Potatoes & Molasses Candy: An Over the Garden Wall Menu

 
 

We’re getting in one last Halloween recipe under the wire, and making an entire Over The Garden Wall themed menu. Over the Garden Wall was a limited series that aired on Cartoon Network in 2014, and it’s chock full of autumnal atmosphere and vintage Halloween vibes. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for family-friendly Halloween fare this season. 

My friends and I had an Over the Garden Wall marathon day at the beginning of October.  I decided to make something inspired by my favorite song in the series, “Potatoes and Molasses”. I was pretty sure making the dish as described in the show wouldn’t be all that tasty, but I remembered coming across an old potato candy recipe online before - a candy made with actual potatoes, and layered with peanut butter. We’re going to swap the peanut butter out for molasses cookie butter to keep this candy on theme. 

I also have a couple recipes made by my friend Casie, who gave her permission to share them here. You can see the original versions on her instagram.

 
 

Potatoes and Molasses Candy

  • 20 archway soft molasses cookies

  • 2 Tablespoons coconut oil

  • 2-4 Tablespoons water

  • 1 potato, peeled and diced

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1 2-lb. bag powdered sugar

For the Molasses Cookie Butter

Add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor & process until finely ground. Add coconut oil and 2 Tablespoons of Water and continue processing until cookie butter forms, adding more water as necessary.

For the Potato Candy

Cover the potato with water in a medium saucepan. Boil until fork-tender, drain, and mash. Combine 1/2 cup mashed potato, butter, vanilla and 1 cup powdered sugar. Mix with a hand mixer until well-combined (mixutre will be wet). Continue adding powdered sugar until a dough forms - this may take as much as 7 to 8 cups of powdered sugar. When you can handle the mixture without sticking, you’ve used enough.

Lay out a sheet of wax paper and sprinkle with more powdered sugar. Roll out the potato dough onto the wax paper to about 1/4” thickness. Spread the molasses cookie butter on top (can also use peanut butter). Starting at the long end, roll the candy into a log, using the wax paper to help you along. Cover the log with the wax paper, cut in half & transfer to a gallon size storage bag. Chill in the fridge for an hour or until stiff.

Remove potato candy log from wax paper & slice into 1/2 inch slices. Keep covered until ready to serve.



Rock Fact Truffles

  • Royal Icing

  • 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 3/4 cup heavy cream

  • 3 bags Lady Grey tea

  • dutch process cocoa

Color small amounts of royal icing in yellow, blue, black and red. Pipe little eyes in white and blue and mouths with yellow, black and red tongues onto a sheet of wax paper. Chill in the fridge until hard. Tranfer he rest of your royal icing to a piping bag.

Put chocolate and salt in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan with the tea. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the pan from heat, the tea from the cream, then immediately dump hot cream onto the chocolate. Wait 5 minutes. Stir cream and chocolate until well-combined. If chocolate is not completely melted, heat over double-boiler or in microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir, cover, and chill for 1 hour.

Scoop ganache in 1 tablespoon amounts and form into a balls with the palms of your hands. Cover chocolate ganache with cocoa powder, then use your royal icing to attach the eyes and mouth to each little truffle.


Pumpkin Hand Pies

  • 1 package puff pastry, thawed

  • 1 egg, beaten

  • 1 tablespoon water

    Savor Filling

  • 1 cup pumpkin

  • 1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 pinch cayenne

  • 1 pinch nutmeg

    Sweet Filling

  • 1 cup pumpkin

  • 1/3 cup brown sugar

  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Roll out puff pastry to about 50% bigger than it was out of the package. Use pumpkin cookie cutters to cut out pumpkin shapes. Add faces to half of the pumpkin pastries with your knife or icing tips. To the other half, add 1 Tablespoon of either savor or sweet filling.

Top the filling with the face-pumpkin. Crimp sides with the tines of a fork. Brush with egg wash. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown.


Happy Halloween!

Over the Garden WallHead Nerd GraceHalloween, pie, pumpkin, chocolate, molasses, cookie butterComment