Candy Overload

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Do you have loads of candy around the house? It’s not even Halloween and the candy is already piling up around here. With an unknown amount of trick-or-treaters coming and various other Halloween activities from which our kids bring home goodies, we have a whole pantry shelf full of candy.

Of course, the rule of thumb is the earlier you buy the candy stash, the earlier you start dipping into it. We’ve been through one bag already. Perhaps like us, you don’t know how many trick-or-treaters to plan for. It seems as if, in my neighborhood, every year is so different. Last year we were running out before the end of the night. But the year before we had tons of leftovers.

So what to do when you have tons of candy on hand and don’t know how to make it magically disappear (short of taking it into the office)? After one big binge on Halloween night, the one night of the year when sugar zombie children are okay, you can hide it all in the freezer and carefully dole it out piece by piece over the rest of the year. Or you can have one more final splurge and make a delectable candy filled dessert.

When it comes to incorporating leftover Halloween candies into desserts, there are so many options. Easiest are cookie bars like blondies or rice krispie treats, where you can just mix in chopped up candy bars, peanut butter cups, candy corn, or M&M’s. Another sweet Halloween treat are iced cupcakes, topped with chopped or crumbled chocolate candies. Try a post Halloween ice cream sundae bar with all the candy fixings.

You can turn your Halloween leftovers into treats that have some redeeming nutritional value. Recycle a few of them into frozen banana pops dipped in melted chocolate or honey and rolled in small candies. Usually, we make these by freezing banana halves on popsicle sticks, then dipping in honey and rolling in rice cereal, followed by a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips and coconut. So for a Halloween version we’ll just substitute a few chopped up chocolate candies or Skittles for the chocolate chips.

Another snack that has become one of our regulars is the energy ball. Have you seen recipes for these everywhere lately? It seems like they have gone viral on the Interent via sites like Pinterest and Facebook. That’s because kids go crazy for them!

They are simply a combination of nut or sun butter, honey, oats, dried fruits, and seeds with a few chocolate chips thrown in and rolled into bite-sized orbs. You can sneak in all kinds of nutrient rich additions: flax seeds, chia seeds, chopped dates, and wheat germ. And you can change up the recipe with different additions each time you make them.

My kids love helping roll and shape these energy balls and then we store them in the freezer for a quick afternoon pick me up. So the next time we make them, we’ll substitute chopped peanut butter cups for the chocolate chips. These special semi-healthy treats can fuel a Halloween evening of trick or treating. Plus both the banana pops and the energy balls can be made gluten and nut free (use sun butter). So they are good snacks to have on hand for a group with dietary sensitivities. They may just disappear before the rest of the candy.

After we make a couple of these sweet treats, both junky and more healthful, all our candy cravings will be put to rest. Then we’ll donate the rest. The options are many: military support groups, shelters, nursing homes, and places of worship. And if I still find a few stray pieces around later, they’ll go towards decorating a holiday gingerbread house!

Serves/Makes: 10

• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup pumpkin or sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup flaxseeds
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped peanut butter cups or raisins
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• shredded coconut, for rolling (optional)