Recipe: Pete's Halloween Candy Cookies

Anybody got leftover Halloween candy? We we've got a chocolate overload, my husband, Pete, bakes his favorite big, chewy chocolate chip cookies but replaces his usual bag of chocolate chips with tiny morsels of chopped candy bars and M&M's. This promises some crazy delicious cookies with a different treat in every bite.

Pete's candy ingredients are just guidelines. He made the cookies for a party before Halloween and used his favorite full-sized candy bars. Feel free to switch it up. If you're using leftover Halloween candy, figure you'll need 3 to 5 cups of chopped candy. Check out his recipe below.

Serves: makes 18 large cookies

Pete’s Trick or Treat Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 bag M&M’s (a 3-oz. bag or larger)

• 1 full-size Whatchamacallit, chopped

• 1 full-size Mr. Goodbar, chopped

• 1 full-size Snickers bar, chopped

• 1 regular-size KitKat bar, chopped

• 1 full-size Take 5 bar, chopped

• 1 full-size Twix bar, chopped

DIRECTIONS

• Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with cooking spray. (Or, better yet, if you have silicone baking sheet liners, use those!)

• Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together is a medium bowl; set aside.

• Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the candy.

• Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball. Hold dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface. Place the formed dough balls on the baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

• Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy. This should take 15 to 18 minutes total, and you should rotate the cookie sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a wide metal spatula.