Cubicle kitchen: Pumpkin Spice Candy Corn Cookies

For the past few years, I've look forward to the day after Halloween more than Halloween itself.  Because that's when all the candy goes on sale, of course.  All of the really popular candy disappears in a puff of smoke almost instantaneously, it seems.  But there's always a healthy stock of leftover candy corn.  I'm still seeing it in stores, tucked away in clearance corners with the last of the Halloween make-up.

I, like most people, don't really eat a lot of candy corn.  Maybe one or two pieces out of holiday spirit, and then I'm done.  But I have some ideas for how to use it in baking that I want to experiment with, so I've stocked up on several pounds of the stuff.

My first results are simply cookies with candy corn in place of nuts or chocolate chips.  But they hint at one of the things I want to do later, which is actually an encore of something I've done before: the Homemade Butterfinger.  A peanut butter cookie with candy corn 'chips' doesn't really taste much like Butterfingers, but they are pretty tasty.  Because the candy corn was supposedly 'pumpkin pie spice' flavored, I used another sale item, a pumpkin spice cookie mix.  I don't think the pumpkin-ness came through much, though you could taste the cinnamon notes a little in the candy corn itself.

While baking, the candy corn will melt a little, but it will be back to regular corniness when cooled.  That does make the cookies rather sticky when it comes to the pan, though, so I advise using parchment paper as usual, and waiting a few extra minutes before trying to move the cookies from the pan to a tray to cool.

Pumpkin Spice Candy Corn Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 pouch Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Cookie Mix
• 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 3 Tablespoons flax meal*
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 large egg
• 10 oz bag Pumpkin Spice Candy Corn, roughly chopped

* Completely optional, I just threw it in

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix contents of pouch with remaining ingredients, except the candy corn, until incorporated.
3. Fold candy corn pieces into the dough.
4. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheet, pressing flat slightly.
5. Bake according to directions on pouch.