I feel like I’m rapidly morphing into some bizarre Cropleyesque ration book aficionado. My compulsions to experience strange wartime combinations in my kitchen seem stronger than ever and I often spend my evenings flicking through old wartime cookery books to get my next fix of weird.
This wartime recipe for Chocolate Truffles made with mashed potato was really quite up there with some of the stranger recipes created during the war. Don’t expect a chocolate truffle texture, the truffles were squidgy and much like a Japanese dish called “Mochi”. However, I really enjoyed gobbling all seven of them down in one sitting. So, actually, they tasted alright. For anyone who missed chocolate during the war, this would have filled that gap I feel!
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons of mashed potato
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- A few drops of vanilla or almond essence
- Cocoa powder for dusting
Method
- Cook and mash the potato, roughly one small potato is a tablespoon of mash (I left the skins on!)
- Add in the cocoa powder, sugar and essence. Mix and mash until smooth and place in the fridge for an hour to stiffen
- Once stiffened roll into balls and roll in cocoa powder
- Return to fridge for another 30 minutes to stiffen
- Remove and dust with more cocoa powder
Makes about 8 truffles
Enjoy! C xxx
There’s a very popular thing in Scotland called “macaroon bar” which is literally just very smoothly-mashed potato with as much icing sugar as you can get it to hold, poured into a tray and left to set; cut into rectangles, dipped in chocolate and rolled in toasted coconut – utterly gorgeous 🙂
I ate it for years and years before discovering it had potato in it 🙂
That sounds a lot like an old fashioned New England, United States candy called Needhams.
Oooo I need to check this out on Google too! C xxxx
I want to do this with some peanut butter mixed in 🙂
I never knew that how interesting! Thanks for sharing that!! C xxx PS: Sounds yum!
They do look rather odd! But I suppose as you say, if there were no chocolate bars they might’ve satisfied a chocolate craving. I personally would’ve used oats instead and baked them rather than mashed potato, but another idea would be to add some flour and margarine and cut them into rounds and either bake or fry to make sweet chocolate potato cakes.
I don’t relish the idea of chocolate ‘tattie scones’, which is what is described by Pagesofradioland. I like my ‘tattie scones’ as a savoury treat, mainly with breakfast. What would you have used the oats for by the way ???
Swap the mashed potatoes for oats then they would all be sweet ingredients is what I meant. I would prefer savoury potato cakes (herby and cheesy especially!) myself also, but considering that in wartime they were trying to make something chocolatey with what little they had (and potatoes were abundant) it was a pondering on what else they might’ve tried making.
The potato gives the macaroon a smooth fondant texture (both are true confectionery) so I think swapping the potatoes for oats sounds too wet and a bit stodgy. A macaroon is a true confection and isn’t baked at all – as opposed to a macron which is a French meringue treat which is baked – so it’s a bit of another thing entirely.
Yes I’d imagine some extra ingredients would make them more tasty but it was very interesting to experience what the original recipe tasted like. Someone else mentioned coconut, bet that would have been nice xxx C
I think the fact that they were actually eat-able, AND you enjoyed them is absolutely great. They’re a weird idea, but it clearly worked… sort of.
Bravo for attempting it.
Thanks Sean I do like recreating the authentic recipes as really interested in what the taste would have been like. These were very strange but totally acceptable xxxx C
I think what I enjoy seeing and reading most, are those recipes and ideas that gallantly tried replicating those things people had got so used to pre-war, when all of a sudden, extreme shortages removed even the basic ingredients.
Chefs, cooks and Mums became incredibly inventive with spuds and carrots.
Clearly there were some things which stretched the imagination somewhat, but plenty of ideas worked very well. And as often as not, they were actually healthier than the original!
I can’t help thinking, that in 2023, we can still look back eighty-years and learn a lot from that stoic generation.
I think I ‘ll pass on this one! In my defence, chocolate is not a craving of mine, I can quite happily live without it. Crisps are my weakness.
I hear you! I’m missing my crisps too! It is a rather strange combination in this recipe but glad I tried it xxx C
You could make crisps by slicing potatoes very thinly and roasting in the oven. x
Another twist on the classic Scottish confection Lee’s Macaroon Bar, still commercially available, which originally used potato as the starch, vanilla flavoured centre, molded into bars, coated in chocolate then coated in toasted coconut.
If you don’t like the idea of potato try beating egg white till stiff, add the vnilla then work in sifted icing sugar till stiff (a Plasticine consistency) it’s called fondant in Scotland.
An easy to make yourself but please read these important notes.
1. If you use boiled potatoes do not salt the water, but baked is best as it’s a less wet mixture.
2. Rice the potatoes for preference, but if you don’t have a ricer then pass the mash through a sieve.
3. Don’t use vanilla essence, use extract for the best flavour.
4. Always use icing sugar, not caster sugar as it’s gritty.
5. Coat with dark chocolate not milk chocolate.
I make these as treats for friends and family every Christmas – with lots of other Scottish specialties.
Try these Rich Tea truffles
Ingredients:
250 grams Rich Tea Biscuits
395 grams condensed milk
1/2 cup good cocoa powder (sifted) not hot chocolate
1/2 cup coconut (plain or toasted)
Method:
Crush the biscuits well (food processor works well – or you can wrap them in a tea towel and hit with a rolling pin). Add to the condensed milk, cocoa and half of the coconut. Roll the mixture into small balls and roll in the extra coconut or sprinkles and refrigerate for three hours to set.
Other biscuit crumbs work well, especially digestives.
That sounds nice xxx
These sound lovely too!!!! Xxxxx
To make “Bounty Bars” work as much sifted icing sugar as you can manage into condensed milk (about the stiffness of Plasticine), roll out, cut into bars, dust with sifted icing sugar and dry out for a few hours then coat with chocolate. We liked to add some pineapple, coconut, raspberry or cherry essence to the mixture to ring the changes. Give it a try but don’t use a whole tin to begin with, just experiment with 1/4 or 1/2 a tin or you might pig out.
You can still buy the coffee or caramel condensed milk and these also make good confectionery treats, just work in as much sifted icing sugar to the condensed milk as you can (about the stiffness of Plasticine), roll out, cut into bars, dust with sifted icing sugar and dry out for a few hours then coat with chocolate. Walnuts are nice with the coffee flavour and cashews or chopped roasted peanuts go well with the caramel flavour – as does dried fruit.
Scottish Tablet recipe
Ingredients (for 4 pounds/1.8kg tablet):
Butter or margarine – half pound (225g)
Sweetened condensed milk – one pound (450g)
Castor sugar – 4 pounds (1.8kg)
Water – 1 pint (half litre)
Method
Using a non-stick pan, put the water on a low heat and melt in the butter. Add the sugar and bring to the boil. It is important to keep stirring all the time. Once it is boiling, stir in the condensed milk and simmer for 20 minutes. Again, keep stirring to avoid it sticking/burning. Take off the heat and beat vigorously for five minutes, adding the flavouring of your choice. Pour into a rectangular greased tin and once it is partly cooled, cut into bars (roughly 5 inches long by 1/2 inches wide). Once the tablet is cold, wrap the bars in waxed paper and store in an airtight jar or tin.
You are making my mouth water! Thanks for sharing this xxxx C
Not a WW2 recipe but you might like this. It’s vegan and gluten free. You might be able to adopt some of the ingredients:
https://fullofplants.com/healthier-chocolate-candy-bars-vegan-gf/
I can’t wait to make these!!! Just need to buy the ingredients ( except the cocoa powder and oat flour. I have oats in my cupboard which I can grind into flour)
The truffles resemble kartoshka, a Soviet pastry made of leftover bread, cake or biscuit crumbs shaped into ovals and coated in cocoa powder to resemble potatoes.
I’m going to Google that!!!! Thanks xxxx C
There’s a Hungarian thing of small round balls of cake with a large ball of marzipan and nut cream in the middle, the whole coated in cocoa powder and named “marzipan potatoes” – something like marcipan burgonyes (forgive my appalling spelling, any Hungarians reading this!). Completely delicious…
But not made form leftovers, os I suppose not that closely related – or maybe they used to be, and I’ve only had the modern version?
Oooh they do sound nice! Got the recipe?
I haven’t used this recipe, only googled and then. used google-translate so use common-sense if needs be!
https://recept.fokhagymaa.hu/recipe/marcipan-burgonya/
Hi Laura S. I was intrigued by these marzipan potatoes – so I looked them up and according to the internet they are German (https://germanculture.com.ua/christmas-recipes/marzipan-potatoes-marzipankartoffeln/) but as I’m not a fan of marzipan I won’t be trying these myself.
My maternal family were from Lithuania and I love their various ginger-breads called ‘pierniki’, a sort of soft cookie texture and delicious – here’s a couple of links to recipes (https://www.balticrun.com/the-baltics-smell-of-lovely-gingerbread/), (https://www.vrtic.lt/en/objektai/meduoliai/). Enjoy !
Ah no, no, not the same things! Yours are potatoes made from marzipan, like our British marzipan fruits are… the Hungarian ones are a round ball of spongecake, filled with nut-paste and coated in marzipan and rolled in cocoa.
I think these would taste better using sweet potato but I don’t really fancy them! Good on you for trying them, and managing to gobble them down :). This week I used up 1/2 avocado that was just on the turn, some sweet potato bought before Christmas and still looking ok in my dark pantry, cocoa powder, honey and milk to create a healthy chocolate pudding for a sick grandchild. He ate it with as much enthusiasm as someone with a rotten cold could, and at least he had some sustenance inside him.
That actually sounds lovely! I’ve made avocado chocolate mousse in the past and loved it! It’s amazing what we can create with leftovers, love experimenting!! Xxx C
I made that avocado mousse myself a couple of times in the past and it was really nice. i lost the recipe so haven’t bothered since lol.
I had to give this a try, and was pleasantly surprised at the taste and texture. It satisfies the sweet tooth, with rich chocolate flavor to boot. And, it comes without the engineered ingredients so prevalent in today’s sweets, like high fructose corn syrup, that makes me want to keep eating more than a few pieces. A couple of pieces eaten of these truffles were delicious and satisfying.
It certainly is more healthy!
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