There are a few different versions of the recipe that was usually called Poor Man's Candy. All Poor Man's Candy recipes use peanut butter, but some versions use a mashed potato and others use butter instead. Adding vanilla or baking cocoa is optional when making Poor Man's Candy. Poor Man's Candy got its name because it is cheap to make and very sweet, so a little goes a long way.
Instructions
1. Cook your potato and mash it with a fork, if the recipe you are using calls for potato to be used. Otherwise, melt the stick of a butter in a sauce pan on the burner.
2. Add a full box of confectioner's sugar to the potato or the melted butter. Add the sugar a little bit at a time, mixing it well as you go.
3. Mix in a tbs. vanilla or 2 tbs. cocoa if you want to add either flavor to your candy. You want the consistency to be like a thick paste if you started your recipe with butter, thicker like a pliable dough if you started with potato.
4. Put the mixture back into the saucepan you melted your butter in, if your recipe used butter. Heat it over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes stirring the entire time you are heating. Remove from heat and put in refrigerator to chill.
5. Roll the mixture out on wax paper if your recipe had you use mashed potato, there is no need to heat or chill it. You want to roll it our relatively thin, around 6 inches wide, and as long as the mixture allows. If using a butter based recipe, after the mixture is chilled, spoon it onto a piece of waxed paper and them pat it and mold it with your hands to make a similar shape and size.
6. Spread a thin layer of peanut butter over the mixture after it is formed. If the peanut butter is thick and hard to spread, warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it.
7. Roll the candy up like you would a jelly roll, so you have a long tube shaped piece of candy. Slice the Poor Man's Candy into 1/2 inch pieces, and store it in the refrigerator until you eat it.
Tags: Poor Candy, peanut butter, your recipe, Candy Poor, Candy Poor Candy, mashed potato