Halloween Candy Skillet Cookie
I love Halloween. I love dressing up in costume, taking the kids trick-or-treating and of course the candy. But I’m not the only one who loves candy. My boys do, too, not that that’s a surprise. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate? Or skittles? Or lollypops? I love them all, especially the chocolate. As a matter of fact, there’s only one thing I don’t like about Halloween: the amount of candy.
We always have so much. Even if the boys take a piece to school every day, it would still last weeks. The boys’ school has this program called Operation Gratitude where all the students can donate their candy to the troops overseas. We always bring in a bag of candy because we have so much after Halloween. It’s a great program that gets rid of all the excess candy while providing something sweet to all the men and women fighting hard to protect our country. I love the program and we participate in it every year. But if you don’t have a program like that there is an alternative: you can bake with all that extra candy.
A couple years ago I made a delicious, chocolatey pudding that turned out amazing. It went so well, I thought I’d do something similar. But this year instead of a pudding, I made a skillet cookie. I’ve made several skillet cookies before. They’re pretty much just giant cookies that are baked up in a 10 or 12-inch cast iron skillet and then served in the same skillet. I figured if I’d made chocolate chip skillet cookies and double chocolate chip skillet cookies, why couldn’t I make a skillet cookie with some of the leftover candy? The batter is the same, I’m just substituting the chocolate chips with M&M’s or mini Milky Ways or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or any other chocolate candy of which I have tons.
The end result tastes amazing and is just one more way to get rid of use up some of that unwanted extra chocolate. But that’s the thing; if you’re going to whip up this cookie, make sure you only use the chocolate. Skittles or licorice or Sour Patch Kids won’t work as well. They’ll just melt and get you an icky, sticky, sour mess, and no one wants that. So, on November first, once you’ve pulled out all the Nestle Crunch bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for yourself, (don’t deny it, you know you do it) take those extra fun-sized Snickers and 2 or 3 packs of M&M’s and mix up this cookie for your family. And then if you still have leftovers, ship them off to all those deserving troops.
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups mixed Halloween candy like M&M's or peanut butter cups
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, coat a 10-inch cast iron skillet with cooking spray and set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and light in color. Add the eggs one at time until combined. Whisk in the vanilla.
- Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Fold in the mixed candy.
- Spread the batter in the prepared skillet and bake for about 27 minutes or until golden brown. Slice and serve.
