Our orthodontist is offering to pay the kids around here $1 for each pound of Halloween candy they’ll fork over. My kiddo is currently frantically digging out the candy that he’s willing to part with so he can make a little cash. My advice for him is to look for the heavy stuff (but keep the candy bars, of course).
If you’re looking for ways to use up your abundance of Halloween candy, I’ve got a couple of delicious ideas for you. The first involves Kit Kats. You’ll need about 14 mini Kit Kats (or 5 regular-sized) for Cream Cheese Lemon Bars with Kit Kat Crust.
The Kit Kats make the crust, of course. Simply done, they’re demolished in the food processor and pressed into the bottom of a square pan- no additions needed.
The lemon filling is made creamy with the addition of cream cheese, and it’s topped off with a lemony crumble.
It bakes up nice and bubbly and lightly browned. You need to let it cool completely. Chilling overnight in the refrigerator is best for easier and cleaner cutting.
I put parchment in my pan and then lifted the whole thing out to cut. I find that’s a better way to do it then trying to dig out individual pieces from a tight fit in the pan. And yes, these bars are as moist and caramelized looking as those edges indicate.
When I asked my husband what he thought of the bars he said: “They’re really, really good, but I wish more of the chocolate flavor came through.” That would be nice but they’re lemon bars, dear.
I give you permission to raid your children’s giant bags full of Halloween candy- there are bound to be 14 Kit Kats in there! And maybe if you show your children what you can do with their Kit Kats, they might just render them willingly.
(Look for another recipe utilizing leftover Halloween candy in my next post…)
This recipe can be found here: Cream Cheese Lemon Bars with Kit Kat Crust
I thought this would be a nice change and I decided to give it a try. Never again. So sweet it was inedible in my opinion. I found the cooking time a bit off and I had to cook for an additional five minutes. Cooling in the fridge is a must. I can’t imagine who would have a sweet tooth big enough to find this appetizing!
us, I guess! Sorry you didn’t care for it. The recipe is originally from a candy bar cookbook.
i love kit kat so this looks very very appealing to me! thanks for the recipe, Lori.
What a great idea! Got any suggestions for leftover Laffy Taffy? 😉
What a creative way to incorporate leftover Halloween candy!
i’ve never had kit kat bars that i didn’t immediately devour, but if i ever come into an excess of them, i know what to do. great idea. 🙂
yay, thanks for posting this! i was just wondering what to do with all my halloween candy! these sound perfect!
ps i made your pumpkin brownies the other day and they were sooooo delicious!!
Thanks for the birthday greetings everyone!
I love what Anna said on Cookie Madness… “they came from Recipe Girl, so they’ve got to be good.
How true!
If Joe is right, Happy Birthday!
About these lemon bars. Hmmm. I first thought “chocolate and lemon”, I don’t know, but I just read your post about them again and looked at those yummy pictures and since your husband didn’t think they were very chocolatey, I bet they ARE good! Four buckets of candy and we probably have over 30 Kit Kats. Hmmm? They are one of my son’s favorites, so I’ll bet he’d really be mad if I took them. 😉
Wow! This is a great flavor combo! I am enjoying your blog!
This looks like a shepherd’s pie but a sweet treat!
Kit Kat bars were one of my faves.
Wow! This is a winner recipe and of course bookmarked.
Happy birthday Lori!! 🙂 The lemon bars look awesome– I should be so lucky to have extra Kit Kats, though! 😉
We bought Kit Kats to give out and nobody came to our door. I’ll have to try this.
What a fabulous idea! Wow, I love it! Thanks for this!
I knew there had to be a creative use for all this leftover Halloween candy! I think we might have had 14 leftover Kit-Kats at one point, but now…oh well, next year! 🙂
You know that is exactly what I gave out this year: mini Kit Kats! And do you know I have a lot leftover.
Thank you so much for thinking of this. I think I will make this but with pb filling.
Awesome, thanks for sharing, now I don’t have to go looking for recipes.
That’s so clever! Such a creative way to use that mountain of candies.
That orthodontist sounds awesome. I wonder how many pounds of candy he/she has received?!
These bars look and sound awesome. Kit Kats are one of my favorite candies, especially on Halloween. You’re so resourceful!
Love it!
You guys are so clever…both you and the dentist…..I’ll have to hide the Kit Kats though! Lovely recipes!
Those look fantastic! I love kit kats and lemon bars, the idea of combining them sounds just delicious!
I love kitkats and I love lemon bars. Sounds like a keeper!
Happy Birthday Lori!
This looks SINFULLY delicious!!
Michelle 🙂