I hope you were strong. I hope you didn’t let the diabolical marketers who put the Halloween candy out in July or August entice you into buying it, seeing it around the house, and then eating it so you were forced to buy it again. Personally, I think there should be a law that stores cannot put Halloween candy displays out before September 15th (or later). Write your representative.
But the day is here, and in theory, adorable tots should be showing up at your door to remove all the calorie-laden goodness and take it home to ruin their dinners for many nights to come. But if you’re like me, and you live on a major street in a safe, kid-friendly neighborhood, you’ve laid in enough candy to decorate every witch’s house from here to Düsseldorf, and that means you’re going to have leftovers. So unless you want to fit into that Santa suit without padding by Christmas, it’s time to get creative.
Give It Away, Give It Away, Faster, Faster
The simplest solution is to avoid leftovers in the first place by becoming increasingly generous as the evening wears on. If you’re giving out one or two pieces of candy early in the evening, and you can see that you’re going to have more candy than you need, start passing out double portions. The older kids tend to be the ones out well after dark, so it actually makes sense to hand out more candy per trick-or-treater at 8:00 than you did at 6:45. If you play your cards right, you can empty your candy bucket and turn your lights out when the traffic dies (around here, that’s between 9:00 and 9:20).
If November 1st still dawns with pounds of sugary bliss left in your living room, start looking for places to give it away. A lot of schools and churches have leftover candy drives. Take it your next meeting. Take it to the police or fire station. Do not take it to work, as it will sit in a bowl on your desk and you’ll still eat most of it. Look for places to take it so that other people will eat it.
Yesterday’s Candy, Tomorrow’s Baked Goods
If you really want to get creative, and you can do some advance planning, start looking at the candy in a new way. If you do Christmas baking like I do, you will soon be buying the ingredients for that baking, and if you think about it, you’re going to be buying a lot of the same stuff you just gave away. Next year, before you buy your Halloween candy, take a look at the recipes for your Christmas baking. M&Ms can go into cookies and Rice Krispies treats. Hershey Kiss cookies? Hershey’s Special Dark bars and nuggets can be chopped into chocolate chips or melted down for icings, fillings, and more. Jolly Rancher candies and Life Savers make gorgeous “stained glass” cookies. Do a search for “leftover candy recipes” and you’ll probably find some way to use up whatever you’re stuck with, and you might find a new recipe you really like.
If you don’t bake, you might have a neighbor who does, and you can work a trade of ingredients for finished baked goods. If you like toppings on your ice cream, you can crush most chocolate candy bars into sundae toppings. Crush them up and place them in well-marked bags in your freezer; that way, they’ll be out of sight (and hopefully out of mind) and you’ll use them by the spoonful instead of by the bar. If you are really virtuous, you’ll simply buy candy you don’t like yourself, so you’ll never be tempted by the leftovers. Write and tell me what that kind of virtue feels like, because I sure don’t have it.
The bottom line is, get them gone. Get them out of the house entirely, or earmark them for another purpose and get them into the freezer. Otherwise, you’ll hear them calling you in their little chocolate voices every time you pass by the bowl. And you don’t want to pack on extra pounds now, because turkey, stuffing and pie are waiting right around the corner. Boo!
On using up leftover candy for baking… you can add crushed or chopped candy to a basic cheesecake filling with amazing results. Think Heath Bar Crunch, Peanut Butter Cups, and crushed Oreo Cookies are a great chocolate cookie base for cheesecake too, slap those on the base and use the PB cups on top, that’s a definite winner.
Hey Deb, that sure works, especially if you’re already planning something like “turtle” cheesecake. I’m kind of a cheescake purist, since the creamy texture is a big part of the enjoyment for me. I’m not above adding some fresh berries or chocolate ganache to my cheesecake, but I don’t like crunchy bits. I don’t mind them in my ice cream, though. (My husband can’t stand “stuff” in his ice cream, which makes him an epic fail at places like Cold Stone Creamery where the whole idea is to put stuff in your ice cream.) Heath bar bits are also awesome in oatmeal cookies.
The Oreo cookie base is a really great option, especially if you reduce or omit whatever butter you would normally use in a graham cracker or digestive biscuit crust. Since the fat in Oreos is mostly unsaturated, it’s a good trade for the butter. Thanks!