Cake "Potato" is a sweetness familiar to many from childhood. Previously, in every cafe you could buy this delicacy, but the taste of the cake was everywhere different. This is because the ingredients have varied. Some confectioners used biscuit, the second - crackers, and the third - ready-made cookies. A different sprinkling method was also used: crushed waffles, crackers or cocoa. But with any recipe, in each "potato" was cocoa, condensed milk (or plain), sugar and butter.
The history of the cake is associated with the manifestation of human wit in extreme conditions. Once in Finland, the famous, honored guests came to the poet Runeberg. But nothing was found in the poet’s poor family with which to treat guests. In the house lay only old cookies and some booze. In those days, cookies were bought in large bags, not packs, so only a few crumbs and broken cookies remained at the bottom of the bag. It’s impossible to serve such a thing to the table. Then Mrs. Runeberg showed a culinary savvy. And while her husband was entertaining friends, Mrs. Runeberg grind cookies with sour cream, jam and added some liquor. From the mass that came out, she made potato-like pastries and decorated them with jam berries. Then she laid out the finished cakes on a dish and presented to the guests. Everyone who tried this potato cake asked the hostess for a recipe. Over time, it spread throughout the country. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an already improved cake became popular in the Soviet Union.
To prepare a potato cake, you need to take:
- vanilla crackers (or biscuit, or soft cookies) - 500 grams;
- condensed milk - 400 milliliters;
- cocoa - 50 grams (two full tablespoons);
- butter - 200 grams;
- dark chocolate (with a cocoa content of more than 70%) - 100 grams;
- cognac (or liquor) - 30 milliliters;
- candied citrus fruits (for decoration) - 20 grams.
First, grind crumbs into a crumb using a blender or meat grinder (biscuit). If you take cookies, you can do it with your hands. After grinding, there should not be large pieces, and the whole crumb should be the same size. Then it is necessary to shift the condensed milk with cocoa powder. This must be done carefully so that there are no lumps. Then in the mass you need to add finely chopped butter and put everything in a water bath or fire until the butter has melted. Then you need to melt the chocolate, broken into pieces, in a bowl on a water / steam bath. Half of it should be added to the cream of cocoa, condensed milk and butter, and mix thoroughly. Then, in the chocolate mass, pour alcohol (liquor, cognac) for the aroma and mix again. Cream should be well beaten with crumbs. If the mass is dry, but you can add a little milk.
The resulting
chocolate cream must be mixed with crumbs. If you get a dry mass, you can add milk. Now form small balls in the form of potatoes from the mass. You can make a sausage and divide it into equal parts, and then roll the balls. Then ready-made cakes can be decorated at will, for example, candied fruit with chocolate. To do this, dip the cakes into the remaining melted chocolate, and put the thinly sliced candied fruits on top. You can decorate cakes in a different way, it all depends on the imagination. Here is the finished "Potato". The cake is better to eat the next day. This is the only way to evaluate its true taste, because by that time it is already saturated with all the ingredients.