Irish Potatoes

A few Saturdays ago, older daughter and I joined my sister at her LAOH (Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians) Irish Potato rolling extravaganza. I felt special because I thought this was some sort of secret society and admission was granted only to the most exclusive of lassies. I didn't even need a password...or a fancy hat.

Every year in late February, the ladies of the Order get together and roll, and roll, and roll. They sell their Irish Potatoes by the pound for $5 and all the proceeds benefit local charities. We collectively rolled about 2500 lbs of Irish Potatoes! Shoot!

This particular LAOH hall rivals a Catholic Church with the number of statues that dutifully supervised our activity and we sat by one of the BVM. Herself (as was every inch of the place!) was shrouded in plastic to protect each effigy from becoming saturated with cinnamon and sugar dust! I made sure I didn’t say any bad words, but damn darn, it was a challenge especially when a runaway potato went meandering across the floor!

We threw those away.

The recipe is a “secret” so no recipe swapping occurred. However, I found a basic recipe and added some of my own ingredients.

Irish Potatoes
1/2 stick butter room temperature.
4 oz of cream cheese room temperature
1 pound confectioners sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Irish whiskey (Paddy, Old Bushmill)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups shredded coconut (shred finer in a blender or food processor)
Cinnamon and some confectioners sugar.

Beat butter and cream cheese. Gradually incorporate one pound confectioners sugar. Add cream, whiskey, vanilla and beat until incorporated. Fold coconut in by hand. Refrigerate for several hours then shape into 1” balls (the confectioners sugar will make this step less sticky) and roll in the cinnamon…and there you have them, Irish Potatoes. These are good, but those made by the lovely ladies of the LAOH are better!

At Easter, you can omit the whisky (or not), add a wee bit more vanilla and dip in chocolate for home-made Easter eggs!

Thank you for a great day...we had a blast!