still hot begin to work in the powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and a dash of salt. I like to use a pie plate and a fork for this process. Watch a Christmas special or the falling snow while doing this...you're going to be at it for a little while. I worked 3/4 or more of a bag of powdered sugar into the potato I cooked. There is no exact amount since the size of the potato will vary. Just keep adding powdered sugar until you get a stiff dough that you'll be able to spread out. Don't get too stiff though, you will need to roll the dough like a jelly roll.

Once you've decided that you have a stiff dough, it's time to spread it out. I used plastic wrap on my counter. Waxed paper probably would have been better. What I didn't do but should have is to put some 'bench flour' aka powdered sugar down before I started working my dough out into a rectangle. It stuck to the plastic wrap a bit. Just use extra powdered sugar in the same way you use flour when working with bread dough. Use a spatula, your hands, whatever works to manipulate the dough into an even thickness and shape. About 1/4 inch is a good thickness.

Once you've got a rectangle of dough, spread on the peanut butter. If you really love peanut butter, put it on thicker.

Next, roll the dough like a jelly roll. I roll from the longest side because I want to be able to cut a lot of pieces of candy from this. In fact, once I get the candy rolled, I cut the roll in half and then roll it like I'm making a play dough snake. It will get thinner and longer and let you cut more pieces of candy.

After cutting the candy, place it on a cookie sheet and let it dry. Without drying, the moisture remaining in the dough may grow mold if just tossed into an airtight container.

This is a super sweet candy. It's basically powdered sugar but it's good.