What to do With Leftover Halloween Candy

If, as a parent of wee ones, you survive the pumpkin-carving, costume-wearing, sprinting-through-the-streets ritual of Halloween unscathed, I strongly believe you deserve some sort of award for patience and excellence. What you’re usually left with, however, is more candy than one family can—or should—consume. (Hello, sugar highs!)

Since no good can come of keeping this bounty around, I’ve invented a fun post-Halloween tradition: an afternoon of baking that obliterates at least half of the house’s sugar stash in one go. My kids love the opportunity to unwrap and sample their sweets and muck around with the bakeware. After I set aside a few pieces of the finished product for the family to nibble, I take the rest of the goods to work, teacher meetings, dinner parties, and other gatherings outside our home. Poof! The candy is gone.

These two recipes are family favorites. Since they’re made for mix-ins, it’s easy to substitute different candies for a totally unique treat.

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Photo: Donna Garlough

White Chocolate Candy Bark

Topped with salty pretzels, buttery candy corn, and sweet peanut-butter candies, this Halloween bark is addictively munchable.

What you’ll need:

• About 3 cups white chocolate, roughly chopped (or white chocolate chips)
• 1/2 to 1 cup stick or miniature pretzels, broken into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 to 1 cup candy corn
• 1/2 to 1 cup peanut-butter pieces

How it’s done:  Using a small saucepan and a medium heat-safe glass bowl, create a double boiler: Fill the saucepan with a few inches of water, set the glass bowl on top, and bring the water to a boil. While it heats, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Once the water is boiling and the glass becomes extremely warm, add the white chocolate pieces to the bowl and immediately begin stirring with a wooden spoon; continue until the chocolate completely melts. Remove the double boiler from the heat and, using oven mitts, pour the white chocolate out of the bowl and onto the parchment paper, spreading it to ¼-inch thickness with a spoon. As the chocolate cools, sprinkle pretzels and candy on top.

Let cool for at least three hours, or refrigerate for at least one hour. Once completely set, cut the bark into smaller wedges or break it into chunks by hand. Store in an airtight container.

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Photos: Donna Garlough

Candy-Bar Chunk Cookies

Chocolate-chip cookies topped with pieces of Snickers, Baby Ruth, Twix, and 100 Grand: What more do you need to know? (Insider advice: You may want to stock up on milk.)

What you’ll need:

• A variety of candy bars, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
• A standard recipe and ingredients for chewy chocolate-chip cookies—I followed the classic Joy of Cooking directions—or, if you’re pressed for time, pre-made cookie dough from the store

How it’s done:  Prepare your cookie dough according to the recipe and bake as directed, but pull the cookies out of the oven about five minutes early—when the dough has started to spread but the tops have just begun to firm up. Quickly top each cookie with a sprinkling of pieces from a different chopped candy bar, return the pans to the oven, and finish baking. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.