Chocolate Peanut Butter Potato Candy Teddy Bear Pops

Yes, that title does read, Chocolate Peanut Butter Potato Candy Teddy Bear Pops.

These chocolate teddy bear lollipops are filled with sweet potato candy. They are perfect treats for Valentine's Day or a baby shower.

Have you ever had an old-fashioned peanut butter potato candy pinwheel before?

The traditional potato candy recipe combines mashed potatoes, vanilla, and powdered sugar to make a fudge-like dough. It's rolled out into a thin rectangle and topped with peanut butter, then rolled up, sliced, and served.

This old-fashioned candy was most likely created because people had an abundance of potatoes and a lack of the more expensive butter. I looked around for the history of the candy, but couldn't track it down.

I do know that the first time I tasted peanut butter potato candy I was shocked.

The candy is sweet with absolutely no taste of mashed potatoes.

When made the traditional way it tastes like vanilla fudge topped with peanut butter.

Last year when I began developing recipes for Bob Evans using their grocery store products including their mashed potatoes, I added a new twist to the recipe.

I simply blended all the ingredients together, rolled it into balls, dipped it in candy coating, and sprinkled on some peanuts. To make them festive, I turned them into lollipops.

With the ingredients all blended together, the potato candy tasted exactly like peanut butter fudge.

I've shared this candy with a lot of people and not a single person has guessed potatoes were listed in the ingredients.

For Valentine's Day, the folks at Bob Evans asked me to dress up the lollipops, so I dipped them in white candy coating and added lots of sprinkles.

While working on Valentine's Day pops, I thought it would be fun to dip them in milk chocolate and make them look like Teddy Bears.

They turned out so cute!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Potato Candy Teddy Bear Pops 

Ingredients: (makes 16)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Potato Candy -

½ cup Bob Evans Original Mashed
Potatoes

2 ¼ – 2 ½ cups confectioners sugar
(powdered sugar)

⅓ cup creamy peanut butter

⅓ cup chocolate hazelnut spread

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Decorations-

16 ounces light cocoa candy coating

32 brown candy coated peanut butter
pieces

32 pink or white heart sprinkles

4 caramel candies

16 chocolate chips

32 small candy eyesSupplies:
16 paper straws or lollipop sticks
cake pop stand or a rectangle piece of styrofoam

Instructions:

• Press ½ cup of mashed potatoes through a fine-mesh sieve, to remove the larger pieces of mashed potatoes.
• Measure out ⅓ cup mashed potatoes to use in the recipe.

• Stir together the mashed potatoes, 2 ¼ cups confectioners sugar, peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut
  spread, a pinch of salt, and vanilla extract. If needed, add more confectioners sugar, about a tablespoon at a time, until you can easily roll the candy into balls.
• Scoop out 16 heaping tablespoonfuls of the candy and roll into balls.
• Melt the candy coating in the microwave.
• Heat on high power for 45 seconds.
• Let sit in the microwave for a minute or two, then stir.
• Heat for 25 more seconds, let sit for a minute, then stir.
• If the wafers are not all melted, heat for 10-second increments, stirring after each until melted.
• Dip one end of each paper straw or lollipop stick into the melted candy coating before inserting it into a candy ball.
• Allow the candy coating to dry for about 10 minutes.

• Dip one peanut butter lollipop at a time into the candy coating.
• Remove the candy ball from the candy coating, and hold the lollipop upside down over the bowl for 30-60 seconds.

• Press a fork into the candy coating then pull the fork away, creating spikes of fur.

• Continue to do this all over the pop, adding more candy coating as needed, until you have a nice furry-looking ball.

• By the time you get all the spikes done, the candy coating will be pretty dry.

• Set the pop in a cake pop stand or in a piece of styrofoam.
• Repeat coating all 16 mashed potato candy pops.
• Allow the candy coating to harden.

• Create the decorations to add to your teddy bear pops.
• Snout: Place all of the caramels in the microwave and heat on defrost power for about 10-15 seconds, to soften them.
• Cut each caramel into 4 even pieces. Knead each piece, then roll into balls, flatten and shape into an oval shape.
• Nose: Cut the tips off the chocolate chips and insert one chip near the top edge of each piece of caramel.
• Mouth: Use a toothpick to poke a hole in the caramel opposite the chocolate chip nose. Press the toothpick to create an indentation from the nose to the mouth.
• Ears: Use a small dab of candy coating to attach one white or a pink heart sprinkle to each brown peanut butter candy.

• Use the remaining candy coating, re-heating if needed, to attach one caramel snout & nose, two
  candy ears, and two candy eyes to each teddy bear pop.
• These pops will keep at room temperature for about a week.

Items used to make this project that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

Valentines Day Straws, Red ...Shop on AmazonWilton Sweetheart 6-Cell Va...Shop on Amazon⅜" White And Black Icing ...Shop on AmazonWerther's Chewy Candy, Orig...Shop on AmazonREESE'S PIECES Chocolate Pe...Shop on Amazon

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• Author
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Beth Klosterboer

Hi, I'm Beth Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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