The Best Thing to do With Leftover Halloween Candy

It’s that time of year again. The season when your houses and your bellies become overloaded with fun-size candy bars. Regardless of whether trick-or-treating is happening or not, people are getting creative and you are about to have a sizable confectionery collection. Don’t believe me? Check out our spread from last year.

Over the years, we’ve shared tips for a Healthy Halloween and things to do with the extra candy including the Switch Witch. One of my kids’ favorite traditions is candy math. All great ideas, but this is the one you’re most definitely going to want to pin and save for later!

These Halloween candy stuffed cookies are the BEST thing to do with your leftover Halloween candy!

If you need more convincing, here are a few reasons:

1. They’re delicious. Seriously. SO good.
2. They freeze well.
3. They’re easy to make. I hate making cookies and these were fun and simple!
4. They’re the craving cure. You can pull one (or two) out of the freezer bag, throw it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and have that craving satisfied in 10 minutes. Trust me; if they can satisfy my overindulgent sweet tooth, they can satisfy anyone’s! Making one or two at a time keeps one from eating an entire batch (not that I’ve ever done that…).
5. They are different every time! Sometimes you get a hint of caramel or perhaps peanut butter, toffee, cookies & cream, dark/white/milk chocolate, etc. They’re like a box of…fun-size candy bars…and ‘you never know what you’re gonna get!’
6. They use up Halloween candy so we are consuming less at one time.
7. It makes a ton. Ours lasted an entire year!
8. When baked, they don’t look like Halloween cookies, so you can serve them for any function.
9. Unlike store bought cookie dough laden with unpronounceable ingredients, you at least know what you’re putting in them.

You can use your favorite cookie dough recipe to make these; just add the candy. Last year, I adapted the recipe from here. I’m not going to lie and pretend there is anything healthy about them; they are cookies stuffed with Halloween candy, after all. But I DID make a few substitutions to make them a tad bit more nutritious. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of coconut oil
• ½ cup of unsweetened apple sauce
• ½ cup of granulated sugar (you could try to do all applesauce)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 cups white whole-wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2-3 cups chopped leftover Halloween candy (anything goes!)

Instructions:

1. Cream coconut oil, apple sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Add eggs and vanilla.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt. Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer.
3. Add in the Halloween candy and mix until well dispersed.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1-2 tablespoon sized balls, depending how big you want them. We like to make them smaller so we can have more cookies. You can add a few additional pieces of candy to each ball.
5. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for at least a half hour. Once solidified, transfer to a freezer bag and store in the freezer until you are ready to bake them. (The original recipe says up to three months, but we have had ours a year and haven’t had a problem. Use your own discretion here!)
6. When you want a cookie, remove as many cookie balls as you want, bake at 350F degrees for 11-13 minutes (until cookies start to brown around the edges). They are extra gooey with all of that candy inside, so you may want to wait a few minutes before eating or let them cool completely. Sometimes you just can’t wait!

What are some of your favorite things to do with leftover Halloween candy? Please share by leaving a comment below!