Thursday, October 10, 2013

#31 Days - Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Candy

 Secret Obsession 
 Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge  Thursday Favorite Things               



This month's challenge recipe is also an adaptation of something that is one of my husband's favorites, "Potato Candy".

There's a funny story about that.  When my husband and I first met, I was talking to his mother on the phone one day and she gave me a recipe for potato candy, saying that it was one of the few sweet things he enjoyed, and that he would love me forever.  She told me "1/2 c of mashed potato and 1/2 c butter, followed by about 4 c of powdered sugar.

So, I dutifully mixed it up and took it, still in the bowl, to 'present' it.  I made Chris close his eyes and spoon fed him a little bit.  He smiled, opened his eyes, looked up at me and asked, "What is it?"  I replied that I had gotten the recipe for his favorite, Potato Candy, from his mother.  He asked me what happened to the peanut butter.  What peanut butter?  Apparently she left that part out.

When thinking of something different to do for this challenge, that could use something from the garden, I came up with the idea of substituting pumpkin for the potato, and cream cheese for the peanut butter.

The ingredients I used were:

1/2 c. pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 c. butter at room temperature
cinnamon to taste
ground cloves to taste
4+ c. powdered sugar

Cream together the pumpkin, butter and spices.  Add powdered sugar one cup at a time.  The end result should be of a soft, dry-ish fondant consistency, pliable but not sticky.

Line a cookie sheet with plastic wrap.  Spread and press out the mixture onto the plastic wrap into a large rectangle.  (I used plastic wrap wrapped around the fingers of one hand.)

Filling:
8 oz. soft or room-temperature plain cream cheese
nutmeg to taste
1 T. milk (if you use a bar of cream cheese)

Mix together well, and spread over the pumpkin mixture, leaving a little bare pumpkin on the two long sides of the cookie sheet for sealing.  

Lift up the plastic wrap on one side, wrapping the pumpkin mix over the cream cheese, into a jelly roll.  Refrigerate until firm.  Cut into slices.  Enjoy.

The Pumpkin Candy tastes great but is very, very sweet.

My pictures are not the greatest this month.  I think I should have used even more powdered sugar than I did to take away some of the moisture in the pumpkin mix.  And next time I will use the cream cheese that comes in a tub rather than what comes in the bar.  The roll should have held its shape a little better than it did.





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The October Daily Challenge prompt for today (Thursday, 10 October, 2013) is:

Pick 3 random blogs (from the challenge link-up), describe their blog, and tell us what you think of it!  Share a snippet/screen capture of their blog too.

Gypsy Shar (Daily Ramblings from a Free Spirit) - Shar is a lovely young woman with both outer and inner beauty.  She offers great advice to help other people in many facets of life and is refreshingly straight-forward about her beliefs, while honoring the beliefs of others.  (All pictures are copywrighted and there was not enough time to secure her permission to use one of them, but I'd be more than happy to edit this post at a later date and add one.)


Maddie Rose is relatively new to blogging.  She is participating in several blogging challenges at this time and has posted some yummy-looking recipes.  The fact that she would try to go without sugar for a day for the sake of her blog shows a great deal of strength; I don't think I could do it. :O)  (The graphic above is a link to her blog.


The Glamourous Guide - Erica, has a quote on her Facebook page from Audrey Hepburn - "Happy girls are the prettiest," which I absolutely ADORE.  Her blog has a very clean design and she covers a variety of topics.  Quite a bit is fashion related, as she is a Glambassador for Glamour Magazine.  How cool is that?

21 comments:

  1. I grew up on potato candy, never thought to add pumpkin, great idea!

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  2. That candy looks wonderful, LuAnn! I will be giving that one a try before long! My first attempt at potato candy was a total failure...and it involved my mother-in-law as well. She told me all of the ingredients but what she neglected to tell me was to allow the mashed potato cool before adding the powdered sugar. :o) Have a wonderful day, LuAnn!

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  3. @Cindy - I have to kick the inspiration back to the Lady Behind the Curtain, because pumpkin probably never would have crossed my mind without the dessert challenge! Thanks for your visit and your great contribution to the challenge! (I look forward to your entry each month!) :O)

    @Dianna - Oh Dianna, I am so glad to know that I'm not the only one with a forgetful MIL! *LOL* And after reading your comment, I have another thought about something I could try to make it better next time. Thanks so much! Your creativity inspires me. :O)

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  4. Mother-in-law stories are sure fun! lol. It seems you hooked him afterall though. This looks good, I never thought of making pumpkin candy, and I've never had potato candy either, but both sound good. What a fun month at the dessert challenge.

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  5. Love your Pumpkin Roll, making a roll is something I've never attempted, it looks so difficult :/

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  6. Cute story about your first attempt at potato candy. I bet your pumpkin candy tastes terrific :)

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  7. @Cheryl - Thanks so much for your visit! I'm thinking of making up a new 'old saying' - "What's good for the potato is good for the pumpkin." What do you think? :O)

    @Paula - Rolling this recipe is actually quite easy with the plastic wrap. I'm totally intimidated to try a cake roll, though! Thanks for your comment!

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  8. I never heard of either, but now you got me wanting to totally make pumpkin candy. Thanks so much for sharing and so going to pin it to see if we can make this soon :)

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  9. So very unique! I am looking forward to trying your recipe, even though I am not sure about the rolling! Great recipe!!

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  10. @Liz - Thank you, it does taste wonderful and the good thing about it is that even a sweet tooth like myself can only have a little bit at a time, cause it is so rich!

    @Leovi - Thanks for making the trip! You're guaranteed to find something pleasing to your palate at the monthly Dessert Challenge!

    @Janine - Thanks so much! Yeah, I thought my MIL was pulling my leg when she told me the potato candy recipe. :p

    @Teri - The rolling is easy-peasy, girl, especially with the wrap. There's so much butter in the recipe it just rolls right up and does not stick.

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  11. Hi LuAnn
    I'm so happy to meet you. I love all these pumpkin dessert recipes. My mother made potato candy when I was little but I've never tried to do it myself. I love fall foods. thanks for sharing with us at our Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
    Sew Crafty Angel

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  12. Never in my life have I heard of potato candy. But I love the idea of the pumpkin candy. I am sure it is heavenly.

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  13. @Angel - Glad to meet you too. Love your name! And Thursday Favorite Things is one of my favorite things! :O)

    @Marlene - Thank you for visiting and commenting! I understand your reaction to the idea of potato "candy". I asked my MIL a couple of times, just to make sure I'd heard her correctly. The pumpkin version is extra sweet. I think I'll halve the recipe from now on.

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  14. That is one tempting pumpkin candy! :) I have never tried potato candy with peanut butter, but I have tried cooking sweet potato by adding only condensed milk and mixing under low fire until a bit sticky. It's sweetly delicious too! You can do the same with smashed pumpkin. :) Hehe

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  15. Glad to see you on the porch, Mary! Potato candy, done right, is almost addictive. I could make a full recipe every day around here and it would disappear... and not just from me! *lol*

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  16. I have never heard of potato candy, but this sounds like a tasty way to enjoy pumpkin. Love seeing all the recipes from this challenge.

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  17. It's very, very sweet, so a little, itty, bitty piece will do well for most folks. That's how I got involved in the challenge in the first place, Raquel, was drooling over a post I came across on someone's blog, then going back to the hub. :O) CU next time! :O)

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  18. What an interesting candy! I haven't heard of anything like this before but it kind of reminds me of a pinwheel cake! The flavors are great so why not? Way to think outside the box!

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  19. What an interesting candy! I haven't heard of anything like this before but it kind of reminds me of a pinwheel cake! The flavors are great so why not? Way to think outside the box!

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  20. @Krista - Thanks so much! That's what I've been trying to do...take things with which we are familiar and tweak them a little...or a lot! :O)

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