What’s the only thing better than candy on Halloween?
That would be candy inside of blondies on Halloween, of course!
I love making fun, festive treats for basically any holiday, and Halloween is no exception. While it’s always the best excuse to eat copious amounts of candy straight-up, I always have fun finding new ways to fancy up the Halloween treats situation around here. And to me, the highest calling of your excess-Halloween-candy stash is baking it into something rich, buttery, and truly more than the sum of its cookie + candy parts.
My tastes have evolved just a bit from my trick-or-treating days, and nowadays I almost always need something salty to go with my sweet – any dessert flaked with sea salt or loaded up with salted caramel makes me completely swoon. These sweet and salty candy bar blondies strike that perfect balance – sweet, decadent, and decidedly dessert, but with just a hint of salty goodness to balance it all out. I took my favorite blondie recipe and loaded it up with my favorite Halloween candy (Snickers and peanut butter M&M’s for me, but use whatever your favorites are!) and stirred in some crumbled pretzels for that salty crunch factor that just takes it over the top. UGH. Seriously, so good!
You’ll be the hit of this year’s Halloween bash with these bad boys. Happy Halloween baking!!
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup refrigerator-cold peanut butter M&M’s
- ½ cup chopped up Snickers (refrigerating the Snickers makes them easier to cut)
- ½ cup crumbled pretzel pieces
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 13 x 9” pan with foil, leaving a few inches of overhang on all sides so you can easily lift the blondies out of the pan. Spray with cooking spray or grease with butter.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the cooled, melted butter and the brown sugar until combined. Next, add the eggs and vanilla; mix again to combine. Using a spatula, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and slowly and gently fold until combined. Gently fold in the chopped Snickers, crumbled pretzels, and peanut butter M&M’s. Add the batter to the prepared pan and smooth.
- Bake for about 22-25 minutes, until the top of the blondies are cracked and very lightly golden brown. Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing and serving.
- I used my favorite sweet + salty treats, but feel free to sub your favorites in for the rough ratios here! I’d use 1 ½ cups of candy to ½ cup of something salty (pretzels, peanuts, toasted walnuts, etc.).
Looking for more festive Halloween treats?
Double Chocolate Halloween Graveyard Cupcakes
Gooey Pumpkin Cake with Bourbon Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream
Peanut Butter M&M Brownies – if you feel like brownies instead!
Are these the treat you made way back when at that Enova “everyone make a treat” party? Do you remember that? I think you won a PRIZE for best baking?
Wish I was sampling these with you right nowwwwwwwww
OMG of course I remember that!! These are not the same, but thank you for reminding me because I definitely need to dig up that recipe. These are so good though and now I am just eating them all by myself. I wish you were here to sample them too slash save me from myself!!! xoxoxo