Ideas For Leftover Halloween Candy

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

31 Oct 2006 01:48 PM

Ding. Ding. Time for round three of trick-or-treating. We happen to live in a state where trick-or-treat times vary from county to county. Our community borders three counties so we had trick-or-treaters visit Saturday, Sunday, and more will come today. Which means I had to stock up on massive amounts of candy. Inevitably we will have leftovers and once I add that to my own daughter's haul and "extras" from my husband's office we're talking serious candy overload.

If you find yourself in a similar situation (oh woe is us), you may be looking for something productive to do with the leftovers. With a little creativity, you can recycle your Halloween candy and feed it to friends and family, without them knowing it.

Here are some tips:

· Chop up chocolate candies and mix about 2 cups into a half-gallon of softened ice cream. Pour into a prepared pie shell and freeze into an ice-cream pie. You can garnish it with whipped cream and more of the chopped up chocolate candy pieces. Get creative: you can mix-and-match flavors such as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and chocolate ice cream or Mr. Goodbars with mocha ice cream.

· Make ice cream and candy parfaits. Start by layering slices of angel food cake or brownies with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Then, simply add chocolate or caramel sauce and leftover candy pieces (M&M's are my daughter's favorite).

· Chop up leftover candy bars and mix them into boxed cake mixes and/or sprinkle them on top of a frosted cake.

· Break up chocolate bars and use them in place of chocolate chips in your standard chocolate-chip cookie recipe. See recipe below.

· Gather all your leftover hard candies (Life Savers, Jolly Ranchers work best) and add to your favorite sugar cookie recipe. During baking they'll melt and create a stained-glass effect.

Snickers Cookies

Warning: make sure the candy is completely covered in cookie dough. Any gaps and you'll have chocolate leaking all over your baking pan.

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter; softened, firmly packed

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 fun-size Snickers bars, cut in half

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; mix well. Set aside.

Cream together sugars, butter, peanut butter, egg and vanilla; beating well. Stir in flour mixture until just combined.

Shape a ball of dough around each candy bar half, making sure bar is completely covered. Roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 13 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Cool about 10 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 20 cookies.

Related Articles:

Mint Chocolate Crunchers

Snickers Salad

Even More Cool Halloween Treats

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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