How to Make Toaster Pastries from Leftover Halloween Candy

Stacey Ballis

November 1st is coming. Not Halloween, which is also coming, but you don’t need me to tell you that Halloween is coming, every retail outlet in creation has been telling you that since right after the Fourth of July.

I mean November 1st, the day after Halloween. The day you are faced with the detritus of your Halloween festivities, the overbuying of candy and treats. Sure, you can take the leftovers to work, if you work in an office, along with everyone else. You can try to hide candy from yourself in the house, but you know where it is. Doling mini candy bars out to yourself and your family members has its pleasures, but what if you could create something entirely new and unexpected?

And if you have either pie crust or puff pastry in your freezer? You are ready to make magic. It is an easy thing to turn a little bar of trick-or-treat chocolate into a totally defensible breakfast or afternoon tea delight.

This works best with chocolates that are a bit softer, so think about your classic Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Snickers, and the like. Two mini peanut butter cups or one large one will do well here. I personally love Mounds and Almond Joy for this. Candy bars with cookies in them work less well, so it is not a great application for your Twix or Kit Kats, ditto candies with shells like M&Ms.

Watch: How to Make Halloween Cookie Pops

Thaw your pastry of choice overnight in the fridge, so that it is ready for the morning. When you wake up, heat your oven to 400, and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Unroll or unfold your pastry sheet and cut in fourths. If using puff pastry, dock the sheets with a fork all over to prevent them from puffing too much.

Take a fun size chocolate bar and smash it slightly between your fingers to flatten it out and place it in the center of one of your pieces of dough. Repeat with the rest. Fold the dough around the candy in an envelope fashion, pinching the edges closed as best you can. Make an egg wash out of one egg and one tablespoon of water and brush it over the parcels. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if you are feeling so inclined. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown and let rest for five minutes before serving, because lava hot molten chocolate and the roof of your mouth are not best pals. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to two days.

You can freeze the prepped parcels in a single layer on a sheet pan till firm and then store in the freezer in a ziptop bag and bake straight from frozen for 5 to 10 minutes longer, so feel free to celebrate November 1st this year by making a couple batches and stashing for future treats.