Making a Good Thing Great
Leftover Halloween candy? Please.
Not that you won't probably have a few stray chocolate bars laying around the house after tonight. Maybe you prepared for 50 trick-or-treaters and got five. Or maybe your kid decided to train for the Las Vegas marathon by hotfooting it around the neighborhood -- and two or three other neighborhoods nearby -- and bringing home a record haul. And, well, since the kid isn't the one paying the dental bills, what the kid brings home isn't necessarily what the kid gets to eat.
But before we get any further: Yes, we're well aware of the obvious way to get rid of "leftover" Halloween candy. But we also know how truly pathetic you'll look sitting in front of the TV surrounded by the wrappers from all of those impossibly small minis. We also know that freezing doesn't work, because any chocoholic worth the title knows a Milky Way is even better when it's frozen solid. Take it to the office? Sure. Nobody else will be doing that.
So here's some good news: There actually are recipes that have candy bars among their ingredients, and we've dug up a selection (careful to weed out those scary-as-a-goblin recipes for Candy Bar Salad). Yes, they are by nature pretty much as sweet as the candy bars they contain, but if you're good at rationalizing ... well, there's always the knowledge that you can use enriched flour.
And when you take these to the office, you're not bringing in leftover Halloween candy. You're bringing dessert.
PEPPERMINT PATTIE CAKE
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream filing (recipe follows)
15 small (11/2-inch) York Peppermint Patties
Glaze (recipe follows)
Chocolate glaze (optional; recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 151/2-by-101/2-by-1-inch jellyroll pan with foil; generously grease and lightly flour foil.
Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside. Beat egg yolks in medium bowl on high speed of mixer for 3 minutes. Gradually add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, beating 2 additional minutes. Add flour mixture alternately with water and vanilla to egg-yolk mixture, beating on low speed just until well mixed and smooth.
Beat egg whites in another medium bowl until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 cup granulated sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Add chocolate mixture to beaten whites, folding in carefully. Spread batter in prepared pan.
Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Invert onto towel sprinkled with powdered sugar; carefully remove foil. Immediately roll cake and towel together from narrow end; place on wire rack to cool.
Prepare cream filling. Unroll cake; spread with filling. Cut 10 peppermint patties into 6 to 8 pieces each; sprinkle evenly over filling. Re-roll cake. Drizzle with glaze. If desired, drizzle with chocolate glaze.
Cover; refrigerate about 6 hours before serving. Garnish with remaining peppermint patties, cut in half, before serving. Cover; refrigerate leftover cake.
Makes 10 servings.
Cream filling:
1 cup (1/2 pint) cold whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Green food color
Combine cold whipping cream, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and green food color in a small bowl; beat until stiff.
Glaze:
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 11/2 tablespoons hot water
Green food color
Melt butter in small microwave-safe bowl. Add powdered sugar, hot water and a few drops of green food color; beat until smooth and of desired consistency. Makes about 1/3 cup glaze.
Chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon solid shortening
Melt chocolate and shortening in microwave on high power, about 45 seconds. Stir until blended.
MILKY WONDER CAKE
12.3 ounces Milky Way candy bars
2 sticks butter, divided
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
21/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
11/4 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
Frosting:
6.15 ounces Milky Way bars
1 stick butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
In a heavy saucepan over low heat, or in a microwave, melt candy bars with 1 stick of the butter, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove mixture from heat and allow to cool.
Beat remaining 1 stick butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir together flour and baking soda and add to batter alternately with buttermilk, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Blend in cooled Milky Way mixture, vanilla and nuts. Turn into a greased and floured Bundt pan or 10-inch tube pan. Bake in 350-degree oven 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until top springs back when lightly touched with fingertips and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (Top will be quite dark.) Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan and cooling on wire rack.
To make frosting: In saucepan over very low heat, or in microwave, melt candy bars and butter. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Thin to desired consistency with milk.
CANDY BAR CAKE
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 slightly beaten egg
1/4 cup buttermilk (or use 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 teaspoon vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 12-ounce can raspberry cake and pastry filling
1 12-ounce can apricot cake and pastry filling
Sliced almonds
6 ounces plain milk-chocolate bars
Grease and lightly flour one 8-by-11/2-inch round baking pan. In saucepan combine butter or margarine, 1/4 cup water and cocoa powder. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly, Remove from heat.
In mixing bowl, stir together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking soda and salt; stir in egg, buttermilk and vanilla. Blend in cocoa mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes; cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.
To assemble cake: Beat cream and 3 tablespoons sugar to soft peaks. On a serving plate, frost top and sides of cake with a thin layer of cream. Using a decorator tube and tip, pipe remaining cream over top of cake in a lattice design, finishing with a border around the top edge. Spoon some raspberry filling into every other diamond in lattice. Spoon some apricot filling into remaining sections. (Chill remaining pie filling for another use.)
Sprinkle almonds atop cake. Break chocolate bars crosswise into thirds, making 15 squares total. Arrange, smooth side out, around side of cake. Press into cream to secure. Chill until serving time. To cut cake, remove chocolate pieces.
Serves 10.
Variation: Use a cake mix, if desired, to make two 8-inch fudge-cake layers, and freeze one layer for later.
-- Recipes adapted from Review-Journal files
CANDY BAR COOKIES
101/4-ounce bag (about 16 bars) mini candy bars, such as Snickers
21/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and coat the paper with cooking spray.
Place the unwrapped bars in a food processor and pulse until they are well chopped. Set aside.
Into a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl and using an electric mixer, beat the butter and both sugars until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until well combined.
Add the flour mixture in two batches, mixing between additions. Mix in the chopped candy bars.
Using spoons or an ice-cream scoop, drop rounded 1- or 2-tablespoon balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just lightly browned at the edges.
Let the cookies cool on the pans 4 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer them to a rack to cool completely. (Depending on the type of candy bars used, the cookies can be very sticky when warm. You may need to clean the spatula between cookies.)
Makes 24 to 36 cookies, depending on size.
-- Recipe adapted from Taste of Home magazine's "The Taste of Home Baking Book"
BUTTERFINGER CAKE
1/2 cup butter
4 egg yolks
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
16 ounces frozen whipped topping, thawed slightly
1 prepared angel-food cake, crumbled
1 12.5-ounce bag fun-size Butterfinger candy bars
Freeze candy bars in wrappers for at least two hours. Crush bars (while in wrappers) using a rolling pin. Cream butter, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla and add topping. In a 9-by-13-inch pan, layer half of the cake, half of the topping mixture and half of the crushed candy bars; repeat.
Serves 16.
-- Recipe from CDKitchen Inc.
PEPPERMINT PATTIE BROWNIES
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 13-ounce package York Peppermint Patties (about 2 dozen 11/2-inch patties)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Into a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
Spread about two-thirds of the batter in the prepared baking dish. Arrange the unwrapped peppermint patties in a single layer over the batter. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the patties.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (The top will appear uneven.)
Cool completely on a wire rack in the pan, then cut into bars.
Serves 16.
-- Recipe adapted from Taste of Home magazine's "The Taste of Home Baking Book"
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0474.
