Ah, that post-Halloween depression—the decorations have been taken down, the costumes have been stored away for next year, and all that remains is a lifetime supply of fun-sized candy bars. Odds are, you’ve already eaten a regrettable amount of candy throughout the Halloween season and just need a way to ditch the remains, and fast. Here are the eight best ways to use that leftover Halloween candy.
1. Upgrade your cookies by baking with candy.
While you may not be able to eat any more candy straight out of the wrapper, that doesn’t mean you can’t bake it into your favorite cookies. For most types of candy, you can simply take a typical chocolate chip cookie recipe and replace the chocolate chips with diced candy bar. The flavor options are endless, but a few fan favorites include candy corn cookies or Hershey’s kiss peanut butter cookies.
2. Freeze the candy to add to your favorite milkshake.
This option allows the candy to stay fresh for months while also sweetening up your milkshake of choice. My personal favorite is to blend frozen Reese’s peanut butter cups into a vanilla milkshake, but any type of candy would work.
3. Make your own trail mix.
Trail mix is easy to make at home, and adding Halloween candy makes for a batch much better than you can buy in stores. While most homemade trail mix recipes call for M&M’s, you can easily add Reese’s or candy corn.
4. Bring it to class.
Everyone loves free food, so this is a sure fire way to get rid of your leftover Halloween candy fast. Not only will your candy be gone in seconds, but you’ll also become a class favorite for sure.
5. Donate it.
Many organizations such as Soldier’s Angels accept candy donations after the Halloween season ends. This is a great use for leftover Halloween candy, as you’re giving to a good cause.
6. Save it for Thanksgiving pies.
Maybe you don’t need to get rid of your leftover Halloween candy altogether, but just take a one month break. Saving your candy to make a candy pie or otherwise incorporating it into Thanksgiving desserts is a great use for your leftovers, while not putting you into candy overload.
7. Keep it for DIY sundaes.
Nothing tops off a scoop of ice cream better than some candy. With all your leftover candy, you have unlimited variations of ice cream sundaes at your finger tips. Sprinkle vanilla ice cream with a chopped up candy bar, add a cherry, and you have a gourmet sundae within seconds.
8. Or just eat it.
Let’s be honest, you’ve already eaten a massive amount of candy at this point, so why quit? This is just about the only time of year that it’s socially acceptable to eat candy bar after candy bar, so might as well take advantage of it while you can.
So while the Halloween season might be over, you still have many delicious souvenirs to celebrate with. All of these options are great ways to make the best of your leftover candy, or you can take after me and go into an irreversible candy coma.