A Family of Geeks

I always end up overbuying Halloween candy because I always hated showing up to a house only to find out that they ran out hours ago. Consequently, I have a metric crap ton of candy left, despite a pretty good turn out.

So what to do with all this leftover sugar-laden goodness? Throwing it out would be wasteful, but eating it all would have horrific effects on your waist.

It really all depends on what kind of candy you have and how handy you are in the kitchen.

If you are not much of a master baker, I would suggest freezing enough so you can have one or two candies a day and then attempting to donate the rest. Whether you put a bowl of candy on your desk at work, leave it in the employee breakroom or try to find a shelter or food bank that could use a little fun stuff for incoming kids is up to you.

If you DO like to bake, start sorting your candy into the following categories: Hard Candy, Chocolate Bars, M&Ms, and ‘other’. We’re going to use these supplies in ‘holiday’ baking, so be prepared to store chocolates in the freezer until you start baking.

Hard Candy: Stained Glass Cookies.

You can follow the recipe or use your favorite roll-out cookie dough. Basically you roll out your dough, cut your cookies and then use a smaller cutout on the inside. Fill the cutout with crushed hard candies and the candy will melt to make a pretty stained glass effect. I prefer to use plain sugar cookie dough, but I don’t hang mine as decorations so I don’t care if they’re sturdy or not.

Chocolate Bars: Surprise Candy Bar Cookies or chop up the candies to use as a topping on ice cream or on cakes/brownies.

M&Ms: Use instead of chocolate chips in your favorite cookie recipe, use on ice cream or use as decorations on a gingerbread house (with hard candy stained glass windows, of course.)

Hershey’s Kisses and other ‘plain’ chocolates: Try chocolate dipped pretzels, Kiss/Thumbprint Cookies, microwave S’mores, or chop up and use instead of chocolate chips in any recipe.

Skittles: Skittles Infused Vodka

‘Other’ candy: Colorful candies make good gingerbread house decorations. Red Hots make delicious baked apples (core the apples, then fill the hole with the candy), caramels can be melted into a sauce or caramel dip.

So what will you do with the leftover goodies?

Further Reading (parenthood.com).

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