Leftover pandemic Halloween candy? Pair with wine, or bourbon if you dare.
Every year, there are some people who mysteriously end up with more leftover Halloween candy than they know what to do with.
Until this year, when the COVID-19 pandemic put a crimp in trick-or-treating, this was never my problem.
I had an office full of co-workers and a communal candy dish to keep stocked into the winter.
But not this year: We’re all working from home in perpetuity.
If you’re in the same boat, and want to have some fun, there are options.
Kroger (who probably sold you all that candy to begin with!) has shared some helpful ideas:
▪ Make stuff with it. There are a slew of recipes for making cookies with candy, from melting lollipops for stained-glass sugar cookies, to chopping up all those tiny candy bars and sprinkling them over melted chocolate or white chocolate for Halloween bark.
▪ Decorate with it. Save it for making the ultimate gingerbread house just dripping with M&Ms, Skittles and anything else you can glue on with icing.
▪ Dress up dessert. Set out bowls of just about any kind of candy to make a “make-your-own sundae” buffet.
▪ Pair it with wine. Kroger (which coincidentally also sells wine) has some suggestions:
- Riunite Lambrusco Soft Lively Red Wine and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Like a very adult version of peanut butter and jelly.
- Simple Truth Rosé and Starbursts. Fresh, light and fruity flavors (also works with Nerds or Airheads.)
- Simple Truth Prosecco and Candy Corn. The bubbles take the edge off the ultra sugary candy corn.
▪ This one’s all me: Pair candy with bourbon. Try York Peppermint Patties and Bulleit Rye, which has a nice mintiness to it. Or Maker’s Mark Bourbon and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups to play up the saltiness and the chocolate. If you have lots of fruity gummies or other fruit candies, try with Woodford Reserve Bourbon, which has notes of dark cherries. Also, try Buffalo Trace and Whoppers; the maltiness really works.
