What to Do with Leftover Halloween Candy

It’s inevitable that you misjudge how much candy to buy for the neighborhood kids — or how much halloween candy you want your kids to eat. What do you do with all that leftover candy?

Why use up leftover Halloween candy?

It’s expensive. Have you seen the price of Halloween candy this year? Yikes! The cashier at Ralphs was the first to point out how expensive it’s gotten. Why buy all that candy only to throw it away on November 1st.

It’s good for other things. Most Halloween candy contains the same basic ingredients that you include in desserts and baked goods throughout the year. Why not repurpose your leftovers in your holiday baking?

While there are places to donate candy, there are also lots of good recipes to make with leftover Halloween candy. These same dessert recipes will work with leftover Easter candy as well as sweet treats from other holidays.

How long is leftover Halloween candy good for?

You can enjoy these desserts far past October. Remember that Halloween candy has a pretty long shelf-life so you can disguise the leftover candy in desserts all the way through Valentine’s Day!

Have you ever looked at the best by dates on your candy bags? My collection, purchased in October, is good until February of next year at the earliest. Some bags show a best by date of July! See this candy storage guide for best-by dates.

Easy Ideas for Using Leftover Halloween Candy

1. Chop chocolate candies into bite-sized bits and substitute for chocolate chips in cookie dough. Freeze the cookie dough for later if you’re too-sweeted out.
2. Crush hard candies into powder and sprinkle over sugar cookies.
3. Lay out jars of all kinds of leftover Halloween candy with ice cream and chocolate syrup and make a fun sundae bar at home.
4. Chop up peanut butter cups and sprinkle them in one of the layers of a magic bars variation.
5. Use candy corn to top cupcakes in the shape of sunflowers. 
6. Chopped candy is great stirred into milkshakes for a homemade blizzard.
7. Chop your favorite candies and stir them into this frozen Marshmallow Pie in place of the toffee.
8. Sort out colored candies from different packages of leftover Halloween candy and repackage for different holidays. Brown, yellow, and orange for Thanksgiving, red and green for Christmas.
9. Make the viral candy salad. Mix all unwrapped candies in a bowl and serve with a spoon.
10. Make candy fluff by stirring crushed candies, fruit, and nuts into Chocolate Whipped Cream, according to what you have and what goes together.
11. Make two-ingredient fudge and stir in chopped candies.
12. Crush hard candies and make stained glass cookies.
13. Unwrap leftover Halloween candy to use to build a gingerbread house at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
14. Blitz peppermints or other hard candies and add to powdered milk for this Peppermint Milk Mix to give as gifts.
15. Use leftover Halloween candy bars in Smores, or better yet, tuck into DIY S’mores Kits to give as gifts.
16. Top cocoa brownies with chopped candies right before baking.
17. Make a batch of rice krispy treats and stir in your leftover Halloween candy of choice.
18. Create divots in a sheet cake, fill each hole with pop rocks, cap the holes with the cake you removed, and top with homemade buttercream for a fun New Year’s Cake.
19. Make mud and worm cupcakes with gummy worms.
20. Create a chocolate charcuterie board to serve at your next game night.
21. Stir up a bowl of sweet chex mix or caramel corn and add chopped candy bars and other leftover Halloween candies to the mix.