{St Patrick’s Day} Irish Potatoes

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Confections are one of my specialties!  When Steve & I got married 15 years ago, I made a variety of homemade truffles as the favors for our wedding.  They were a huge hit!  Since then, I have been making truffles, caramels, toffee, buttercremes, brittles, and so many other delicious bites to share with family and friends.  One of my most requested treats is homemade Irish Potatoes.

Irish Potatoes have very little to actually do with potatoes; for starters potatoes aren’t even an ingredient!  However, these bite size treats are rolled to look like petite russet potatoes.

I have been using the same recipe to make Irish Potatoes for almost over 25 years, and these candies are better than anything you can find in a store this time of year, and they are super easy to make.  Please consider giving these a try before you shell out good money for the not so tasty pre-boxed variety at the markets this St Patrick’s Day.

Irish Potatoes

14oz bag of shredded coconut
2lbs of confectionary sugar
1 stick of butter – softened
8oz cream cheese – softened
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
cinnamon

In the bowl of your mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the coconut, confectionary sugar, and vanilla. On low, beat the ingredients together, increasing speed as everything gets more incorporated. Don’t start on medium or high, or else you will be wearing the powdered sugar!

Once your mixture resembles a soft dough, its time to start shaping your Irish Potatoes. I like to use a 1 tablespoon scoop to portion out my candies, and then dredge them in cinnamon before tolling them between my palms to make the candies. You can leave them ball shape, or more oval so they resemble potatoes.

Put your finished candies on a waxed paper lined tray, and then chill until the butter and cream cheese set and they aren’t as soft.  Ours rarely last that long, and the almost 3 dozen that I already made have mostly been eaten by the children and I.  We couldn’t help ourselves – they are that good!

A batch of Irish Potatoes will make about 10 dozen depending on their size.  This recipe does scale down easily, so you can always make a half-batch if you don’t want to have the extras to share with friends or people from work.  For me, I usually end up going the other direction and make a double batch!