I poked around in our “junk drawer” last week to discover a bag of Kit Kat candy bars left over from Halloween stuffed in the back. Uh oh! Jim and I don’t usually eat candy, so I had to think about what to do with it. I decided to use it in a cookie recipe, because we DO eat cookies!
Scrounging around in my pantry, I also found an extra vanilla pudding mix that I had bought for a planned pumpkin trifle that I never made. I remembered seeing a chocolate chip cookie recipe that called for pudding mix so decided to try to mix them up with the candy. They came out terrific.
We shared them with friends and neighbors and never told anyone that the candy was left over from October! This is the recipe I used:
Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 (3.5 ounces) package instant vanilla (or other flavor) pudding mix
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-1/4 cups white flour (can substitute up to 1/2 whole wheat)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup candy, cut into small pieces
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a large bowl, combine the butter and shortening with the white and brown sugar. Stir in your pudding mix. Add in both eggs and vanilla and mix well.
- In a second bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture; stir well. Blend in candy pieces.
- Drop teaspoons full of dough onto ungreased cookies sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the pan to a cooling rack.
- Yields about 3 dozen. Enjoy!
