Easter is an important day on the Christian calendar. It’s a day full of beautiful and humbling church services, friends and family, great food, and lots and lots of candy.
If the Easter Bunny is a part of your celebration, chances are that you have candy leftovers. What in the world are you going to do with all those jelly beans, robin eggs, and that giant chocolate rabbit? Here are some great ways to put that leftover Easter candy to good use:
Spring is here, and maybe you’re socializing more with friends and family after a bitter winter. Use some leftover crushed robin eggs to garnish a pan of brownies or make a fruit-flavored cookie dough; try adding jelly beans to it too. Add chopped-up Reese’s peanut butter cups to chocolate chip cookies, look up a recipe for a Cadbury egg cake, or add M&M’s to your potato chip cookies for a sweet and salty treat. Another idea is to make homemade granola bars and add candy to them. There are all kinds of ways you can bake with leftover Easter candy. Baking this way adds an extra bit of fun because there are all kinds of possibilities. You may invent your new favorite baked goods!
Buy your favorite salty snacks like popcorn, cheese crackers, and corn chips, and add leftover M&M’s, cut-up, snack-sized candy bars, or chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups. You could even turn your trail mix into bars, so it is easier to transport. You never know when you will need a snack at your kids’ soccer practice or if you will need one on your way home from work when you’re stuck in traffic.
This is a once-in-a-while treat, but make a chocolate pancake or waffle batter and add chopped-up candy bars to the mix. Garnish with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. You can also experiment with other batter flavors like strawberry, banana, or birthday cake. You could also add the candy to muffins, baked oatmeal, scones, and breakfast loaf breads. Another option would be to make some sweet-flavored crepes.
There is always a lot of baking going on around the holidays, and who wants to pay full price for candy goodies to put in cookies, brownies, and cakes? You will be glad you can melt that chocolate bunny to make holiday bark, dip cookies in, or used to coat cake balls. Another great perk to freezing your leftover Easter candy is it will be out of sight, out of mind. As adults, I think we are all guilty of picking at leftover candy, and sometimes, we overdo it. Freezing your candy will help your sanity and your budget come holiday time.
If you have tons of leftover Peeps, grab some chocolate bars and graham crackers and make s’mores. They will be beautiful and delicious with all the different colors of Peeps.
Have friends over for a bonfire and let them roast Peeps for dessert or make s’mores out of them. To add some fun, have categories for the most gooey, most stretchable, and most burnt Peep.
Mix a little crushed-up candy into your homemade milkshake or protein shake. For a protein shake, add good things to go with your candy, like Greek yogurt, bananas, or almond milk. This way, you can have the best of both worlds. For a milkshake, grab your favorite ice cream, syrups, and candy and go to town. This would be ideal later in the summer when it gets miserably hot. It would be the perfect way to cool down after a steamy afternoon.
Use some of those leftover marshmallow Peeps to make the most colorful rice krispie treats you have ever seen. Add some Easter-colored M&M’s on top for decoration. There are all kinds of different rice krispie treats you can make. From the classic rice krispies and marshmallows to chocolate ones made with Cocoa Krispies, to Scotcheroos, which are a mix of butterscotch and peanut butter flavors with a delicious layer of chocolate on top. Your kids will have a ball helping you make these colorful and tasty treats. The best part? The possibilities are endless, so jump on your favorite search engine or food recipe site and explore all the things you can make.
If your kids received a bunch of good-quality chocolate rabbits for Easter, you can turn them into chocolate shavings and freeze them to make hot chocolate in the fall when the weather turns chilly again. Adding that gourmet chocolate to hot milk then adding whipped cream and more shavings will elevate your normal hot chocolate to the next level. You can even get creative and think about making different flavors of hot chocolate like white chocolate, red velvet, mint chocolate, and salted caramel. Then you can add some of that leftover candy to make the flavors pop.
If you have leftover unopened bags of Easter candy, you can donate it. This is a great way to share your leftover candy and teach your children an important lesson about being grateful for what you have, how fun it is to share, and how it will help people who have less.
Start with local food banks and homeless shelters that accept food donations. They will distribute the candy and brighten the days of both children and adults. You can find your local food bank through Feeding America.
Another resource is your local Ronald McDonald house. They may accept unopened Easter candy to share with their patients, who are usually very ill children and their parents. Donating will bring smiles to their faces, especially if they weren’t able to take part in Easter.
Operation Gratitude is an organization that sends candy to the troops and always includes candy in their care packages. They also collect other wishlist items like floss, travel-size toothpaste, pens, etc.
There are so many fun and creative ways to use leftover Easter candy. In doing so, you can extend the fun of Easter by baking with your kids and taking time to spend with friends. Taking the time to go through your leftover candy and deciding what is going to be finished, frozen, or tossed is important so it doesn’t lie around or get eaten when everyone in the family has had more than enough. Freezing it for later will be a lifesaver in time and money for the holiday season or even to put in a birthday cake or the goodies you make for the church bake sale. Knowing you have all the goodies at home that you need to make your desserts sing will give you peace of mind and save you a panicked trip to the grocery store. In addition, being able to get creative with your kids about the recipes you make is a great way to make memories with them. So, go raid that candy stash and look forward to making more delicious memories!
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