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True "Irish potato" candy, while most probably not Irish, is made from a small cooked potato, confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract, and usually includes coconut flakes. The potato is mashed, without any added liquid, and the confectioner's sugar is then added gradually. The coconut and vanilla are added while the mixture is still somewhat soft to make blending easier; and additional confectioner's sugar is added until a consistency is reached that will allow rolling into bite-sized, potato-shaped balls. The candy is allowed to dry for a couple of hours and then rolled in cinnamon to achieve the appearance of tiny potatoes. Drying the candy before rolling in the cinnamon keeps the cinnamon from becoming dark.[1]
The recipe does not involve the use of heat after the cooking of the potato; and because of the initial reaction between the confectioner's sugar and the mashed potato. When the sugar is added to the mashed potato the mixture becomes liquid, then becomes gradually firmer as more sugar is added. Powdered cocoa can be substituted for the cinnamon for a slightly browner potato without the cinnamon's "bite". The coconut can be left out, or try dipping the candy in chocolate. The potato and confectioner's sugar makes a nice base for experimenting with other flavors, such as mint. There are also other types of potato candy, for which recipes can be easily found online.
Commercially made Irish Potato Candy is a traditional Philadelphia confection, produced for over 100 years, that is not Irish and does not contain any potato.[2] The candies have a coconut cream inside (generally made from some blend of coconut, confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and cream or cream cheese) and are rolled in cinnamon on the outside, making them look like small potatoes.[2][3] The treats are about the size of a large marble and are especially popular around St. Patrick's Day.[2]
Oh Ryan's of Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, makes the largest distribution of Irish Potatoes shipping about 80,000 pounds to major chains and smaller candy stores mostly in the Philadelphia area.[4] See's Candies based in South San Francisco also makes a version composed of a divinity and English walnut interior dusted with cocoa and using pine nuts as potato "eyes".[4] They are showcased as a seasonal product by Acme Markets.
See also [link]
- Idaho Spud, another potato related candy
References [link]
- ^ https://www.grouprecipes.com/25592/irish-potato-candy.html
- ^ a b c Oh Ryan's Irish Potatoes
- ^ Irish Potato Candy Recipe from Allrecipes.com
- ^ a b Erin Zimmer Irish 'Potatoes' from See's Candies and Oh Ryan's March 17, 2009 Serious Eats
External links [link]
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Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum L. The word "potato" may refer either to the plant itself or to the edible tuber. In the Andes, where the species is indigenous, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes were introduced outside the Andes region approximately four centuries ago, and have since become an integral part of much of the world's food supply. It is the world's fourth-largest food crop, following maize, wheat, and rice. The green leaves and green skins of tubers exposed to the light are toxic.
Wild potato species can be found throughout the Americas from the United States to southern Chile. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated independently in multiple locations, but later genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species proved a single origin for potatoes in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex), where they were domesticated approximately 7,000–10,000 years ago. Following centuries of selective breeding, there are now over a thousand different types of potatoes. Over 99% of the presently cultivated potatoes worldwide descended from varieties that originated in the lowlands of south-central Chile, which have displaced formerly popular varieties from the Andes.
