OK, who else got stuck with a bunch of candy after disappointing trick-or-treater turnout? The whole neighborhood was abuzz last week about whether (or how) to participate in Halloween this year—do we go ahead and buy candy? Will there be any kids? Is it even safe to do it this year? Without a pandemic playbook, we were all just guessing, but the consensus was “let’s give it a go.”
So Les and I scrubbed our hands, dumped our bags of candy into a wide bowl with our long-handled BBQ tongs, placed our face masks on standby and flicked on the porch light to signal our intentions. Mr. Bones did his best to draw them in with his spooky presence and vacant gaze. But when the clock showed 9:30, we gave up, having given out exactly seven pieces of candy—all to one adorable little witch princess.
It’s not that much of a surprise, and in some ways I’m relieved because it proves that our community has done a good job of recognizing the safety issues of COVID. Despite our preparation and “no contact” method of distributing the candy, we ended up with nearly as much as we started. In previous years, Les has taken our leftover candy to share with his co-workers, but that standard fallback doesn’t work this year, either.
I guess I had it coming, this big pile of leftover Snickers—just last week, I was re-living the childhood trauma of my father’s annual raids on my Halloween candy, under the guise of a “safety check.” Is this the universe’s clever way of paying me back after all these years?
Though it is true that Snickers has always been my favorite candy bar, there’s a limit to how many of them I can eat before I get bored. I fired up the idea machine in my brain, and these easy-to-make brownies were born. They are the best of both worlds. Rich, dark, soft chocolate-y brownies and sweet, salty, peanut-y candies. What could possibly go wrong?
Ingredients
Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownie mix (or your favorite, plus ingredients listed on the box instructions)
10 fun-sized Snickers candy bars (not the “minis”)
Coarse sea salt
Instructions
You also need the ingredients for preparing the brownie mix. 
These were fun-sized bars, and I cut them into bits about the size of sugar cubes. 
Scatter the bits a few at a time, then fold into the batter. Repeat until all candy bits are incorporated. 
A quick sprinkling of sea salt will echo the salty peanuts in the Snickers bars. 
Oh my goodness! The chocolate aroma is intoxicating, and you can see the sea salt on the surface of the brownies. 
You can see bits of candy bar oozing throughout the brownies. It’s so tough to wait for them to cool!
- Preheat oven as instructed on brownie mix. Prepare baking pan as directed.
- Cut up candy bars into small bite-sized pieces.
- Make brownie mix as directed by box instructions.
- Fold in candy bar pieces, then spread batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Give the batter a light sprinkle of the coarse sea salt.
- Bake as directed on brownie mix and cool completely before cutting.
Comfort du Jour 
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