Potato Candy is a Great Depression Era recipe that contains just three ingredients — potatoes, icing sugar (also called confectioners sugar or powdered sugar) and peanut butter. You can use any nut or seed butter you like – we made ours nut free by using Wow Butter.
The history of potato candy is hard to pinpoint. It is believed that potato candy originated in the Southern US, in the Appalachian region.
Europeans brought the potato to the colonies in Canada. Potatoes were first grown by settlers in New Brunswick as early as the mid-1600s. In Prince Edward Island, the British introduced the potato in 1758. Potatoes came to Western Canada in the late 1820s.
We thought we would make this candy during our 1940s Days since potatoes were available. Sugar was rationed but I could not find whether confectioners sugar was rationed or whether it was available. We decided we would make it anyways, not on our rations.
This candy is very sweet and you don’t even taste the potato since potato has such a neutral flavor. The nut/seed butter definitely helps cut the sweetness. We put a thin layer of Wow Butter, but I recommend a thicker layer, especially if you don’t roll the dough thin.
Let’s get started!
Start with a whole potato. Skin it, boil it, mash it. One potato goes a long way! Be sure to mash until smooth. You can rice it or press it through a sieve. We didn’t do that and ended up with lumps. We should have mashed it better.
Add icing/powdered sugar until it forms a dough. The potato retains a lot of water so you’ll see it start to liquify as you begin adding the sugar. Keep adding icing sugar. And more and more until you get a dough. It’ll take a while, just keep going! We added about 8 cups of icing sugar. As you can see, the more we added, the thicker the potato got.
Spread icing sugar on your work surface and then flatten out the potato candy by hand.
Spread nut or seed butter of choice over top.
Roll.
I noticed the icing sugar on the silicone mat made the candy rough on the outside. Our potatoes were not perfectly smooth so that also resulted in an ugly appearance of the candy. Set in the fridge until hardened.
It does taste quite good, but definitely super sweet.
After the first roll, we learned to knead the potato candy with icing sugar until much more stiff, much like fondant. Then flatten candy out with your hands. Spread nut or seed butter over top, then roll.
It looks better and rolled easier and overall, turned out a lot better than the first roll!
We put Wow Butter in part of the potato candy which helped thicken the candy a lot faster. Then I took that and layered it in the regular candy and spread the Wow Butter over top and rolled. (pictured below).
Refrigerate for a few hours until hardened. Slice. Store in an airtight container in the fridge between layers of parchment so it doesn’t stick, and doesn’t dry out.
Potato Candy from the Great Depression
1 potato
6 to 9 cups icing sugar/powdered sugar/confectioners sugar
Nut or seed butter of choice
Cook and mash potato. Be sure potato is smooth. Let cool. Add enough icing sugar until a dough forms. Knead with icing sugar. Put icing sugar or a bit of cornstarch on counter or in silicone mat. Roll out. Spread with nut/seed butter. Roll. Wrap in plastic wrap or place in container. Set in fridge until set. Slice and enjoy.
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