When you have little kids, there are lots of wonderful bonuses to the weeks following Halloween. You get to bask in the memories of your children in their ridiculously adorable costumes:
You get to breathe a sigh of relief that it’s all over and you don’t have to hand-stitch any more Super Mario hats:
And most importantly, you get to eat their candy when they’re sleeping. (Don’t tell them I said that.) The downside of this, of course, is that you frequently end up eating waaaayy too much candy. And so do they. To combat this sugar juggernaut this year, I decided to make use of the overload of goodies that ended up in my pantry after trick-or-treating–both from my kids’ bags and from what we didn’t pass out–and make candy bark for my husband to take to work. (This way other people get all the calories I’m trying to avoid….muwahahaha.) I found recipes for candy bark online, but didn’t have the ingredients most of them listed, so I decided to wing it. (It’s kind of hard to screw up graham crackers, chocolate, and candy, right?) The result was scrumptious! My husband’s co-workers downed them and asked for more the next day. So if you’re reading this because you ate this treat at a certain development/design company in Tempe, AZ….this one’s for you!
Halloween Candy Bark
Ingredients:
14 whole graham cracker sheets (or 28 half sheets)
1 12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil, divided
1/2 c. peanuts, chopped
3 c. Halloween candy of your choice
1/2 c. white chocolate chips
Directions:
Line a large cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Lay graham crackers closely together on cookie sheet until sheet is filled.
Using a vegetable chopper or a sharp knife, chop Halloween candy into small pieces. Mix in a medium bowl with peanuts. Set aside.
In the microwave or a double boiler, melt chocolate chips. Stir in 1 tsp. vegetable oil. Pour over graham crackers and spread out until crackers are covered. Sprinkle peanut-candy mixture evenly over chocolate. Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened, at least 15 minutes.
In the microwave or double boiler, melt white chocolate chips. Stir in 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil. Drizzle melted white chocolate over the top of the bark. (For perfect drizzling, place melted white chocolate in a Ziploc bag with a small hole snipped off one bottom corner. Squeeze bag gently to drizzle.)
Return pan to the refrigerator until white chocolate has hardened, at least another 15 minutes. Remove bark from wax paper and place on a large cutting board. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
