Easy Pea-zy Hallowe'en Bark + Reece's Pieces/Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Brownies

Have any leftover candy that you just don't know what to do with it (besides from eating it all in one sitting?). How about making some Hallowe'en mix chocolate bark? It's so simple to make, and it could include any of your favourite candies. This bark has some of my all time favourites, Skor and Reece's Pieces, but I also decided to add candy corn for festive colour even though I really dislike the taste. I just find candy corn so gorgeous, I went to Bulk Barn today and saw the Christmas version of candy corn, I was so tempted to buy it just because of it's colours but... ugh, it's so gross. Anywho, onto the bark.

At my dad's work they were bringing in baked goods... or store-bought baked goods, but I decided to make my dad look like a good Samaritan and bake some Hallowe'en treats for him. The proceeds were going to United Way... I couldn't resist; the treats went to a good cause and gave me an excuse to bake. My dad actually ended up winning two passes to the movies, which he ended up passing to me which was even cooler. I brought some bark into work and that went very quickly.

In my dad's tin, I put the following:
Hallowe'en bark - see below
Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
Iced Pina Colada Shortbread Cookies
Hallowe'en Pinwheel Cookies
Hallowe'en Checkerboard Cookies

It looked festive, had a nice variety of baked goods, and tasted darn good! I was really happy. Now onto the bark recipe which is super-deeelish and incredibly easy to make!

Chocolate Hallowe'en Bark

Ingredients:

• 1 pound dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup Reece's Pieces
• Handful of green M&M's (yes I actually picked them out... black, orange, yellow and green are Hallowe'en c'mon!)
• 2 Skor bars - coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup of candy corn
• Black and Orange Jimmy's - sporadically sprinkled

Directions:

Prepare all of your ingredients. Set out a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

Melt the dark chocolate on low heat. Quickly spread it out on the baking sheet to your desired thickness (don't make it too thin or else it will shatter).

Sprinkle all of the toppings on the bark, pushing them down slightly to insure they will stick.

Refrigerate until the bark is firm. Peel off the parchment paper off and break into pieces.

Reece's Pieces/Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Brownies

When I was younger, where we lived we used to get 300-400 kids on Hallowe'en night sometimes even 500. That was almost 12 years ago though... I moved out of my dad's years ago and moved in with my mom and where she lives... well... we don't get any kids at all. My dad was a Hallowe'en Grinch for quite some years and never bought pumpkins and never handed out candy, he'd simply shut off the lights. Well the past two years he's decided to be more zen with life and thought that he owed back to the community. With that being said he now looks very forward to handing out Hallowe'en to the local children and buys quite an exuberant amount of candy. Well... this year, he bought boxes of chips and Cheetos and boxes of chocolate, and how many kids did he get you ask? Twenty-four. Needless to say he wasn't impressed, because he had sooo much leftover candy. He simply looked at it that it was just karma for all the years he didn't buy candy, but he still wasn't happy. I decided to take some Reece's Pieces and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups off his hands though... I wanted to do some baking c'mon!

I decided to make some brownies. I wanted to make something quick and simple, since I don't get home until eight o'clock at night sometimes later but I wanted to bring something into my co-workers. I decided to use a cake mix and lessen the water and egg consistency making it more fudge like and not as cakey, and it worked. Even my mom who's on her weird diet tried it and was like "OHHH MY GOSH!!!" These were all gone by the end of the day which made me happy and it "helped" my dad out by getting rid of some of his candy ;) not that I complained at all!

This is such a simple recipe and is ideal for those busy days where you want a good treat. You can add any candies/chocolates to make it more special or you can simply keep it brownie-esque but what fun is that?

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Reece's Pieces
• 10 Reece's Peanut Butter Cups

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all of your ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into a lined dish and bake for 45 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

Remember to brush your teeth ;)!