Candy Bar Cookies (Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies)

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Easy to make! Measure, mix, scoop, and bake.

Soft and chewy texture. These cookies have a soft and chewy center, with edges that are just set for a perfect bite.

Ready to enjoy in 30 minutes! It will take you approximately 30 minutes to make a single batch of these cookies. Time may vary depending on the size of your baking trays, and how many trays you bake at one time.

A fun way to repurpose Halloween candy. If the kiddo’s are slowing down on their candy stash (or maybe you NEED them to slow down on it…ha!), this sweet treat is a fun way to use up some of those fun size candy bars. See the ‘ingredients needed’ section for a list of what type of candy bars will work best in this recipe.

Ingredients Needed

• Salted Butter. I grew up using salted butter in baking, and still do to this day. If you’d prefer to use unsalted butter, just replace it 1-for-1 with the salted butter in the recipe and add an extra pinch of salt too.
• Granulated Sugar. Not only does sugar sweeten your cookies, it actually helps them to remain soft and moist too. We’re talking about cookies with that perfect chewy center here.
• Brown Sugar. Brown sugar is used to both sweeten our cookies and also contributes to our recipe being nice and chewy. Both light brown sugar and dark brown sugar work in this cookie recipe. Light brown sugar has a more subtle flavor than dark, due to a lower molasses content, so choose per your preference (or based on whichever one you happen to have in your pantry). Using dark brown sugar will make your cookies just a bit darker in color too.
• Vanilla Extract. Vanilla extract adds a lovely depth of flavor to our cookies.
• Large Egg. We use whole eggs in our cookies to help provide structure and leavening in addition to adding moisture to our cookie’s dough.
• Salt. Salt is used in baking to enhance flavors and create balance (especially with the sweetness of the candy pieces in this recipe). 
• Baking Soda. We are baking soda as our leavening agent in this cookie recipe because it helps create chewy cookies.
• All-Purpose Flour. We’re using all-purpose flour for our cookies for a number of reasons. First, all-purpose flour is ideal for baking cookies because it has the optimal protein range for this type of baking, resulting in chewy cookies when baked properly. Second, it’s a common pantry staple for most people and is easy to find at your local grocery store, Target, Walmart, or Costco.
• Candy Bars of Choice. You will put candy bar pieces into your cookies (like you would do with chocolate chips in CCCs). Some of the best candies to cut into pieces for this recipe include: Kit Kats, Milky Way, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Hershey Bars, Crunch Bars, Butterfinger Bars, and m&m’s. Basically all the chocolate candy bars you’d typically get while trick-or-treating. If you have other fun size candy bars on hand that aren’t listed, give them a try! And I’m not going to fault you for throwing in a handful of candy corn into your dough if you’re feeling it. 

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Recipe Variations and Substitutions

• Add in chocolate chips! If you only have a little candy left over, or just want to have a little fun, substitute half of the candy with chocolate chips! You can use milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips… have fun with it!
• Use unsalted butter. Some purists would say you should always bake with unsalted butter. To use unsalted butter in this recipe, swap out the salted butter 1-for-1 and increase the amount of salt to ½ teaspoon.

Step-by-Step Instructions

STEP 1: Preheat the oven and set out baking pans: Preheat your oven to 375°F. Set out cookie sheets (option to line with parchment paper if preferred). 

STEP 2: Gently chop your extra Halloween candy into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

STEP 3: Place softened butter into a large bowl. If needed, soften the butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave (this takes about 20-30 seconds from refrigerated). It’s ok if the butter melts a little! 

STEP 4: Add both sugars to the softened butter and cream until well combined. The mixture should look pale yellow and fluffy. It will also be a little grainy because of the granulated sugar.

STEP 5: Add in the egg and the vanilla extract and stir until combined.

STEP 6: Slowly stir in your dry ingredients (the salt, baking soda, and all-purpose flour) until a dough is formed.

STEP 7: Gently stir in the pieces of your favorite candy bars until they are well distributed throughout the dough (reserving a little bit of chopped candy to press into your dough balls if desired).

STEP 8: Scoop dough onto your cookie sheet using a medium cookie scoop (or approximately 2 Tablespoons), leaving about 2 inches in between dough balls. If you reserved some candy pieces, gently press a piece or two into the top of each dough ball.

STEP 9: Bake each tray of cookies for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven when the edges look set. For super chewy cookies, do not overbake (they will set up more once pulled from the oven).

STEP 10: Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

STEP 11: Serve and enjoy! These yummy cookies can be enjoyed either warm or cool.

BAKING NOTE: If preferred, you can mix up this cookie recipe in your stand mixer! I recommend using a paddle attachment when doing this.

Possible Dietary Restrictions?

This cookie recipe is vegetarian as written. You can also alter this recipe to be dairy free and gluten free too!

• Make this into a dairy free cookie recipe by replacing the butter with vegetable or canola oil and verifying the candy you use is dairy-free (this may be a little tricky with Halloween candy, so do your research!). Typically, oil can be used in place of butter by using ¾ the amount of butter that is called for. So in this recipe, replace the ½ cup of salted butter with 6 Tablespoons of oil and increase the amount of salt used to ½ tsp.
• To make this into a gluten free cookie recipe, replace the all-purpose flour called for in the recipe with a one-to-one gluten free flour alternative. You’ll also want to make sure the candy used is gluten-free, especially if you are serving this to someone with celiac intolerance.

Storage

Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days (if they last that long!). Leftover Halloween candy cookies can also be frozen either before or after baking.

How to Freeze Before Baking

Make the cookie dough as directed in the recipe card. Scoop dough into balls onto a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and chill them in the freezer for 1 hour. Once the cookie dough balls are cold and solid, place them into a large freezer bag.

Freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 3 months. You can bake these from frozen by placing frozen cookie dough balls onto a baking sheet, and adding 2-3 minutes to the normal baking time noted on the recipe card. 

How to Freeze After Baking

Ensure cookies are completely cool prior to freezing. Store baked cookies in large freezer bags or an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Separate layers of cookies with parchment paper (this helps prevent them from sticking together). When ready to enjoy, thaw cookies in the refrigerator or on the counter at room temperature.

Expert Tips

Get your cookies to all be the same size by using a cookie scoop! While not a necessity, a cookie scoop is a super helpful tool that I use a lot in my kitchen. I personally like to use a medium cookie scoop for this recipe. But if you love giant cookies, give a large cookie scoop a try! If you do this, you’ll need to bake your cookies a little longer than noted on the recipe card.

Get your cookies to be perfectly round with “the cookie scoot”! When you pull your cookies out of the oven, use a circular cookie cutter (or a round glass larger than your cookie) to gently “scoot” your cookies in a circular motion to help shift the edges and create perfectly round cookies.