Many of us are accustomed to seeing this rolled candy around Christmas, but if you’re not, we get that it might seem a little odd. Potatoes? In candy? We know. But we promise it works.
The potato acts as a binder in the dough and the end result tastes nothing at all like potatoes. It’s just a soft, sweet (like, really sweet), no-bake candy that’s genius in its resourcefulness.
Some say the recipe was brought to the United States from Germany, where it was a common frugal practice to come up with clever uses for leftover mashed potatoes. Others say it’s an Irish recipe. Some say Pennsylvania Dutch. Some say Russian… You get the point.
What is clear is that it became popular in America during the Great Depression. In a time of great scarcity, potatoes and peanuts were easy and cheap to come by, and even powdered sugar was cheaper than regular granulated sugar. When there was little to be had, this candy ensured that people could still have a tasty treat.
The recipe has endured through years when people only had a little, but also through years when people had a lot, because the candy is nearly impossible to resist. It’s tender and a little chewy, sweet as can be, nostalgic, and incredibly easy to make. You don’t need to be a candy maker for this.
You start by adding some mashed potatoes to a bowl and combining them with a little vanilla and milk. (Though when there wasn’t a lot to go around, the milk and vanilla weren’t included. So you could even leave those out.)
Please continue to Next Page (>) for the full list of ingredients and complete cooking instructions.
My mother was given this “recipe” as a wedging gift in 1940. I have made it over the years but never used vanilla or milk. We always used red or “Irish Potatoes “ & even called it Irish Potato Candy. Some people don’t like it because it is so sweet!