Potato Candy - Recipe From A Memory

Early in the Christmas season, my Grandma was telling me about a special treat her mother used to make her and her sisters at Christmas time. She said there was only 3 ingredients; potato, icing sugar and coconut. In my head, I immediately thought "gluten free"! Having never heard of something like that, I turned to the Internet and found quite a lot of results. Most were covered in chocolate or had some sort of wax in them. Some recommended adding milk and salt to the mashed potatoes. I couldn't find something as simple as my Grandmas memories so I just gave it a shot. Nothing was measured and I will work on trying to perfect this recipe in the future, but here's what I did:

 

1 medium potato, peeled, cooked & mashed until smooth

Icing sugar (I'm going to say about 2 cups but don't add it all at once)

Approx. 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1 tsp vanilla

 

I kept adding icing sugar to the potato until it became a dough-like consistency. Once it was thick and not sticking to my hands, I added the coconut. Upon tasted it at this point I decided to add some vanilla extract (vanilla was not one of the original 3 ingredients my Grandma mentioned but she did confirm it was in the original once she sampled mine).

 

Once I had my dough all mixed, I was really unsure of what to do next. I spread it thin on parchment paper and then stared at it for a while. I couldn't see it really sticking together so I decided I would drizzle some melted chocolate on top. Once I did that, I stared at it again. Seeing this wasn't going to work either, I smooshed all the dough together and started making 1" balls. After a few hours, the balls do harden up and hold their shape nicely.

 

The verdict - these were SO sweet. I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I couldn't really see anyone eating and finishing a complete ball but everyone tried one (some even two!). My grandma agreed - super sweet but similar to the original. Her mother somehow cut it into bars instead of the balls. My recipe requires some fine-tuning still but it was a fun experiment. If you like cake icing, you will love these!