M&M Cookie Bars

This was our first Halloween in our new house. Most of the places we lived in the past you didn't get any trick or treaters. Here, everyone seems to live in developments full of houses. The same holds true for us, our development has tons of kids and a lot of houses there were decked out with decorations and blow ups. We had no idea how many trick-or-treaters to expect so we stocked up on candy because we didn't want to be the newbies that ran out. Boy did we misjudge. We had about 75 kids and purchased close to 10 bags of candy! Needless to say we have a ton of candy left over.

I am trying REALLY hard not to eat all of the left overs. I figured the best way would be to use some of it up baking. I had read some other blogs that turned the candy into chocolate bark which looked delicious but too sweet for me. I decided on m&m bars. It helped but didn't make a huge dent in our left overs, but I was able to bring them to my book club so not only did I use up candy, but I got other people to help me eat it! And who doesn't love a little something snack on when discussing the book ;)

M&M Cookie Bars
Source: The Sweets Life

Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar

2/3 cups un-salted butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

1 ½ cups M&Ms (22 fun size bags)

Directions:

1. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan (easiest to line with foil and grease!) and set aside. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Heat butter and brown sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.

3. Cool slightly before mixing in eggs and vanilla, stirring to combine. Stir in flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

4. Mix in 1 ¼ cups M&Ms. Reserve ¼ cup to press into the top of the bars. Pour batter into prepared pan and use a spatula to spread evenly (note--batter is thick and is somewhat difficult to spread--use your fingers if necessary!). Press reserved M&Ms into the top of the batter.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and bars are golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack before cutting into bars. Enjoy!