Who doesn’t love a gooey, caramel-y Snickers or peanut butter filled Reese’s Cup on Halloween night?! We all do! But, what’s even better is taking some of your favorite Halloween treats, chopping them up and tossing into these Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies for a decadent dessert.
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About these Cookies
Don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween. It’s so fun to dress up and trick-or-treating will always be a favorite tradition of mine. But in all reality, the sheer amount of candy left in the house on November 1st seems absurd.
Whether you’ve got kids around who’s candy sacks are way fuller than they’ll ever need or you were passing out candy and had less trick-or-treaters than expected, it’s time to put that candy to good use.
These Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies have a base similar to a classic chocolate chip cookie - slightly sweet, buttery, and soft! Once you’ve got your thick, crumbly dough them up with chopped up pieces of your favorite candy bars and enjoy those Halloween goodies in a whole new way.
And if you're a cookie monster, also try these Kit Kat Cookies, these Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies, or these No Bake Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies that I'm sure you'll love, too!
Recipe Ingredients
- All Purpose Flour - The base of our cookies. I’ve not tried any substitutes.
- Cornstarch - An underrated cookie ingredient in my opinion. It helps create that great, crumbly yet tender texture distinct from a cake recipe.
- Sugar - We'll be using both brown sugar and white sugar in this cookie recipe.
- Butter - Plays a critical role in the cookie structure. Be sure its room temperature for the perfect cookie spread.
- Leftover Halloween Candy - Use whatever chocolate/nutty/cookie candy you’ve got. Veer away from anything gummy, fruity, or sour.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How to Make This Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a mixing bowl, place butter and both brown and white sugar. Beat together until butter is thoroughly combined and texture is light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla to the bowl and beat again until blended.
3. Then, add all of the dry ingredients, except the halloween candy. Mix with the hand mixer on medium speed until flour is mixed in; dough will be chunky.
4. Chop the leftover halloween candy that you're using into small pieces. It's okay if the pieces vary in size, but you don't want anything too big that you won't be able to fold it into the dough.
5. Add candy to the bowl with the dough and fold in with a rubber spatula. Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop batter onto a parchment lined baking sheet (or greased baking sheet).
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Be careful to not over bake. After the cookies come out of the oven, transfer onto a wire rack to allow them to cool. Option: add more leftover candy to the tops of the baked cookies - gently pressing it into each cookie while they’re still warm. Enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Store cookies in an airtight container in the fridge or on the counter for up to 5 days. Pro-tip: If you store a piece of bread in the container with the cookies it’ll keep them super soft!
These Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies also freeze well, which is a great option to use up that candy and not have to eat more sweets immediately. You can store pre-made dough balls and bake from frozen for an extra 1-2 minutes, or store baked cookies in an airtight container or freezer bag after cooling. I suggest adding parchment between layers to avoid cookies from sticking to one another.
Although these Halloween Candy Cookies are meant to be “throw in whatever you’ve got”, I do advise against sour or fruit candies like Jolly Ranchers, Starbursts, Skittles, Swedish Fish, gummy bears, etc.
These cookies go best with chocolatey, nutty candies such as Reese’s, Hershey’s, Kit Kats, Mounds, Almond Joys, Snickers, Rolos - just to name a few.
Have you made these cookies and still have more candy? Here are a few other ideas of what you can do with extra trick-or-treating candy:
- Donate it - Treats for Troops and Operation Gratitude are both programs that will donate your candy to soldiers and first responders.
- Make it into an Advent calendar
- Or on the theme of Christmas, save it to decorate your gingerbread house with
- Use chopped up on these Apple Nachos
- Freeze it. Yes, packaged candy in its wrapper can sit in the freezer for months!
- Add on top of ice cream or yogurt, just like at your favorite fro-yo place.
More Recipes You'll Love
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Recipe
Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- electric hand mixer
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Rubber Spatula
- cookie scooper
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Baking sheet
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup cane sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups leftover Halloween candy, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a mixing bowl, place butter and both brown and white sugar. Beat together until butter is thoroughly combined and texture is light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and vanilla to the bowl and beat again until blended.
- Then, add all of the dry ingredients, except the halloween candy. We want to save those for after the dough is combined.
- Mix with the hand mixer on medium speed until flour is mixed in; dough will be chunky.
- Chop any leftover halloween candy you have and place it into the bowl with the dough. Fold in with a rubber spatula.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop batter onto a parchment lined baking sheet (or greased baking sheet).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Be careful to not over bake.
- After the cookies come out of the oven, transfer onto a wire rack to allow them to cool. Optional: add more leftover candy to the tops of the baked cookies - gently pressing it into each cookie while they’re still warm. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
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I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. It’s my passion to create dishes that can be shared with others. Tell me something you loved or just say hi!
Courtney Paige says
These are absolutely INSANE cookies! I loved using reese's and kit kats. so so good!
Sydney Van Acker says
I included snickers in mine and the way the caramel filling oozed into the cookie was life changing. The crunch of the peanuts in them too, YUM
C Mattalino says
My kiddos (and I!) loved these cookies. So easy to prep and bake. My littles ages 4 and 6 loved chopping up their leftover Halloween candy to put in the mix. Will definitely make this one again!