The Soviet potato pie

"Kartoshka" is a sweetness familiar to many from childhood. Previously, in each cafe you could buy this delicacy, but the taste of the cake was everywhere different. This is due to the fact that the ingredients varied. Some confectioners used biscuit, the second - crackers, and still others - ready-made biscuits. Also used a different method of sprinkling: milled wafers, biscuits or cocoa. But with any recipe in each "potato" was cocoa, condensed milk (or usual), sugar and butter.

The history of the appearance of a cake is associated with the manifestation of human wit in extreme conditions. Once in Finland, the poet Runeberg was visited by famous, honorable guests. But in the poor family of the poet nothing was found, what could be treated to the guests. In the house there was only an old biscuit and a little booze. In those days, bought cookies in large bags, not bundles, so at the bottom of the bag there were only a few crumbs and broken cookies. It is impossible to serve such a table by itself, of course. Here Mrs. Runeberg showed culinary wit. And while her husband was entertaining friends, Mrs. Runeberg grinded the cookies with sour cream, jam and added a little liquor. From the mass that turned out, she blinded the cakes, similar to potatoes, and decorated with berries from jam. Then she laid out the ready-made cakes for a dish and presented them to the guests. Everyone who tried this "Kartoshka" cake, asked the hostess for a prescription. Over time, it spread throughout the country. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the already improved cake became popular in the Soviet Union.

How to cook a potato "Kartoshka"

To prepare a potato "Kartoshka", you need to take:

- vanilla biscuits (or biscuit, or soft biscuits) - 500 grams;

- Condensed milk - 400 milliliters;

- cocoa - 50 grams (two full tablespoons);

- Butter - 200 grams;

- black chocolate (with a cocoa content of more than 70%) - 100 grams;

- cognac (or liqueur) - 30 milliliters;

- Citrus candied fruits (for decoration) - 20 grams.

First you should grind the crumb with a blender or meat grinder crackers (biscuit). If you take a cookie, you can do it with your hands. After grinding, there should not be large pieces, and all the crumb should be the same size. Then it is necessary to shift the condensed milk with cocoa powder. Do this carefully so that there are no lumps. Then in the mass, add finely chopped butter and put everything in a water bath or fire until the oil has melted. Then it is necessary to melt chocolate in a bowl on a water / steam bath, broken into pieces. Half of it should be added to the cream of cocoa, condensed milk and butter, and mix thoroughly. Then add the alcohol (liqueur, cognac) to the chocolate mass and mix again. The cream should be well beaten with crumbs. If the mass came out dry, but you can add a little milk.

The resulting chocolate cream must be mixed with crumb. In case you get a dry weight, you can top up the milk. Now from the mass to form small balls in the form of potatoes. You can do this for sausage and divide it into equal parts, and then roll the balls. Then ready-made cakes can be decorated at will, for example, candied fruits with chocolate. To do this, pour cakes into the remaining melted chocolate, and put finely chopped candied fruit on top. You can decorate cakes in a different way, everything depends only on your imagination. That's ready "potato". It's better to have the cake the next day. Only this way you can appreciate its true taste, because by that time it will already be saturated with all the ingredients.