…I’m not Irish (not even British, but Russian to be precise! 🙂 ), I’d never miss a chance to celebrate a fun holiday such as St. Patty’s Day! Not only it gives me a reason to wear something green (such as a pretty green slip dress) and make an Irish-inspired treat, such my take on the Low-Calorie Irish Potato Candy…
…Embracing a different culture and learning a thing or two about Irish traditions makes me feel so lucky to be living here, in the US – the ethnic & cultural “Melting Pot” of the world! 🙂
THE POTATO TREATS!
The idea to make the Irish Potato Candy actually came to me when I was going to make the “Russian Potato Pastry” – a very popular treat in Russian, which looks and bakes very similar to a cake-pop, only without the stick inserted in it!
(Traditionally it’s made with cake crumbs mixed with sweetened condensed milk and butter).
But it’s the Irish Holiday Weekend and I decided to begin my “Potato Treats” recipe series with this healthy twist of the Irish Potato Candy! 
THE LOW-CALORIE IRISH POTATO CANDY…
As it’s supposed to, it looks like a potato, contains coconut and tastes heavenly creamy! Yet, its low-calorie content and healthiness makes it OK to have more than one bite!
Oh, and back to all the potato treats…
Oh, and I also wanted to mention that in case if you’re feeling like having the real potatoes in a form of a guiltlessly indulgent cake… perhaps you’ll also want to try making my last year’s Healthy Irish Potato Cake! 🙂
So…
How are you going to be enjoying your weekend? Are you throwing an Irish-themed party today? Or maybe you just want to relax and take it easy? 
Well… whichever way you’re going to choose, I just hope that I’ve inspired you to take a few deep breaths and have some FUN!
LOW-CALORIE IRISH POTATO CANDY
The Low-Calorie Irish Potato Candy Recipe that is healthy, all-natural! It's easy to make, guiltlessly yummy and so indulgent!
Ingredients
- 4 oz low-fat farmer's cheese or ricotta cheese
- 2 oz fat-free cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups reduced fat shredded coconut* or regular shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup oats
- 3/4 cup fructose sugar* or 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder + 2 tbsp for dusting
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar optional, for dusting
Instructions
Toast the oats in the oven at 400 F for 7-10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them cool down.
Put the oats in a blender and blend them into flour. Add the cream cheese, coconut, sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder blend until incorporated.
Chill the mixture for 20-30 minutes.
Roll into "potatoes" about the size of a large marble and finish them off by rolling in reserved cocoa powder and optionally dusting them with some powdered sugar.
Recipe Notes
*The Reduced Fat Shredded Coconut is lower-calorie than the regular shredded coconut, but if you don't have it handy, regular coconut is fine, too!
*Fructose sugar is 1/3 sweeter than the regular sugar. If using the regular sugar and if you have a sweet tooth - use 1 whole cup of confectioner's sugar instead!
I think I have everything I need for this, but double-checking can I use steel cut oats or would old fashioned rolled oats be best? TIA!!
Oh, thanks for asking, Debra! You will definitely want to use the old-fashioned rolled oats for this recipe! The steel-cut are too tough to be ground into flour (I think, I never tried grinding them, though) 🙂 And I don’t think that they’ll toast as well either! 🙂