4th of July Summer Candy Recipe

My grandmother had many children; she wasted nothing when she cooked. Her motto was, "waste not, want not". But her kids had a taste for sweets. Like most children, they clamored for candy. Not to disappoint she made candy out of left over mashed potatoes. She then decorated the small rounds of homemade candy with sprinkles (which she called Jimmy's), or stretched a very small bag of store purchased candy (usually M&M's). In these tight economic times, I thought her old time beloved candy might be enjoyed by another generation.

Most of the time, she would scoop the candy dough out with a very small cookie dough scooper. As an alternative to making rounds of candy, she would treat the candy dough almost like cookie dough. She would roll it out, spread it with peanut butter, and than roll it back up and slice it down. Her recipes were famous throughout the Pittsburgh area.

We always accused my grandmother of leaving something out of the recipe when she gave it to you. Unfortunately, she left out the fact that the mashed potatoes must be cold in order for this recipe to work. The first time I made this recipe, I couldn't figure out what went wrong. I kept adding confectioner's sugar trying to get a stiff dough; at five pounds, I gave up and threw the sticky mess away. When my mother explained that she too had this initial problem with the recipe, I had to laugh. Two generations had been had by my grandmother's desire to keep some of her secrets to herself, by leaving steps out of her recipe cards. She always claimed it was an accident (but we know differently, now don't we). This recipe is her "cheep" version of fudge; she called it "fodge".

Don't worry, I gave you all the steps to this recipe.

4^th of July Candy

Ingredients

1 cup cold leftover mashed potatoes
2 lbs. Confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar (For the 4^th use red and blue dye to color a portion of the sugar to roll the balls of potato candy in to add color)
Red, white, blue sprinkles or Red, white and blue M&M's (optional)

Instructions

Mix together first three ingredients. (Dough will become stiff.)

Use a small cookie dough scoop to make even size candy. (It should be a stiff enough dough should you choose to make the peanut butter roll up style alternative recipe).

Roll dough into equal size balls and roll in the plain, red or blue granulated sugar (this will give you red, white, and blue candy). Decorate with seasonal candy if desired.

Store the candy in the refrigerator.