With Thanksgiving break approaching in a few weeks, Halloween is now a thing of the past. Most students only have the memory of their creative costume and how and with whom they spent the holiday. One other thing that may be left over would be vast amounts of Halloween candy.

While most people consume these delicious treats the night they receive or purchase them, there can still be a few remaining pieces after the holiday has come and gone. Instead of simply giving away or gobbling down the remainder, one might consider utilizing this leftover candy in creative ways.

Avery Ozier, senior elementary education major, placed all her leftover candy in a bowl by the front door of her apartment. This way she and her roommates could grab some on their way in and out of the apartment.

“Surprisingly there is still some candy left in the bowl,” Ozier said. “But I’m getting to the most stressful part of my semester, so I’m sure it won’t last much longer.”

Some students thought outside the box when it came to making use of their leftover candy. Indigo Wilson-Schmidt, sophomore English major, used the candy as a replacement for money in some of the card games she played with her roommates.

“We played Texas Hold ‘Em and Blackjack,” Wilson-Schmidt said. “I think it improved the games because it was a way to have fun while also eating delicious candy.”

While using the candy for fun and games is a possibility, several websites exhibit a diverse number of outlets for these unconsumed goodies that prevent them from becoming stale.

Some of the most popular recipes include treat or treat dessert pizza, sweet and salty snack mix, candy corn parfait, Twix cookie dough cheesecake bars, mini peanut butter s’mores pies, candy bar brownies and Halloween candy bark. All of these recipes make use of different kinds of candy left lying around after the holiday.

“I would choose to make the sweet and salty snack mix because it has a little bit of everything,” Ozier said. “Plus I love a sweet and salty combination.”
The most convenient recipe that trimphs over the others in popularity would be candy bark. When baking candy bark there is an abundant amount of flexibility in choosing what kind of candy to use.

According to Michelle Buffardi from the Cooking Channel, all you do to make Halloween candy bark is chop up your choice of candy, spread some melted chocolate on aluminum foil and then top off the warm, liquid chocolate with the assortment of chrushed candy.

“I think using candy in recipes like this is a good idea,” Wilson-Schmidt said. “It’s a cool and creative use if you have candy that isn’t your favorite.”
Leftover Halloween candy can be a simple addition to the traditional, go-to recipes like cookies and brownies. These two desserts are delicious on their own, but wouldn’t suffer any if they consisted of some M&M’s or crushed up Snickers and Butterfinger pieces.

So next year if Halloween passes and you end up with uneaten candy, check out some of these creative recipe options, because there’s no better way to increase the decandence of a dessert than to add in some extra sugary goodness.