An old-fashioned recipe that spans generations this Potato Candy is a family favorite. Minimal ingredients included potatoes and peanut butter make this a great treat!
If you have never tried Potato Candy I am going to tell you something straight up, you are absolutely missing out on this hidden gem that has a long history.
I am completely obsessed with this recipe and have been all my life. Growing up as a child this was one recipe my grandmother always made during the holidays.
I was able to learn from that, but luckily I inherited all of her handwritten recipe cards that have some of these great old-fashioned recipes.
I have a thing with the more vintage recipes, I find them tasty and they always bring back so many memories from my childhood and I’m sure some can appreciate those memories.
This Potato Candy uses minimal ingredients that you can easily find in your kitchen pantry. It may look intimidating, getting the candy outside just right, but practice makes perfect.
This Potato Candy Recipe is one of those ones that you will want to have on your holiday table this year or to give out in your cookie/treat exchanges. We do this every year.
Some of my other favorite candy type recipes we have on our site include: Peppermint Truffles, Peanut Clusters and Brigadeiro.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- Minimal ingredients help this recipe come together in a jiffy.
- You can double this to serve more for guests or for treat exchanges.
- The name is deceiving, yes it uses potatoes but it is as sweet as can be!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
Mashed potato
Unsalted butter
Vanilla extract
Sea salt
Powdered sugar
Peanut butter
HOW TO MAKE POTATO CANDY, STEP BY STEP:
- Place the cooled mashed potato into a large bowl. Add the butter and beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and salt, stir in until combined.
- Start adding in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, fully mixing in the first cup before adding the next. How much you use depends on how watery your potato is and humidity, etc. You want the consistency to be like cookie dough that you can roll out. When you put a little bit in your fingers you should be able to press and mold it together.
- In this step, you have to work pretty quickly because it can dry out. Layout a large piece of wax or parchment paper, dust it generously with powdered sugar. Place the potato mixture on the paper, add a generous amount of powdered sugar on top.
- Roll it out to ¼ inch thick. Try to get this into a rectangle shape as well as you can.
- Smear the peanut butter all over the top leaving a half-inch border.
- Tightly roll into a long log. Place on a piece of plastic wrap and roll the log up and tuck the ends under. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to set.
- Unwrap on a cutting board and cut into ¼-½ inch slices to serve.
WHAT IS POTATO CANDY?
According to online records Potato Candy came over to the US at the turn of century in the 1900’s. It was at that time in packaged form and rumored to have come from Germany, although that is debatable.
There was no written recipe, but the two main ingredients were potatoes and sugar. This vintage recipe then became popular during the Depression Era because that was when people needed to be frugal with ingredients and use what was available.
They used potatoes practically in so many different forms and candy happened to be one of them. This is how it really became popular in the US and the legend still lives on today through our grandparents and great grandparents.
WHAT KIND OF POTATO SHOULD I USE?
You will want to use an actual potato for this and not instant mashed potato because it seems easier, they contain too much water and too much water and Potato Candy are not a good match.I
used a russet potato that I poked holes in and microwaved until tender. I let it cool completely, peeled, then mashed.
This method makes the potato less watery, needing less powdered sugar. Like I said water and this candy are not good and tend to make you have to start over.
SOME OF MY OTHER FAVORITE HOLIDAY CANDY RECIPES:
I love holiday and homemade candy recipes, they make great treats to set our and great gifts to give, some of my favorites include:
HOW TO STORE:
This recipe can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator where it will keep for up to 7-10 days.
This can also be frozen, cut your candy and store any leftovers in a freezer container separated by parchment paper where it will keep for up to 1 month, let defrost in refrigerator overnight.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Do NOT use instant mashed potatoes!
- Make sure your potatoes are fully cooled before adding to recipe.
- If you want to switch the peanut butter up you can use crunchy.
- Other nut butters like almond butter, biscoff, cashew butter etc can be used.
- This can be made a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator before slicing.
- Wiping your knife between cuts makes sure that you get a clean cut each time.
Love old-fashioned recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation? Then you need to make my Potato Candy!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this POTATO CANDY or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Potato Candy
Ingredients
- ½ cup mashed potato cooled to room temp
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 6-8 cups powdered sugar plus more for dusting
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- Place the cooled mashed potato into a large bowl. Add the butter and beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and salt, stir in until combined.
- Start adding in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, fully mixing in the first cup before adding the next. How much you use depends on how watery your potato is and humidity, etc. You want the consistency to be like cookie dough that you can roll out. When you put a little bit in your fingers you should be able to press and mold it together.
- In this step, you have to work pretty quickly because it can dry out. Layout a large piece of wax or parchment paper, dust it generously with powdered sugar. Place the potato mixture on the paper, add a generous amount of powdered sugar on top.
- Roll it out to ¼ inch thick. Try to get this into a rectangle shape as well as you can.
- Smear the peanut butter all over the top leaving a half-inch border.
- Tightly roll into a long log. Place on a piece of plastic wrap and roll the log up and tuck the ends under. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to set.
- Unwrap on a cutting board and cut into ¼-½ inch slices to serve.
Notes
- Do NOT use instant mashed potatoes!
- Make sure your potatoes are fully cooled before adding to recipe.
- If you want to switch the peanut butter up you can use crunchy.
- Other nut butters like almond butter, biscoff, cashew butter etc can be used.
- This can be made a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator before slicing.
- Wiping your knife between cuts makes sure that you get a clean cut each time.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Shay
You never give measurements ?? I really want to make this for the holidays my mimi made it but i dnt know the measurements either
Tornadough Alli
The measurements are in the recipe card along with the instructions. I give the ingredient list and directions higher above as well for a step by step view, but the full readable and printable recipe is just down a little further. You can use the jump to recipe button to get to it if you’d like.