If you are anything like us here at ‘hood, you are swimming in Halloween candy right now! I am always so surprised by how much candy my kiddos pick up between truck-or-treats, events, and trick-or-treating. After a while, my kiddos stop eating so much candy, and they contribute it to what we call the “family candy stash.” Once that happens, I make candy cookie bars! 

This recipe is great for using up whatever leftover chocolate candy you have! It can be candy with toffee, peanut butter, or caramel as well. Of course, your candy cookie bar will taste a lot like the candy you put in it. So make sure to pick candy you like! Peanut butter candy, like Reese’s, is going to really impart its flavor, so if that’s not something you like, don’t add it! I love adding a mix of things like Twix, Kit-Kat, M&Ms, Crunch Bars, and anything with toffee flavoring. 

Ingredients:

  • ½ Cup Butter, melted and cooled
  • ½ Cup Neutral Oil (Like Vegetable)
  • ½ Cup White Sugar
  • ½ Cup Brown Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 tsp Vanilla
  • 1 tsp Salt 
  • 2 Cups Flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 Cups chopped candy
  • A pinch of Flakey Sea Salt (Optional) 

How to Make:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 
  2. Spray (or use parchment paper) a 9X13 pan
  3. Chop candy bars into bite-sized to fingertip-sized pieces. Feel free to leave anything like an M&M whole. 
  4. Mix the butter, oil, eggs, and both sugars together in a large bowl.
  5. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder
  6. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Make sure to stir until just combined. Overmixing will cause the bars to be too hard.
  7. Stir in all but ½ cup of the chopped candy. 
  8. Spread your batter evenly into your prepared pan.
  9. Sprinkle on top the remaining candy. 
  10. Bake for 25-30 Minutes
  11. Your bars are ready when the corners are slightly browned and have pulled away from the pan. When you insert a fort into the middle of the bars, no wet batter comes out, just crumbs. 
  12. Optional: Right out of the oven, sprinkle some flakey sea salt over your bars.
  13. Cut and serve once cool.

 

Enjoy!

By turning your leftover Halloween candy into these cookie bars, they take on a whole new life! These buttery, ever so slightly salty bars gives you a reason to not throw away that extra candy!