Leftover Bunny Bait Cookies

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! If your house is anything like ours all of the eggs are empty, they baskets are put away, dresses are hung back up, leftovers are quickly dwindling in the fridge, and the kids are slowly coming down off their sugar rush . But one thing remains, a tub filled with far too much candy, many of which will remain until the next holiday. Admit it…how many of you are just now tossing Christmas candy..or even Halloween? It seems no matter what holiday I’m tossing from the last, and while I don’t want my kiddos consuming all of that sugar – I also hate tossing it out!

So a few holidays back I decided to get a little creative with their candy and bake it into cookies! Despite the fact that we hardly bought a single candy for our kiddos they still accumulated a ton of candy through family, friends, egg hunts, school, and so on! In addition I had bought several bags of Easter candy to bake with and due to being sick half the month never got around to using them! Thankfully we had a large Easter event to attend this weekend so with the kids permission of course, I rounded up all our extra candy and baked it into super yummy, soft, fluffy, jumbo cookies to share!

Seriously, it’s a win win for us all. I always ask the girls first and then let them help out with the cookies, so they’ve never been upset about missing their candy. And instead of them consuming it all, it’s now shared with family, friends, placed in the freezer, ate as an after school snack, an so on. We actually made two batches this weekend and we’ve put just about everything in these guys – peeps, m&m’s, reese eggs, broke up chocolate bunnies, malted eggs, candy corn, jelly beans, nuts, – and of course sprinkles! I mean after all you’re going to need a good excuse to by those clearance Easter sprinkles anyway. :)

I was a little overwhelmed in the kitchen this weekend and unfortunately I didn’t get any step by step photos outside of a few sneak peaks on Instagram. But you’re in luck because this cookie is the same recipe and process as these monster cookies, so if you would like pictures head on over and check out this post.

Here’s what you are going to need:

1 Stick Softened Unsalted Butter
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Eggs
1 3.4oz Vanilla Pudding (Instant)
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 TSP Baking Soda
1TSP Butter Extract (May substitute with vanilla)
3 Cups Easter Candy (any mix)
Sprinkles (optional)

Makes approx. 18 5in cookies.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combined flour and baking soda in a bowl, set aside.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and instant pudding mix. Add in eggs then butter extract.

Step 3: Slowly mix in flour combination until a completely combined.

Step 4: Once your dough is ready, gently fold in 2 cups of candy. Pour the last cup into a bowl and set aside.

Step 5: Roll into large balls about 1.5in across. (yes, they are HUGE)

Step 6: Then dip each cookie in candy using the last cup of candy that you set aside. This gives each cookies lots of candy on the outside too! (only the top needs to be covered)

Step 7: Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet (several inches apart!) for 14-15 minutes at 350 degrees. You may need to adjust the baking temp depending on the size of your cookies. I recommend setting your timer for 10 minutes to start then keeping an eye on the first set to see just how long yours need. Because these cookies were so big I only baked about 6 at a time! Mine were perfectly at 14 minutes.

Seriously I just LOVE making these cookies! They ridiculously over the top delicious. The pudding in them makes them extra fluffy and the butter extract gives them such a unique flavor. Not to mention who doesn’t love a giant cookie the size of their hand? I may have snuck a cookie or two extra when the kids were sleeping….

Our candy bowl has been reduced to sweet tarts and nerds, and a bit of Laffy Taffy, I think we can handle that. :)