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overhead shot of leftover halloween candy cookie stack on white plate with Reese's wrapper in background.
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4.94 from 92 votes

Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies

These soft and chewy Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies turn your Snickers, Reese’s, Kit Kats and more into the best cookie of the season. Made with a hand mixer in one bowl and ready in under an hour, it’s the original fan-favorite recipe, back by popular demand!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time12 minutes
Total Time27 minutes
Course: Dessert, treats
Cuisine: American
Servings: 24
Calories: 209kcal
Author: Courtney Paige

Equipment

  • Large mixing bowl
  • electric hand mixer
  • Measuring cups and spoons
  • 1.5 tbsp cookie scooper
  • knife & cutting board
  • Baking sheet
  • parchment paper

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup cane sugar
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp of salt
  • 1 ½ cups leftover Halloween candy, chopped plus more for topping

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar and cane sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat until well combined, about 4–6 minutes. The mixture will look like damp sand and hold together when pinched
    butter and sugar creamed together in glass mixing bowl with hand mixer.
  • Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again until smooth.
    wet cookie batter beat together in glass mixing bowl.
  • Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Mix on medium speed until the flour is incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to ensure all flour is mixed. Dough will be crumbly until a rubber spatula presses it together.
  • Fold in the chopped candy with a rubber spatula.
    leftover halloween candy cookie dough in a glass mixing bowl.
  • Use a medium cookie scoop (heaping 1.5 tbsp) to portion the dough onto the baking sheet. Recipe makes 24 cookies so 12 on each sheet. Gently press a few extra candy pieces into the top of each one.
    twelve cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet before baking.
  • Bake on the middle rack for 11-13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Be careful not to overbake. Note: middles may look slightly underdone and they will slightly spread in the oven. They will continue to bake as they cool.
  • Cookie-scooting trick. After removing the cookies from the oven, they will have lost their shape. Swirl a small glass bowl (or round cookie cutter/glass) around each cookie to shape it into a perfect circle. Give the swirl a shake while doing so to get bakery style cookies and better form.
    hand on glass bowl over cookie shaping it after baking.
  • Visually, here is what the cookies will look like when you remove from the oven vs. after cookie-scooting.
    two cookie sheets with one batch of cookies not swirled and the other set is.
  • Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring the parchment paper with all the cookies to a wire rack, allowing them to cool until centers firm. Repeat baking instructions for the second batch of cookies. Optional: press extra candy into the tops while they're still warm.
    overhead shot of leftover halloween candy cookie stack on white plate with Reese's wrapper in background.

Notes

Back by popular demand! This is the original recipe (as requested) with all of my expert tips and tricks for super chewy, soft Halloween Candy Cookies.
Soften butter: not melted and MUST be evenly softened to breakdown evenly with a hand mixer. Remove a few hours before using or pop on a sunny, window sill for a bit to soften.
Ways to use extra cookies: ice cream sandwiches, crumbled over ice cream or in a milkshake. 
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.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 cookie | Calories: 209kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 180mg | Potassium: 21mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g