Candy Bar Cookies

I love this idea. This, to me, is just such a brilliant and creative use of leftover Halloween chocolate. Take all the candy bars your kids won't eat (because my kids are weirdos and do not eat chocolate bars), dump them in some cookie dough, bake them up, and send the cookies off to work with your husband! You don't have the candy staring at you every day on the kitchen counter, because it's gone! It's been baked into delicious treats that everyone can enjoy!

As I promised I would, I posted a picture of my boys dressed as Scooby-Doo and Shaggy this year. The greatest thing about their costumes is that they both truly loved their getup. In fact, my eldest even said he wants to be Shaggy again next year! We'll see if the costume still fits, or if he's really still into Scooby a year from now. Suffice it to say, though, they both had a really fun weekend. Lots of sugar!

These cookies, though they are a genius way to utilize your unwanted candy, do have their limitations. Turns out, not every type of candy will work well in them. For example, I threw in two boxes' worth of Milk Duds. Guess what? Not the best idea. The melted caramel on the inside leaked and oozed out of the cookies onto the baking sheets, and then once they came out of the oven, the caramel hardened into little growths on the outside of my cookies. It was not attractive. It was, however, still delicious! Also not the best idea? Putting in the Milky Way. Again, melted caramel all over the place. But now I know. The things that worked very well were Butterfingers, M&Ms, Kit Kats, and my personal fave, the leftover salted pretzels that we were distributing this year. Mmm, salted pretzels in cookie dough! Just another genius idea, and one I will have to try sans leftover candy next time.

So, if you have anybody at your house that can't be bothered with all the remaining Halloween chocolate, give these a whirl. I am so impressed with how much emptier our candy bowl is after I whipped these up and shipped them out!

Candy Bar Cookies
adapted from Food.com
makes about 24-30 cookies

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
6-8 oz. Halloween candy, any non-caramel variety, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Mix in vanilla; scrape down the sides.

2. In three separate additions, add the dry ingredients with the mixer on low speed. Scrape down the bowl between each addition. Mix until just combined. With a flexible spatula, fold in the chopped Halloween candy. At this point, the dough can be chilled for an hour or so.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons (or more, if desired) about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until edges of cookies are just beginning to brown. Allow cookies to sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

The Year of the Pirate

So this year, we decided to dress the boys up as pirates for Halloween. We didn't jump on the pirate bandwagon last year, when it was really popular, but better late than never, right? It was hard to get a picture of them together, or with their hats, for that matter. But we did manage to sneak a few good ones of them separately!

Xander had a wonderful time trick-or-treating this year. In years past, he has requested to come home early, and last year he had way more fun handing out the candy than actually receiving it. This time, though, the fun of the whole knocking on peoples' doors and getting some candy thing really took over. He was high on life for hours that night! Evan had fun, too, even though he had no idea what was going on. He did enjoy watching the spectacle around him.

I felt bad having Evan receive candy from people, considering he won't be eating any of it. So we just walked along with Xander for the most part, and let him get all the loot. I think we got plenty of candy, even without Evan getting some! And Xander barely eats any of it, so we are better off.

Well, this post felt naked without a food picture and recipe, so here it is. Spiderweb Pumpkin Cheesecake. Now, I don't actually like pumpkin-flavored things, so I did not eat any of it, but I hear it's really good! You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!