peanut butter smeared on candy

Peanut Butter Potato Candy

I’ve never been a huge fan of peanut butter but The Deer Hunter loves it! Oh I can eat it with jelly on a sandwich and I’ll not turn it down if it’s the main ingredient of a dessert, but I don’t hardly ever think about eating it any other way.

The Deer Hunter loves peanut butter on toast. Sometimes he adds honey. He also like a plain peanut butter sandwich—especially if he’s eating some of Papaw Tony’s deer camp soup.

I’ve also seen him eat peanut butter straight from the jar. I could never do that 🙂

A few weeks ago I received an email from a subscriber who wanted to see if I was familiar with a recipe their mother made from peanut butter and syrup when they were growing up in Kentucky.

TJ said she might have also used sugar in the mixture and that it was cooked before serving in a small sauce pot. Other information from the email: it wasn’t maple syrup and it didn’t cook for very long.

I would guess that it might have been made with sorghum syrup, corn syrup, or homemade syrup.

I’ve never eaten anything similar to the recipe. I did find a few recipes for peanut butter sauce online but none of them included syrup.

If you’re familiar with the recipe TJ is looking for please leave a comment and share your knowledge.

Last night’s video: Pre-Spring Garden Chores & Hot Chocolate by the Fire.

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69 Comments

  1. I always had peanut butter and grape jelly sammies at home and for brown bag lunch from home. Then one day is 7th grade, a classmate “forced” me to eat a bite of her PB and honey sandwich and I loved it. But as I’ve gotten older, the honey is just too sweet. A few weeks ago I got a jar of sorghum syrup, and just today tried a PB and sorghum sandwich, and I LOVE it. I like sorghum MUCH better than molasses (from sugar cane); it’s less harsh than molasses, and actually sweeter (and vaguely fruity!) but with much the same flavor. I’m very glad I learned about sorghum syrup from your videos!

  2. My father would wait for the end of the peanut butter jar. When it was almost empty, he would pour in pancake syrup and mix it together to eat with a spoon. They also served the mix as dessert in the cafeteria when I was in school.

  3. Growing up in southeast Missouri we ate peanut butter mixed with Karo syrup on sandwiches. My sisters and I both loved it. Our public schools always gave us peanut butter and honey sandwiches with chili in our school lunches. Any time I make chili, I make myself a peanut butter and honey sandwich to eat with it. Tasty stuff, too!

  4. Oh my goodness! I haven’t heard about this in a long time! Growing up in northeast Alabama, we used to eat this all the time – peanut butter mixed with Golden Eagle Brand syrup. We would then either sop it up with a biscuit (mama’s homemade cat-head biscuits), or I just ate it with a spoon a lot of times. It was sooo tasty! We didn’t heat it up either, just mixed it up to our desired consistency in a saucer. Everybody did their own.

  5. It’s so funny that some folks never heard of “not getting their nap out!” I’ve heard that all my life. If I can make time for it during my day, I “get a nap in.” But if somebody or something wakes me up before I’m ready, I “didn’t get my nap out.” (It’s kind of like not getting all the dirt out of my clothes — there’s still nap left in my head .)

  6. My husband likes peanut butter and eats it in similar ways your husband does. I’m a so-so fan of it. I do like it in a Reese’s peanut butter cup. I’ll eat it on bread with a bnana in a sandwich. Other than that I’d rather eat other things.
    Growing up though peanut butter and syrup on bread was what my mom would give us for a snack. She never cooked it though, just mixed it together and spread it between light bread. Needless to say my 10 year old self didn’t appreciate it for a snack. Lol.

  7. When I was in elementary school about 60 years ago, we had peanut butter and syrup sandwiches in the school cafeteria on the days we had vegetable soup.

  8. The “recipe” you’re talking about is just peanut butter and karo syrup. I learned of eating it from my grandmother and love it. Grayson Co Ky.

  9. When we were in high school, (the late 60’s) the government gave the school commodities, gallon tin cans of peanut butter. The cooks would mix it with white Karo syrup and put it on the lunch table with white sandwich bread. Everyone enjoyed the extra treat!

    1. My husband grew up on govt surplus food, as his dad drank the paycheck away. He talks about the peanut butter being gritty, dry, not sweet, & the oil would separate to the top. They would have to stir it, stir it, stir it to get the oil worked in. It would tear up the bread when spread. So maybe the addition of syrup would sweeten, soften, and keep the oil in suspension? I never had it, so I don’t know. He also grew up on powdered milk & thinks milk it awful. I grew up on the REAL stuff, so I was spoiled, even though my family was probably poorer than his.
      I have a cute old peanut butter tin with a handle & lid. I use it for berry picking. The brand was Shed’s peanut butter & the tin has cute little zoo animals painted on it. Never heard of the brand, but I sure wish food came in such receptacles now!

  10. The cooks at our grade school in southern Illinois just mixed Karo light corn syrup with the peanut butter for sandwiches and to fill celery sticks. It made the peanut butter creamier and sweeter. I loved it.

  11. I grew up eating what we called, peanut butter and molasses. The molasses being, “King” syrup. I remember the tin well — it was red and had a lion’s head on it. My mom always used that kind.
    This is frequently still found in the PA Dutch Country in some of the local restaurants. It’s very popular among Amish folks. I understand it is now often made with marshmallow cream mixed in with it as well. I don’t care for that much at all! I prefer to have it the old-fashioned way! Plain King syrup & peanut butter stirred together and put on fresh dinner rolls! The best! I haven’t had it in many years!
    I didn’t know if the King syrup is still available now, but I found it on Amazon. The logo etc. is still the same but it comes in plastic bottles now.

    The way I enjoy peanut butter now is to cut and core an apple, then fill the 2 halves with peanut butter! So delicious! We also love to eat it with fresh celery hearts!

    I used to LOVE peanut butter with saltine crackers, but I don’t eat the saltines anymore either.

    1. Yes! My grandfather would mix King Syrup with peanut butter. I think he even put a pat of butter in it. Great childhood memories!

  12. My grandparents from SW West Virginia received commodities each month . She combined the canned peanut butter and the canned syrup into a delicious “candy” as a special treat when we visited .

  13. There were ten kids in our family. We had plenty of food that we gathered and canned. However, peanut butter was a scarce commodity.

    My brother James said when he drew his first pay check, he was going to buy the biggest jar of pb he could find and eat all he wanted. He said when grandma was making school lunches, she would put peanut butter on the biscuit and wipe off everything but the stain!

  14. Tipper, I have to side with Katie and Matt. I always get a nap in, never out. Of course somebody can wake me out of a nap, but I’m usually too grumpy for anyone to let that happen. 🙂

    Blessings to all . . .

  15. I grew up eating (and have passed it on to my kids and grandkids) toast spread w/peanut butter and then pour syrup over it, like pancakes. Crunchy peanut butter is the best to use, in my opinion.

  16. Don’t know about the recipe with the syrup . I have ate pb just on a biscuit as a kid. pbon a sandwich with cut up banana on it is good. I can’t eat much pbanymore cause it bad for your liver. My husband’s mamaw use to eat pb right out of the jar every day. she would eat 3 spoon fully and she said that’s what kept her going and proceeded on with a little dance of hers. I never forget that.

  17. I love peanut butter! I grew up on it. I also remember in the lower grades at school having vegetable beef soup and peanut butter and honey sandwiches. At home, mama would often mix some molasses and peanut butter and spread it on loaf bread or she would mix enough up to sop it with biscuits. Peanut butter with apple slices is also delicious. Husband loves peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Some Christmases along with my chocolate fudge, I will make peanut butter fudge. That candy made with the potato is known here as pinwheel candy. I’ve never made it but have tried it and it’s very, very sweet. When I was growing up, we didn’t know what smores were, but mama would take soda crackers and spread peanut butter on them, then add a large marshmallow, put them in the oven long enough to melt it then top it with another cracker. The salt from the crackers and sweet from the marshmallow along with the peanut butter made it so good. That was our version of a smore. Have a great day everyone!!

  18. Grew up eating more peanut butter mixed with Karl syrup and hot home made biscuits than I can count; also peanut butter mixed with honey. There is nothing like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a bowl of home made vegetable beef soup for a quick South Carolina foothills snack. Still like it all these years later. Always had to have peanut butter on Ritz crackers in my lunch box when at work. It’s also a must in home made chocolate fudge.

  19. Years ago when I was working as an aide in school in a special ed classroom the cafeteria served sandwiches made of peanut butter and honey mixed together. We ate lunch with our students and I always got that sandwich when they made it. If I have one now, I eat it with some dill p ickles. I’m sure that there is no longer peanut butter at any schools because of allergy. When I was in elementary school (during the years when lunch was cooked in school cafeterias) one of our favorite deserts was peanut butter on graham crackers–we were often allowed to get seconds.

    We got the government commodities and there was a large can of peanut butter included–something not usually in our house. Mama gave me a can of it to take back to my dorm room in college. I could still be embarrassed by the more entitled students asking questions about that can. Now I would just be blessed to receive such a gift. I feel sad hearing about people ashamed to have food stamps or use the food pantries.

  20. We are all peanut butter lovers here! Any way, any how….we love it. A friend of mine that retired from the school cafeteria gave me a jar of peanut butter spread they made at school to go with soup. I tried it and it was delicious. I asked her what she mixed it with and she said if I guessed a hundred guesses, I still wouldn’t get it. She finally told me to mix equal parts peanut butter and cranberry sauce (yes in the can like at Thanksgiving). A 12 oz jar of peanut butter and one can of cranberry sauce is what we do. It is awesome. Keep in the fridge and set it out a few minutes before you make your sandwich to soften up. It is the bomb-diggity! Oh yes, and it works straight out of the jar with a spoon, too!

  21. My husband and I love peanut butter anyway you serve it. Plain, right out of a jar, mixed with honey or Rogers syrup or jam. My favorite peanut butter sandwich is with raw onions. That was my dad’s favorite sandwich and he passed it down to me. I had a friend turn up her nose at the thought of it until she tried it, she loves it now! Haha. I was raised in British Columbia Canada.
    Thank you Tipper, sending many blessings your way.

  22. I’m surprised no one mentioned a peanut butter and banana sandwich. My wife ate those growing up. They are good, although I don’t eat peanut butter much anymore.

  23. My dad use to gross me out eating Peanut butter on bread with bologna and mayonnaise. It was a habit he developed while in the army during WWII. He never told me how that came about but that’s how he always ate PB. He made me taste it one time and it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I haven’t every ate it since that bite.
    My husband is a big peanut butter eater, but only if it’s Jiff brand. Three things are always in our pantry are Jiff peanut butter, bread and canned baked beans. Now he doesn’t mix the PB or beans together or anything like that, but if we don’t have those items in our pantry then according to him we don’t have food in the house.
    My husband eats PB on bread with either dill pickles, or tomatoes, or applesauce, or apple butter, or jelly or just by it’s self. He eats it on crackers too. I have mixed PB with any type of syrup to make a spread and even just sprinkled plain sugar on top of it to add sweetness if I’m out of jelly when making a sandwich.
    My mother in-law use to make Potato candy which has a PB spread on the inside. I make PB cookies once in a while for him too. I’ve made PB fudge but not very often.
    I’m not a big fan of PB but will eat any brand of PB once in a while. I mix mine with syrup as a spread or melt it with a few chocolate chips in the microwave to make a dip to dip gram crackers in if I want a quick treat but don’t feel like baking.
    Here are the recipesI referred to earlier:
    Potato Candy
    1 medium sized potato
    1-2 lb box of confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
    Peel and cook whole potato. Do not cut up. If boiling in water drain most water, but reserve some in case it is needed. Can microwave to cook potato if you don’t want to boil it. Remove from heat when potato is tender. Start mashing potato then gradually add sugar until it thickens to forms a dough. Add a little bit of water or milk if it gets to crumbly. Take two pieces of wax paper and dust both with powdered sugar. Put dough on one waxed prepared paper and the other on top of it to flatten the dough and roll it out flat. Once rolled out to a thin layer then spread PB. Can use plain or crunchy. Roll up like a jelly roll. Slice 1/4 “ thick pieces. Makes about 3 dozen

    Peanut butter cookies
    1 cup sugar
    1 cup peanut butter
    1 egg
    Mix all three ingredients by hand. Shape into small balls. Place on baking sheet and press with fork. Bake 10-12 minutes in 375 degree oven.
    Makes 30 cookies or 15 if larger balls are formed.
    Some times I sprinkle a little sugar on top to give them extra sweetness.

    1. my grandma used to make these with raisins added on top. Ants on a Log. thats what we called them. She’d also make celery stuffed with cream cheese that had olives chopped up in it. I loved the cream cheese & olives, but hated celery as a kid. They’d be at every gathering & I would get in trouble for licking the cheese out & leaving the celery. It never made me stop going for them, even tho I had to choke down the celery.LOL

  24. My parents never bought peanut butter when I was growing up. My aunt used to get food from some sort of program for families who had a father in the army. She always had a small bucket of peanut butter and a box of crackers. I hated it then and still do today. My ex-husband’s favorite food was a peanut butter milkshake. I was hoping he would get so fat that he would give me and the blender a break but he never did gain a pound.

  25. Peanut butter and honey — one of the MOST delicious treats on earth!
    Makes sandwiches, or just eat it with a spoon! Mmmmm! And
    an increase in energy and endurance!

  26. I love peanut butter! You can mix peanut butter and syrup. You can spread it on toast or bread or sop it up! Also mix butter with syrup and sop it up – yum! That’s how we mainly did it. Love peanut butter sandwiches with chicken noodle soup. Mom would make peanut butter and mayo sandwiches – I’d rather have peanut butter and jelly.

  27. Best treat before bed – a spoonful of peanut butter dipped in the sugar bowl. Actually, I’m going to try brown sugar next time and believe it will become my favorite treat of all. (Perfect for low sugar moments.)

  28. It’s called peanut butter potato candy and it’s all over the stores from a local candy maker. I can take a bite of it, but it’s very sweet and to eat more than piece would probably give you the sick belly. I am a fan of peanut butter, but because of allergies and the inability to digest it, if I have more than a thin smear on a half sandwich, it gets ugly fast! I think it’s all the genetic things they’ve done to screw up the little peanut, but who knows? I do have an awesome (best ever no fail peanut butter cookie) I got from my real mother who found this recipe in a cookbook put out by the company she worked for. When she would come home from work, her hair was covered in peanut dust and she smelled peanutty. It was pretty cool I thought.

  29. Wish I could help with the peanut butter sauce. I like peanut butter on toast or crackers. Growing up, my sister would mix it with homemade syrup and spread it on pancakes. I thought that looked awful. I liked it plain without sweeteners.

  30. Peanut butter and whatever syrup was on hand was a favorite snack of both my dad and brother when i was growing up, sometimes heated up with a small lump of butter but not always…butter was usually added if it was “government peanut butter”…syrup was either whatever mom had gotten cheap (usually log cabin) or was homemade
    thanks for the memories

  31. Growing up my mother and grandmother served a big spoon of peanut butter covered in white Karo syrup as a treat. We loved it, haven’t had it in years. It wasn’t heated just placed on a saucer.

  32. Possibly this was sent before complete. Sorry.

    Was intrigued by his love of pb because a number of years ago (45 or so) I went to visit my cousin in TN. She & her husband had 6 children. (Today their off-spring are almost to the 75th mark). One thing I recall is their love or addiction to pb. She bought it by the pail load freshly ground. At breakfast time, the majority of them would scoop a HUGE Tablespoon & stick it into their cereal bowls. At the rate they consumed it, I am sure she bought 2 or 3 tubs per week, if not more. Plus sandwiches for school, snacks
    BTW, they didn’t have a regular table, their dining table was huge too, like the size of a conference table for their family of 8 plus friends and more.
    However, having syrup with it, not that I observed. I think lots of honey would have been the closest.

  33. Was intrigued by his love of pb because a number of years ago (45 or so) I went to visit my cousin in TN. She & her husband had 6 children. (Today their off-spring are almost to the 75th mark). One thing I recall is their love or addiction to pb. She bought it by the pail load freshly ground. At breakfast time, the majority of them would scoop a HUGE Tablespoon & stick it into their cereal bowls. At the rate they consumed it, I am sure she bought 2 or 3 tubs per week, if not more. Plus sandwiches for school, snacks
    BTW, they didn’t have a regular table, their dining table was huge too, like the size of a conference table for their family of 8 plus friends and more.
    However, having syrup with it, not that I observed. I think lots of honey would have been the closest.

  34. My paw absolutely loves grilled peanut butter sandwiches! It’s made like a grilled cheese sandwich but you substitute peanut butter for the cheese. Yummy! I like it too! You ought to try it. I am sure The Deer Hunter would love them as well.

  35. Although my love of peanuts and peanut butter has calmed down, I still eat both occasionally. I feared I would develop an allergy because of eating too much of one of my favorite snacks. Peanuts are still put in the glove box to ward off hunger if I have a busy day. Mom mixed it with syrup, and we also mixed syrup with butter. Back in those days there was not a lot of variety, so I guess our inventive mom came up with ways to make snacks more creative. Growing up, we never had the snack shelled peanuts, but we had the bags of the messy kind with shells and debris. I remember eating them in the basement, because we could not eat them around our baby sister who had an ulcer. Also, in the shell they were a bit messy. I still on rare occasion get a big dollop of peanut butter on a spoon. Peanut butter pie used to be one of my reunion dishes.

  36. I love peanut butter! Yes, I’ve been known to eat it with a spoon right out of the jar. When I was a kid, we mixed peanut butter, Karo syrup and raisins together in a small bowl and spread the concoction on fresh light bread. Delicious! Oh, peanut butter is also wonderful on top of a bowl of chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

  37. Growing up we mixed peanut butter with Karo syrup and ate it on biscuits or toast. These days I mix it with honey instead. But I’ve also mixed it with Ribbon Cane syrup. My wife and I travel a lot and spent several weeks in the Amish Country of Indiana. Especially around the Shipshewana area. Any Amish restaurant you go in to has as one of its condiments on the table a jar of Amish Peanut Butter. Seriously. The jar is right there with the catsup, mustard, salt and pepper and whatever else. I found a recipe for it, and it is exceptionally good. Not to be confused with healthy. The recipe is very simple.

    Amish Peanut Butter

    1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
    1/4 cup marshmallow crème (fluff)
    1 cup Honey or you could use Karo syrup or even sorghum or cane syrup.

    In a medium bowl add the three ingredients and mix until very well blended. Place in an airtight jar.

  38. I do not remember eating any candy made from peanut butter and syrup or molasses. I’m like the Deer Hunter, I like plain peanut butter sandwiches and a cold glass of milk. I also like to put it on Ritz crackers. My wife would often eat toast and peanut butter for her breakfast. When I was in grammar school, when would have vegetable soup and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. The peanut butter would have something mixed in with it that us kids loved. Whatever it was would give the peanut butter a darker color.

  39. I have never been a huge peanut butter fan, either. Like you, I will eat a pb&j sandwhich if it’s all that’s here, or if I need a fast meal. I, too, like pb in desserts, and I have eaten it by the spoonfuls when my glucose dropped to 30 (I am not diabetic, but for a year post covid in 2020, my glucose would drop drastically low if I just stood up. I learned about eating pb by the spoonfuls to bring my glucose back up from the paramedics. The protein in it keeps your glucose steady instead of making it rise fast and then crash again like a lot of carbs at once would do). I wish I could help TJ in her search for that recipe, but I can’t. My brother, Paul, was such a picky eater when he was little. My Mom says he lived on spoonfuls of peanut butter for two years, that’s all he wanted. He is 6’4” now, very strong and healthy. Peanut butter must not be a bad food for growing boys!

    Donna. : )

  40. Not sure that I’m familiar with what your subscriber was talking about. But I did grow up seeing my dad mix peanut butter and Kayro syrup together in a bowl and eat it. Probably usually on a biscuit.

  41. Used to eat a lot of that as a kid. Later, switched to peanut butter and honey. For years, I carried a fried boloney sandwich and a peanut butter and honey sandwich in my dinner bucket. Where I am at now, my Amish neighbors like peanut butter, syrup, and marshmallow cream as a spread.

  42. Sounds interesting! I’m like the Deer Hunter….I’ll eat PB, straight out of the jar, for a snack. 🙂 Of course, I have a jar, all my own! LOL

  43. Hi I’m from Pittsburgh. I’ve used 1 part peanut butter to 2 parts syrup, or honey. Heat syrup or honey up in microwave add in the peanut butter and stir until smooth. My kids love it!!!!

  44. My husband’s favorite snack is peanut butter mixed with syrup eaten with saltine crackers or cornbread. This was a special treat for his family growing up in a coal mining camp. He still loves it today ♡He’s about to turn 74 years old but still a kid at ♥

  45. If it is for a sandwich spread, yes, it includes a little white sugar. You cook the corn syrup and white sugar just til bubbly and add your peanut butter. You whip it really good and it becomes like a spread.. I remember this, but don’t know the exact amounts as there were no hand written recipes in our family from back then. . When I get back home next week I will see if I can come up with a sure recipe and I’ll email you. I’ll be watching to see if anyone else might share it here with a real recipe.

    Our family loves everything peanut butter! I asked Momma why they had always used it and she said the government come around and told Mamaw to give the kids peanut butter when they was little for protein. I’m sure it was what they call the welfare department nowadays.

    We eat peanut butter and maple syrup mixed up on ice cream. So good!

  46. I’ve mixed karo syrup with peanut butter for a sandwich. Daddy made brown sugar and peanut butter sandwiches.

    1. We always got a stick of baloney or cheese wedge when hungry but sometimes, we got a spoonful of peanut butter dipped in the sugar bowl. I’m close to 77 and still eat this or give it to my grands for a treat when they are hungry before bed. Never tried but will with next snack, use brown sugar, my favorite. I love the crunch of sugar even in cold cereal. Thanks for my new favorite snack!

  47. I like peanut butter on toast with my homemade grapple jelly. I like peanut butter mixed with our homemade sorghum or by a spoonful straight from the jar. I make peanut butter pie and like that too. Yes, I like peanut butter. Have a nice day over there in the mountains.

  48. We eat something similar in my family. Our grandmother called it Mixie Dope. As far as I know we have never had a written recipe but added peanut butter, maple syrup and “lump” of butter until it tasted like we wanted it to. We sometimes use honey or Karo syrup if we are out of maple syrup.

    1. My dad used to make this for us when we were kids–I thought he created it and didn’t know anyone else made it too! He didn’t have a special name for it though, just “peanut butter, butter, and syrup.” Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. 🙂 I still make a little now and then, just enough for a sandwich. This and sugar bread (buttered bread sprinkled heavily with white sugar, my grandpa used to make that one) takes me back to my childhood.

  49. my mom would occasionally mix peanut butter with Karo syrup and serve it with toast for breakfast. I thought it was pretty good back then.

  50. Nope, not heard of it here, but it definitely sounds tasty! About the only time I eat peanut butter is with celery or Granny Smiths, YUM YUM…….but that’s it, never even been a fan of PB&Js! Now my dad, he used to put peanut butter on his bologna sandwiches, that’s probably why I don’t eat much peanut butter…hahaha! PS….Absolutely loved the video last night. You had us laughin for sure, the two gangin up on you, in all fun of course, just loved it!

  51. I love peanut butter straight up! Right from the jar! Lick it off a spoon like a lollipop! Rarely I’ll eat it between graham crackers or saltines. I used to eat a little of my wife’s peanut butter candy. I was her taste tester.

  52. Can’t say I have either.Here in Florida, the Friday after Thanksgiving, some friends have a ‘cane grinding’ and make syrup. I bet that would be good with peanut butter. God Bless you guys, and as always, give our love to Granny.

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