Potato candy has been a staple of our holiday traditions for as long as I can remember. I've heard a number of stories about it's origin; that's it an old Irish, German or Scottish dessert, but I'm not buying it. Considering peanut butter wasn't commercially available in America until the 1910's at the earliest, it probably didn't come from the Old Country. I think potato candy is straight up Hillbilly, probably a WWI or Depression-era recipe that used homegrown potatoes when flour was either rationed or prohibitively expensive. Those are my thoughts anyway. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but please provide factual evidence if you do :)
It's definitely an acquired taste, potato candy but it's also addictive. It's extremely sweet and savory at the same time, and the potato dough sort of melts in your mouth. The downside is the large amount of sugar this recipe requires. The plus side is that it contains at least a little bit of nutrition, thanks to the potato and peanut butter.
Okay, the weird thing about this recipe is that there's not really a recipe at all. I can't give you exact measurements; this recipe is purely intuitive. It depends on the weight of the tater, the moisture content of said tater, the humidity on the day you're cooking, etc. But here are the ingredients:
1 potato, a nice mealy Idaho is best
1 BIG bag of powdered sugar
1/2 t of vanilla (to cover the starchy taste)
Peanut butter
First, bake your tater in either the oven or the microwave. Don't boil it, for the love of Pete! Boiled potatoes absorb a ton of water and that makes the dough sloppier and requires even more sugar. Allow the baked potato to cool completely, preferably overnight.
Peel the potato and begin mashing it with a fork until it's as smooth as you can make it. There WILL be lumps, don't sweat it. Add the vanilla, then begin adding the powdered sugar, one or two cups at a time. It's going to melt and it's going to be a big sticky mess initially. That's normal. Just keep adding powdered sugar until the mixture has the consistency of rolled cookie dough or unbaked pie crust. Doughy but manageable is what you're looking for.
Dump the dough out onto a smooth surface and roll out using additional powdered sugar in place of flour. Add just enough powdered sugar to work the dough; if you add too much, you'll end up with a chalky, crumbly dough and you don't want that. Roll out to approximately 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
Spread the dough with peanut butter. Don't skimp! The peanut butter is your main flavor and the salt really cuts through the sweetness of the powdered sugar. Spread the peanut butter to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the dough. Roll up jelly-roll-style and allow to rest for a bit. This allows the starches in the potato and powdered sugar time to set up into a proper dough. Once the dough feels dry and set, slice into 1/2 thick rounds and store in an air-tight container.
Makes a great, if unconventional, Christmas gift!
2 comments:
Our Christmas treat is one we fondly call "Toothrotters". I think it's the same recipe that's in Joy of Cooking as "Chocolate Maroons", and my Mom called them "Callaway Cookies" because that was the name of the lady that gave her the recipe...but they're _so_ rich...you can just _feel_ your teeth going to pieces! Of course, the other problem is that you can't eat just one...!
I'll put the recipe up when I'm home again, but it's nothing but sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, raisins and coconut. You melt and mix in a double boiler, then drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven. The timing of the baking part is critical...too little and they stay soft and fall apart, too much and they're like rocks. Because of that, you really need either baking parchment or aluminum foil to line the cookie sheet, because they need to be still a bit soft when you take them off the sheet, so that you have to either burn your fingers to keep them together, or if you wait till they're a bit cool, they stick to the pan terribly. I use aluminum foil, pull the whole sheet off onto a rack, then peel the cookies off when they're cool.
Yummm. Getting into the mood...!
As promised...
Callaway Cookies
(Toothrotters!)
1 Can sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz package of chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 Cup of raisins (plumped)
½ to ¾ C nuts
5 oz (more or less) shredded Coconut
Melt milk and chips in top of double boiler
Add rest of ingredients to coat, and mix
Spoon out onto cookie sheets (recommend using aluminum foil on cookie sheets)
Bake at 350* for 5-7 minutes. Push together on cooling racks or cool on fairly solid surface. (also known as “burn fingers here! – that’s why you use the aluminum foil…pull the whole sheet of foil off the cookie sheet and when the cookies are cool, peel them off the foil)
Do not overbake! They will be gooshy when you first take them out of the oven. It’s even worth your while to test your oven – and the time needed - by doing one batch, waiting till they’re cool to see if they’re done enough – because if they’re over done, they’re like rocks! We call them Tooth rotters – not Tooth breakers!!
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