Maybe you bought tons of them Halloween candy for all that candy that will definitely make its way up the five flights of stairs to your apartment door (five bags seems reasonable, right?). Maybe you’re still amazed that almost all the candy is still there on November 1, even when you and a friend have eaten two bags alone. Or maybe you have kids who have collected more candy than they can eat without collapsing from sugar. Either way, you’ll have a lot of really fun sized candy corn bars and candy corn and you won’t have to do much with them.
So what can one thing to do with bags and bags of leftover Halloween candy? Eat it plain is obviously a great option, but even if you have the biggest sweet tooth, things can start to get boring when you’re on your 100th bite-sized Kit Kat. Before you start giving your candies to hungry co-workers, consider giving them a new lease of life.
Here are some of our favorite ways to use up leftover candy.
Add them to your ice cream
Have a pint of vanilla ice– or chocolate, or caramel, or whatever flavor you like – and let it soften for 20 to 30 minutes, until soft enough to stir. Chop your chocolate bars, peanut butter candies or Twix bars and fold them; Store your spooky surprise in a lidded plastic container or loaf pan and refreeze. (If you’re feeling lazy, you can always sprinkle your leftover Halloween candy on your ice cream. Add a swirl of whipped cream and call it a sundae).
Instead, mix them with your ice cream
Blizzard, concrete, Friend-Z: whatever you call it, ice cream mixed with candy pieces is awesome. To make one at home, simply put your candy bars and some softened ice cream in a blender and blend until the candy is incorporated. Try it with Reese’s Pieces, Butterfingers, M&M’s, Heath Bars or Snickers for a frozen treat inspired by Dairy Queen deliciousness. If you want a thinner Milkshakealso add a little milk.
Add them to your trail mix
Because the best trail mix has chocolate candy in it. Or peanut M&M’s. Or both. Mix in nuts like cashews or peanuts, dried fruits like raisins or cranberries, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and any leftover candy from a treat. We guarantee you’ll want handful after handful of this sweet, protein-rich snack.
Bake them into cookies
The next time you do cakes with chocolate chips, take your leftover chocolate candies instead of chips. Your cookies will be much more exciting. (Things like Heath bars, chopped Snickers, and crushed peanut butter candies also work well here).
Put them in your lunch box
Remember when you were younger and the weeks after Halloween were the best because you had to eat some candy every day for lunch? Channel your inner child and throw a few small treats in your lunchbox as lunch dessert if you work in the office. Or even if you’re still WFH, grab a candy bar for an afternoon pick-me-up.
Add it to your granola
Make your favorite granola recipe, then add Hershey Kisses, chopped peanut butter cups (or minis), or any other mini melty chocolate candy while it’s still warm. It will melt and then firm up once your granola has cooled. So ! Now you can eat candy for breakfast and call it cereal. We don’t judge.
Freeze them for later
Candy can freeze surprisingly well, so you might want to save some of your Halloween remains so they don’t spoil. And if you’ve never tried a cup of Twix, Snickers, or frozen peanut butter, you’re in for a treat.
M&M Cookies
This may seem obvious, but one of the best ways to use up leftover Halloween M&Ms is to make them in the oven. cookies! Equal parts granulated sugar and light brown sugar help create the perfect texture, sweet with a slightly caramelized edge.
Cookies from Dad’s Kitchen Sink
The reason we love kitchen sink cookies—and why they’re so great for using up leftover Halloween candy—is that you can throw a little of this and a little of that in there. Gaby Dalkin uses M&M’s, chocolate chips, dried cookies. apricots and dried cranberries, but there’s no reason you can’t add some white chocolate bars, chopped Halloween-shaped pretzels, or any other candy you can’t wait to get rid of once and for all. all.
Dark chocolate bark with almonds and coconut
If you have any leftover Hershey’s chocolate bars (especially dark chocolate ones), melt them in the microwave and use them as the base for this chocolate bark. The quality may not compare to really good baking chocolate, but it’s such an easy and effective way to use up an overload of Halloween leftovers.
Bourbon Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats
Rice Krispies treats are a blank canvas for candy, and the nuttiness of browned butter offsets the sweetness of some add-ins, like leftover candy corn or Snickers bars. Stir the chopped Halloween candy into the cereal mixture or sprinkle it on top, depending on how much you want to get rid of.
This article was originally published in October 2014 and was updated by our editors in October 2023.
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