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
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