Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
For the potatoes:
- 6 pounds of potatoes, peeled and quartered
- About 1 cup whole milk or heavy cream
- 1/4 cup butter
- Salt and Pepper
To adorn the snowman:
- 1 long carrot
- 1 baby carrot
- 3 raisins
- 2 small radishes
Preparation:
This recipe makes 15 to 20 servings.
Place the quartered potatoes into a large pot. Don't overcrowd the potatoes. You may need to use two pots if you don't have one that's big enough.
Cover the potatoes with salted water, bring the water to a boil on the stove and cook at a gentle boil until the potato pieces are fork tender, about 15 minutes.
Transfer the potatoes to a large bowl and mash with a hand masher until smooth, adding the milk or cream, butter, salt and pepper as you go. Be careful not to add too much milk or cream. You don't want the potatoes to be runny.
Set a large serving tray (preferably not a white one) next to your bowl of mashed potatoes.
Scoop the potatoes onto the tray, starting with the large, bottom "snowball." Scoop a slightly smaller amount of potatoes onto the tray above the first snowball to create the snowman's midsection. Then, add the smallest helping of potatoes on top for the head. Smooth out the potatoes with the back of a spoon.
Scrape off the tips of the radishes with a potato peeler and place them scraped-side-up on the snowman's face for eyes.
Insert the baby carrot for the nose and the raisins as buttons.
Working in long motions, peel off two thin layers of the large carrot with your potato peeler and drape the carrot strips across the snowman's neck like a scarf. You could also snip the ends of the carrot peels with kitchen shears to make the scarf look like it has fringe.
Serve warm.
Other food items you could use to decorate the snowman: pretzel rods for arms, fruit leather for a scarf and hat, olives for eyes, a slice of red bell pepper for a mouth.