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Leftover Halloween Candy Cookie Bars are the best way to use up all that Halloween candy! Soft-baked, thick, chewy, peanut butter oatmeal cookie bars loaded with 2 cups of chopped candy. Kids will love to pick out the candy to put in these bars.
HALLOWEEN CANDY COOKIE BARS
Leftover Halloween candy cookie bars are the best way to use up all that Halloween candy! Use whatever you have and throw it into these super soft-baked, thick, chewy peanut butter cookie bars loaded with chopped up candy bars.
These cookie bars are one of my kids’ favorite thing to do after Halloween. They pick out what candy they want in the bars and then we chop it up.
WHAT INGREDIENTS DO I NEED TO MAKE HALLOWEEN COOKIE BARS
All-Purpose Flour, Old-Fashioned Oats, Baking Soda, Salt – Mix this up into a small bowl and whisk it together to get rid of any clumps.
Butter – I use salted butter
Creamy Peanut Butter – It’s best to not use all-natural peanut butter as it tends to be thicker and therefore dries out baked goods like these cookie bars. But with that said, I have had readers comment and say that it turned out just fine. So I guess it is just personal preference.
Granulated Sugar & Brown Sugar
Vanilla Extract
Large Egg + Large Egg Yolk
Leftover Halloween Candy – There are no rules here! Use whatever you want. Just chop it up into small pieces and be sure and save some for the tops of the bars so they look pretty.
WHAT DO I DO WITH LEFTOVER HALLOWEEN CANDY?
- My first suggestion would be to make these cookie bars 🙂 Why eat the candy when you can stuff the candy into these super delicious peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip bars?!
- Talk to your dentist! Lots of dentist offices will let the kids trade in their candy for either money or small prizes.
- I don’t know about your kids but my kids LOVE to earn money! I have them count out their candy and then for every piece I give them a dime per candy. It can also be a nickel, penny, or a quarter. You decide.
- Get together with friends, cousins, or whoever and host a candy exchange. My kids love doing this! They will usually just trade between the 4 of them, but they will spend hours organizing their candy and then trade away what they don’t want.
- If all else fails, give all the candy to your husband (or yourself) and take it into work. My husband does this every year and it’s gone in a day!
YOU WILL LOVE THESE OTHER FUN HALLOWEEN TREATS
Candy Corn Peanut Butter Cookies – A soft peanut butter cookie topped with candy corn. We all know that peanuts + candy corn go perfectly together so why not combine them?!
Candy Corn Sugar Cookie Bars – My famous sugar cookie bars made to look like candy corn! With a yellow layer, orange layer, and then topped with white frosting and Halloween sprinkles.
Halloween Monster Cookies – Monster cookies with Halloween sprinkles and scary google eyes so it looks like a monster!
Leftover Halloween Candy Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole-grain old fashioned oats
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter softened
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk just the yolk, discard the whites
- 2 cups chopped leftover Halloween candy reserve about 1/3 cup for the top of the bars
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish by spraying with cooking spray, lining with tin foil or lining with parchment paper. * I like to use parchment paper so I can just lift the bars out of the pan by the overhang. They cut really nicely this way.
- In a small mixing bowl, add the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Stir with a whisk to break up any large clumps.
- In a large mixing bowl with a handheld mixer, or use the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar until combined well and light in color. About 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Mix together until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and chopped candy (reserve some for tops of bars if wanted) into the large mixing bowl. Beat on low speed, increasing speed as needed, until everything is combined.
- Press the dough into the prepared pan. Gently press the reserved chopped candy into the tops of the bars.
- Bake for 13-16 minutes. Do not overbake these bars. They should look puffy but not have any brown on them except maybe just the outer edges. As they cool they will cook slightly more and set together nicely.
- Let the bars cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before cutting them into squares. Store leftovers covered at room temperature for 3-4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Pinned! These look so yummy 😀
Thanks so much for the pin Bonnie 🙂
Ooey Gooey goodness!! Thanks for this recipe! 4 kids made for lots of leftover Halloween candy. Will definitely be making these again next year!
So good to hear this! It’s always more fun making treats out of leftover candy 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have made these twice and the second time was even better. This is my new favorite cookie recipe. Perfect timing for holiday cookie trays!
You’re so welcome! These bars are totally customizable, so throw any candy in there and you’re good. Glad to hear you enjoy these. They get made pretty often at my house too!
Fantastic! Just made these for christmas cookies. We still had a ton of candy left over. What a great use. They turned out well. We only had quick oats, but I don’t know if I would notice the difference. I will certainly make again.
Yay! So glad to hear you like these. I make these all the time and usually will just use chocolate chips in place of the candy mix ins. So yummy. Using quick oats wouldn’t be a problem 🙂
Just made these, I substituted apple sauce, flax seed for eggs, cut the sugar in half, and used chocolate chips instead of left over candy and these turned out terrible. What a bad recipe. Better luck next time.
Hi John. Maybe you should follow the recipe next time and they wouldn’t turn out so terrible. Thanks for visiting!
I have never understood these kinds of comments – I completely changed the recipe and it turned out terrible – what does that have to do with the recipe posted? Lol. He made something completely different. And his sounds terrible!
I have lots of leftover candy this year. Not near as many trick-or-treaters because of Covid. I’m looking forward to making these. Thanks for the recipe!
These turned out great and were incredible! What an awesome idea! Thanks for the recipe!
My son gave up Halloween candy just so we could make these…. they are sooo good!
Totally worth giving up candy for! Thanks for leaving your comment and so happy they were a hit.
Made these tonight and loved them! I was worried as I didn’t have any creamy PB, only natural, but they turned out great. Thanks!
Good to know the natural pb works in this recipe. Thanks for leaving your comment.
I just made these tonight. Yum! They are so delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! So happy they were a hit.
Hi,
Do I have to use the oats or can I substitute with granola? This recipe looks amazing!!
I have never tried granola in this recipe so I’m not sure. I think it would work fine. Enjoy!
can these be made and then frozen?
Perfect. Thanks for tips. This is so Yummy.
Can i make these into cookies instead of bars? If so, would anything have to be altered?
Not sure. I have never made these bars into cookies. Let me know if you try it.
I used Christmas candies and Carmel corn. I waa so excited to make this recipe.
Sounds good! Thanks for your comment!
Hi!
My kids don’t like peanut butter-can I just leave it out or do I have to substitute something?
Thank you!
If you can’t use peanut butter then you’re better off just making chocolate chip cookie bars and not these peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars. I have never not added the peanut butter so I honestly can’t say for sure. Try these chocolate chip cookie blondie bars instead and use chopped up candy in place of the chocolate chips https://togetherasfamily.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-blondie-bars/
k well I guess I’m not going to be getting a reply. I’ll find another recipe,
So sorry Shelley, I did not see a question from you. I get hundreds of comments a day and they can easily get lost in the mix. It’s just me trying to do everything for this site so I get behind sometimes. What did you need help with? 🙂
For some reason this response and request for a reply came to my email-I’m not Shelley, and did not leave the above comment. But I did post a question that doesn’t seem to have been posted. I was asking if you thought I could leave the peanut butter out and make it the same, or if I had to substitute the peanut butter for something else. We do have nut allergies in the family so that’s why.
Thank you and sorry for the mix up!!
My mistake. I answered the wrong commenter with the wrong response! Sorry 🙂 I could not figure out how to go back and fix it. I have never made these without the peanut butter so I can’t say for sure. You are probably better of making just chocolate chip cookie bars or blondies (which neither have peanut butter) and then adding some candy to it.
Hi I was asking about making these as cookies instead of bars
I was asking if I can make these into cookies instead of bars, and what adjustments would I need to make ie. baking temp, time, etc
I have never made these into cookies so I can’t say for sure. I would just use this monster cookie recipe and instead of the adding the m&m’s and chocolate chips, replace it with chopped up Halloween candy. That should work better than trying to turn this bar recipe into cookies.
Amazing
Easy peasy! Any candy will do if crunchy & chocolate. I used Reese’s and Kit Kat’s. A true fun way to use up the leftover Halloween candy and the added oats make them ‘somewhat’ healthy.
Will make again next year!
These cookies are really good!
That said, I must admit to some minor changes – I used 3 cups of candy instead of 2, and I added a cup of chopped walnuts….
So yummy!
These were wonderful bars! The taste and consistency of the cookie base was wonderful – we love a nice dough with peanut butter and old fashioned oats. And we were able to use up a bunch of little kit-kats, snickers and m&m’s which made it pretty. After many recent recipes online that I have chosen not to save, we will definitely make this recipe again!! Thanks!
Hi….these sound delicious. I was wondering if I could use an 11×17 inch pan (jellyroll pan) and what the time and/or temperature adjustments I would need to make. Thanks so much.
I don’t think there would be enough dough for a larger pan. I would stick with the 9×13 that the recipe calls for. I have never used that size pan so I can’t say for sure.
This is fantastic. I’m more of a savory treat fan than a sweet treat. We had SO MANY candy bars left. I made this with Butterfingers, white chocolate Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Almond Joy bars. Spectacular. This is definitely a keeper recipe. Not too sweet and the oaty dough counter balanced the candy.
Thank you so much for your comment and I am very happy you loved the recipe. Thanks for being here and making the recipe.
These are crazy good!! Thank you! I’ll add these to an annual rotation for leftover Halloween candy! There’s a neighborhood tailgate/potluck and this is a perfect way to help unload the candy (and save me from myself)!