Candy Archives - How to be Awesome on $20 a day

It’s Pi Day!!!!!! This is one of my personal favorites because it combines being a nerd and eating dessert. You can bet I’m much more into the pie than the math, but I’m fully in favor of stuff that smart people like. When I get to stand next to them, does it make me seem smarter by association? I certainly hope so. How many digits of pi do you think my husband can recite? Perhaps we should take bets on that.

I made a no-bake holiday pie that you can easily customize for any special occasion. Just pick your favorite colorful candy to top it off. This pie is a simple combination of cream cheese, condensed milk, vanilla pudding, and whipped topping inside a buttery graham cracker crust.

I used Cadbury mini eggs on this one. I think Cadbury mini eggs can make just about anything awesome. The whole thing came together in about 20 minutes. There’s just that little matter of letting it refrigerate for 4 hours before you get to eat it.

I don’t really remember anything from high school geometry, but I think you can use pi to figure out the precise size of your pie. Or you can just eat all the pie and let someone else do the math. Either way, you should definitely enjoy a slice of pie today. It’s the right thing to do.

No-Bake Holiday Pie

2014-03-10 22:45:56

Serves 10

A quick and simple no-bake pie you can adapt to any holiday

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Prep Time

20 min

Prep Time

20 min

Ingredients

1 sleeve graham crackers, about 9
4 tablespoons butter, melted
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup water
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
1-1/2 cups whipped topping
Your favorite holiday candy

Instructions

Smash up your graham crackers into crumbs using a food processor or a zip top bag and something heavy. Combine the crumbs and the butter and press into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Put this in the fridge while you get on with your pie.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Slowly mix in the condensed milk. Next add the water and the pudding mix and beat until smooth.
Finally, fold in whipped topping with a rubber spatula. Keep working at it lightly until fully combined.
Transfer the filling into the crust and smooth out the top with a butter knife or offset spatula.
Top with your favorite candy and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Adapted from 1001 Fast & Easy Recipes

How to be Awesome on $20 a day https://awesomeon20.com/

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Do you have lots of left over Halloween candy at your house? If you said yes, I’m totally jealous. Not only do we not have kids at our house to steal from, we also don’t get trick or treaters, so there is absolutely no pretext for me to binge on candy. But then I remembered that you probably need a recipe to use up some of that leftover candy, so I went and bought some so I could make something for you. Clever scheme, eh?

But really you should just throw in whatever you have lying around your house. Once the cookie base and chocolate sauce are made, this cookie bar can be tarted up with your favorite candy. Or all the left over stuff that nobody likes much. Throw it in a cookie bar, and it becomes instantly more interesting. I’m always looking out for you.

These monster cookie bars, originally from Bakers Royale, start out with a chewy oatmeal cookie base, complete with the deep flavor of brown butter. Then they cut some chocolaty, salty, crunchy action thrown in via mini chocolate chips, pretzel M&Ms, and macadamia nuts. After that, there’s a pool of chocolate sauce in which mini peanut butter cups and more pretzel M&Ms are floating. Then more of that cookie dough is crumbled on top to make things epically awesome.

It’s a thing of beauty. Okay, actually, it’s a little ugly, but it tastes beautiful. Never miss a chance to create ridiculous candy concoctions. It’s always the right choice.

Monster Cookie Bars

2013-11-03 15:36:15

Serves 12

Layers of cookie, candy, and plenty of chocolate. It's ridiculous!

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Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

45 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

45 min

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups quick cooking oats
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup pretzel M&Ms, crushed
1 cup milk
14 ounces chocolate
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
Mini Reese's peanut butter cups (a few handfuls)
Pretzel M&Ms (a few handfuls)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8x8 pan with foil, allowing some to hand over the edge for easy removal.
In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and continue to cook until it turns lightly brown and begins to smell nutty. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat together brown butter and brown sugar until combined. Add eggs and beat for about 3 minutes.
With the mixer on low, slowly incorporate the flour mixture, then add the chocolate chips, mac nuts, and crushed M&Ms.
In a small sauce pan over low heat, combine the milk, chocolate, and condensed milk. Stir slowly until the chocolate is completely melted. Remove from heat.
Press about half of your cookie dough in the bottom of the pan. Pour the melted chocolate over this, and sprinkle your peanut butter cups and pretzel M&Ms into the pool of chocolate. Then crumble the rest of the cookie dough over the top. Don't worry about covering the whole thing completely.
Bake for about 45 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. Get ready to slap the table and try not to swear in front of the kids.

Notes

The original recipe suggested this could be made in an 8x8 or a 9x13 pan. Next time, I'm definitely going to try the 9x13. Thinner might actually be better for this one.

Adapted from Bakers Royale

How to be Awesome on $20 a day https://awesomeon20.com/