Fancy Candy From Leftover Candy

Sadly the Pandemic did impact Trick or Treating this year :( I had a ton of left over Halloween Candy and wanted to make some use of it. I have come across a ton of left over candy recipes but everything was candy plus more candy in a cake or cream or in a pie or shake or a fudge.....

I wanted something really simple, quick and sort of healthy (I know its stretch). I decided to use these left over candy, make some discs and top it off with an assortment of nuts, dried fruits and seeds. Instead of high quality gourmet chocolate, I will be using left over Hershey. I also experimented with some leftover Lindt Bars.

Ingredients

1. Left over Chocolate Bars - I used Hershey's and Lindt Bars.
2. Nuts - Almonds, Cashews, Walnuts, Pecans, Pistachios
3. Dried Fruits - Raisins, Cranberries, Goji Berries, Papaya, Pine Apple, Mango, Banana
4. Seeds - Sesame Seeds
5. Others - Dried Coconut Shavings, Cacao Powder, Rose Petals

Tip: I tried to cut tiny cubes of the dried fruits and chopped nuts, that way there is more room for other toppings . I also powdered pistachios and dusted them on the discs.

Tools

1. Basic kitchen tools - Pots, Bowl and Spoons
2. Cookie Sheet
3. Parchment Paper/ Wax Paper
4. Knife

The first step was to melt the chocolate and the best way to do it was using a Double Boiler. Other easier option is to microwave it.

Steps

1. I filled a pot with water and let it start to boil. Placed heat resistant bowl on top of the pot, making sure of snug fit. The double boiler set up is ready. Once the water starts to boil within the pot, the steam will hit the bottom of the bowl and the heat will melt the chocolate evenly.
2. Placed Hersey bars in the bowl and let it melt giving it an occasional stir.
3. Meanwhile, I lined the cookie sheet with the wax paper
4. Once the chocolate was melted, I carefully removed the bowl from the double boiler set up.
5. Using a spoon, I dropped tiny dollops chocolate onto the wax paper and gently pressed using the back of the spoon creating tiny discs.
6. I repeated the above steps using Lindt Bar - White Chocolate.

Now the fun part begins, addition of toppings. I had some of the toppings easily available in my pantry. I went all out and got as much of toppings choices I could get. I had some left over trail mixes that gave some nice tropical ingredients. I wanted to pair them with chocolate and create as many combinations possible.

Steps

1. I added 4-5 toppings on some discs and for a few I chose 2-3 that go well. As I was doing it, I was picking toppings with a nice color contrast and textures - hard nuts will soft fruits.
2. There will be plenty of time to add toppings to the chocolate discs before it starts to harden.
3. Once the toppings were added, I placed the cookie sheet in a cool place and to let them set. I gently lifted the wax paper and applied pressure from the bottom, and let the discs pop for easy release. Then plucked away from the top . They were pretty intact and did not melt at all. Relief!

This was by far the easiest thing I have made. The chocolate discs made for a perfect bite size snack, loved the colors and they tasted as good as they looked. I wish I could get more freeze dried berries. Definitely gifting some of these. And of course, I will make a full disclosure that these were made of leftover Hershey and Lindt Bars:)

Thank you for checking out my Instructable. Hope you like it!