The first Halloween Matt and I spent together, away from our respective families, we did what our parents had always done - we went out and bought candy for the neighborhood kids who would come trick-or-treating.We did not even stop to think that we lived at THE dead end of a dead-end road (the end of the road turned into our driveway) and that this road was a turn off of another dead-end road, and that most of the homes were summer cottages, and those few people who were left were years older than we were and unlikely to go trick or treating.
Needless to say we had leftover candy - LOTS of leftover candy (I think I bought four bags).
It was SweeTARTS - I will never ever ever forget that it was SweeTARTS, because I think we were still eating them in August - 2 years later.
Not a lot you can do with leftover SweeTARTS.
We stayed away from buying candy for a while after that - until we bought our house, which is at the corner of a subdivision, right in the village, right across the street from two houses that go OVER THE TOP decorating - and we realized we would get a lot of traffic.Right then we decided two things:
1. we would buy GOOD candy that kids would actually eat, and not be the house with the strange candy or 'gasp' non-candy toys.
2. we would buy candy that we could use in other ways.
... and of course we would buy candy that WE liked.
Our choice ended up being plain chocolate Hershey Bars - very versatile, very yummy. We even used them in lieu of cigars as birth announcements when the Munchkin was born.
Ah - The Munchkin -the new wild card in this Halloween equation. See, now that we have a family member out collecting candy from others, we have lost what delicate control we had over the contents of our candy dish at home.
Enter the "baking with candy" quest - Mommy's proactive search of the internet to see what ideas I could come up with to help wrangle the candy influx. Surprisingly I did not find many ideas - but those that I did find I decided to copy here. Since links are tenuous - and many dead links were found in this quest, I decided to copy the recipes here but to tell you that these little tidbits came from The San Marcos Record in San Marcos, TX.
These have not been field tested by our team - YET. If you try these and have any feedback, please let us know.
Baby Ruth Crater Bars
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups coarse chopped Baby Ruth
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 15 x 10-inch jellyroll pan.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
Beat brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter and peanut butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread dough evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with Baby Ruth; press in lightly. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.
Three Musketeers Fried Pies
1 (10-count) can biscuits
1 large Three Musketeers bar
Separate biscuits and roll thin. Cut candy bar into 10 pieces. Place 1 piece in center of each biscuit; fold over and seal edges. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
Oatmeal Brownie Crunch Bars
1 (18.5-ounce) fudge cake mix
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
4 ounces finely chopped Hershey’s Special Dark (or semi-sweet chocolate bar)
2-3/4 cups quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats, uncooked
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup coarsely chopped dry-roasted honey peanuts
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
1-3/4 cups M&Ms or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 15 x 10 x 1-inch pan with non-stick foil.
Stir cake mix, water, butter, and eggs until combined. Add chopped chocolate and combine. Set aside.
In large bowl combine oats, flour, sugar, nuts and baking soda; add butter until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Toss in M&Ms until evenly distributed. Reserve 3 cups mixture.
Pat remaining mixture onto bottom of baking pan to form crust. Pour prepared fudge cake mix over crust, carefully spreading into thin layer. Sprinkle reserved oatmeal crumb mixture over top of fudge mixture; pat down lightly.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs. Cool completely. Cut into bars. Store in tightly covered container.
Peanut Butter Milk Duds Cookie Cups
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine (not the type in a tub)
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated white sugar, packed
1/2 light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 (10 ounces) package Milk Duds candies
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp smooth peanut butter
Preheat oven to 375 F. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, peanut butter, egg, white sugar, and brown sugar. In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture, half at a time, to margarine mixture, beating well to combine. Place a heaping teaspoon of cookie dough into the palm of your hand. Press one candy into the center and press dough around it to form a ball. Roll in confectioners' sugar and place in ungreased mini-muffin tin. Bake 12-14 minutes, until lightly browned on top. Let cool in the baking tins at least 15 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely.
Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together until smooth. Pour into a plastic zip-top bag, squeeze out the air, and seal. Cut a small corner from the bottom of the bag and drizzle chocolate over the tops of the cooled cookie cups.
Note: Rollo candies, Reese's Bites or any other candies that will mix well with peanut butter can be substituted for Milk Duds.
Candy Corn Rice Crispy Treats
1/2 cups butter
10 cups Crispy rice cereal
9 cups miniature marshmallows
2 cups of candy corn
3/4 c miniature chocolate chips
Yellow and red food coloring
Melt butter and marshmallows; stir until smooth. In a large bowl, mix rice cereal, candy corn and miniature chips together. To marshmallow mixture, blend in 2 drops yellow food coloring and 1 drop red food coloring, adding more coloring if necessary to reach desired shade.
Add marshmallow mixture to cereal mixture; stir quickly to combine. Spread on a large buttered pan; press with buttered hands. While warm, press on candy pumpkins spaced 1 to 1/2-2 inches apart. Refrigerate and cut into squares.
Smashed Bugs Candy Recipe
2 cups (about) square snack pretzels
1 package (12 ounces) Rollo chocolate-covered caramel candies
8 (about) large marshmallows, each cut into 8 pieces
1 cup (about) pecan halves
Preheat oven to 300 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place pretzels in rows 1 inch apart on lined baking sheets. Top with chocolate caramel candies.
Place marshmallow on top. Bake for 3 minutes only. Immediately place pecan half on top of each and gently press down so all layers stick together.
Snickers Cookie Bars Recipe
1 package (12 ounces) Snickers Popables chocolate candy pieces, chilled
1 roll (1 pound) chocolate chip cookie dough, at room temperature
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil.
Cut cookie dough in half lengthwise. Oil your hands and use your fingers to gently press the dough into the bottom of the pan.
The layer will be thin. Evenly distribute the chocolate candy pieces on top of the dough and gently press down so they don’t roll.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool about 20 minutes, then cut into bars while warm.
Tootsie Roll Ice Cream Sauce
35 Tootsie Roll Midgees
1/4 cup of water
1 extra cup of water
Using the cutting board, cut up each Tootsie Roll Midgee into three or four pieces.
Place the Tootsie Roll pieces and 1/4 cup of water in the smaller of the two pots. Pour the extra 1 cup of water into the bigger pot. Place the smaller pot into the bigger pot (it will float on the water).
Heat on stove, on medium heat, until Tootsie Roll pieces melt.
Stir them together with the water.
Let the mixture cool and then pour on top of ice cream.