19 Ways To Use Up Leftover Halloween Candy For New Treats

The leaves are falling, the temperature is getting cooler, and stores are brimming with spice-scented candles. It's no doubt fall is the best time of year — especially for folks who are obsessed with Halloween. While the holiday is primarily thought of as an opportunity for children to get dressed up in adorable costumes, it also offers a chance for people to eat two pumpkin-shaped peanut butter cups for breakfast and not feel bad about it. 

While having that much candy in your house, either because you have kids at home or no trick-or-treaters stopped at your door, can be a sweet blessing, it can also be a bit overwhelming to make your way through the pile over the next few weeks (and even months). We've compiled some of the best ways to use up your Halloween candy, that isn't just eating a piece every day until the end of time.

Why settle for a basic chocolate chip cookie? One of the most popular ways to use up your leftover Halloween candy is to chop up the pieces and mix them into your favorite cookie batter. This Jeff Mauro-approved recipe hack will taste great when mixed with a sugary batter and baked into light and airy perfection. Virtually any chocolate-based confection fits the bill, be it Reese's Cups, M&M's, or Three Musketeers. 

You'll also want to be sure you chop up the candy into small enough pieces to ensure that each bite contains a perfect ratio of cookie to add-in. We recommend capping it at around 1½ cups of add-ins for each batch to ensure the cookie properly bakes. 

Rice Krispie Treats are enjoyable at any age. You'll just need your favorite rice cereal (chocolatey, fruity, or the original are all viable options), mini marshmallows (since they tend to melt better than regular ones), and butter or a dairy-free alternative. Once the cereal has been mixed into the melted butter and marshmallow mixture, you can add your own personal twist to these bars. Add some of the candy to the mixture, place carefully into a lined pan, and press in the remainder of the candy pieces on top. 

You can also incorporate candy into the bars after they set. Dip the side of the treat in melted chocolate and roll in crushed candies for a dessert to satisfy any sweet tooth. 

You know what they say: Trail mix is just candy with obstacles. This is one of the easiest and most versatile ways to use up your leftover candy along with whatever kind of nuts and dried fruit you have lying around in your kitchen cabinet. Use your favorite Halloween candy in whole pieces or cut up depending on the size, and add it to an airtight container with the other ingredients. 

We love pairing salty roasted peanuts and almonds with sweet candy pieces and bringing in a few pretzels to help break up the texture a little bit. Whether you're snacking on your homemade trail mix on a mountain hike or in between classes, you'll be satisfied knowing you found a creative way to utilize your Halloween bounty. 

Sprinkling candy on popcorn has been an up-and-coming trend in recent years. Adding a handful of bite-sized treats like M&Ms or Skittles is an easy way to add a burst of sweetness to your dessert and balance out the saltiness of the popcorn. Our favorite addition happens to be Sour Patch Kids which brings some tang into the equation. If you want to go the extra mile, melt down your candy with butter pour it over popcorn for a colorful movie night treat.

You may also consider making popcorn balls with your leftover candy. Go ahead and orange or black food coloring to your recipe since it is Halloween, after all. Pair your sweet snack with a scary movie to truly be on theme.

All of the guests at your Halloween party will love a spooky, candy-forward dessert dip like our cheesecake fruit dip recipe. Mix together whipped cream cheese, marshmallow fluff, and vanilla yogurt in a bowl. From there, you can customize your dip by adding caramel sauce, melted peanut butter, cookie butter, or chocolate sauce. Then, gently fold in your candy of choice. We're big fans of peanut butter cups, but a Snickers dessert dip topped with crushed peanuts and a drizzle of caramel sauce will also surely satisfy. 

Serve your dip with graham crackers, fruits (like strawberries, apples, and bananas), vanilla wafer cookies, or pretzels. This dessert is kid-friendly and easy to assemble in less than 10 minutes — with no cooking involved. 

Banana pops are a seriously underrated snack. This frozen banana treat is all too familiar for fans of the hit show "Arrested Development" and for folks who love the sweetness of a frozen banana dipped in chocolate and rolled in crunchy toppings. 

To make this treat at home, start by freezing banana halves with a popsicle stick for at least two hours. Once the fruit has adequately hardened, you can move on to your toppings. Roll the banana in finely crushed candy pieces (M&Ms and peanut butter candies are our go-to) before placing it back into the freezer for a few hours to harden.

Jolly Ranchers often get the short end of the stick because they're too hard to add to other recipes. But they are the perfect vector for flavoring vodka for a fruity, Halloween-inspired cocktail. Start by separating your Jolly Rancher candies by flavor since you'll be making a container of vodka with each. You can add your candy directly to a glass container. Unlike other candy infusions, you won't have to skim off part of the candy for this recipe; all the corn syrupy goodness is dissolved straight into the booze. 

After your bottles have been filled, add in your vodka. You'll need to allocate about 10 to 12 hours for your candies to infuse into the alcohol, so this is definitely a project you'll want to undertake well in advance of your party. Chill your vodka and mix up some creative cocktails. 

It's impossible not to love classic fudge. This soft, sweet dessert can be made simple with evaporated milk, sugar, marshmallow creme, chocolate chips, and butter. But from there, you have room to experiment with different flavors and add-in ingredients. Add chopped peanut butter cups to an old-fashioned peanut butter fudge recipe, or stick to a handful of M&Ms pressed into the top of the candy before it sets. 

You can also use one less popular candy as the base for your fudge. Tootsie Rolls, as divisive as they are, can be melted down with the other fudge ingredients to make a sticky, indulgent dessert. This fudge base pairs well with chopped nuts and M&Ms, and we reckon you won't even know there are Tootsie Rolls inside. 

We can guarantee we're going to get some hate mail for this one. Do we think vintage concoctions like ambrosia deserve the noble title of a "salad?" Of course not. But we can't argue that this sweet pile of marshmallows, whipped topping, and canned fruit isn't the perfect vector for adding Halloween candy. It's like something straight out of Buddy the Elf's playbook. 

You can add any chocolate candy you have hanging around for this recipe, but you have to be careful not to clash flavors with the fruit. Instead of using tropical fruits, like pineapple, try substituting it with a more mellow apple or canned pear mixture. We find that the apples pair extraordinarily well with a Snickers candy or one with caramel.