Boxed Brownies Get A Tasty Upgrade With Leftover Halloween Candy

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There's an innocent satisfaction to impetuously baking up a batch of brownies from a box mix just to fulfill a sudden craving, especially if you upgrade boxed brownies with other ingredients. One easy hack is using leftover Halloween candy. Whether it's chunks of chocolate, crumbled cookies, or gummy worms; there are plenty of ways to incorporate whatever remains in the trick-or-treat bucket.

If you have full, unopened bags of candy, consider donating them to an organization like Treats for Troops, which set up collection sites after Halloween. But if you or your little ones have leftover goodies, it's also a fairly easy process to add them to brownie dough or stick them on top after baking. The fun sizes and small packets work especially well here: You get precise portion sizes and avoid the need to tear open an entire bag of M&Ms for a handful of candies.

Of course, not all Halloween candy is created equal when it comes to baking. Candy bits like Nerds are mostly sugar and might melt into the batter, as will hard candies like Jolly Ranchers. Instead, consider invoking Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies by putting Nerds into a ganache frosting on top. Gummy bears, it turns out, are incredibly divisive. Fans of "Gilmore Girls" are still taking sides as to whether Lyndsay Lister should have served gummy bear-filled brownies to Dean. Essentially, the gelatin in gummies melts at around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, infusing the chocolate dough with weird, fruit-adjacent flavors. If you do use them, add them on top as the brownies cool.

Chocolate-based candy bars and candy-coated pieces like M&Ms all work well and are common go-tos in the Halloween upgraded brownie world. Breaking up a Hershey bar or another chocolate bar isn't that different from putting chocolate chips in the mix. Snickers or Mars Bar chopped into chunks are compact and complex since they add nuts and caramel. The candy coating on M&Ms were designed from the beginning to resist melting, so they hold up well in an oven. They're a popular candy add-in for brownies, adding texture, color, and extra chocolate.

Reese's Pieces are another popular Halloween candy since "E.T." sent sales into the stratosphere in 1982, and are perhaps the ideal chocolate brownie mix-in. They have the hard candy shell, but in place of chocolate you get little bursts of peanut butter throughout. You can fold them into the batter or lay them on top before baking. If that's not enough peanut flavor for you, add a layer of softened peanut butter or dice Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins and add those in. (You can buy a bag at Aldi for under $10.)

You can add candy into boxed brownies two ways. Fold it into the finished dough the same way you would chocolate chunks, or you can pour half the batter in, add a layer of candy, then pour the other half. Set more candies on top if you like (some will melt). And if you want to get really wild, make a witch's brew using a variety of candies and see what happens.