Hijack Some Halloween Candy for this EASY NO BAKE PIE!
Halloween doesn’t just have to be about what candies the kiddos get! Here’s your chance as an adult to hijack some of those sweet treats to use for your own adult cream cheese pie. Add any chocolate covered candy bar such as Snickers or Heath Bars inside and on top. Those were my choices today. It’s really an adult version when you add some Kahlua or other coffee liqueur to it.
Decorate the very top with some of the candy bar bits. To keep it in the spirit of Halloween, place some ghoulish candies on top. Wax lips, skull candies, eyeballs, etc.
Preheat the oven:
No need to with this no bake recipe.
Prepare the 10-11” pie pan:
Nothing to do, just make sure it’s clean. This is a no bake recipe.
Graham Cracker Crust Ingredients:
2 ¼ C Graham crackers, crushed (about 2 packets)
½ C Powdered sugar
1 Stick + 1 T Butter (9 T), melted and cooled
¼ C Heath Bar bits (about 1-2 regular sized candy bars broken up)
Crush the Crust:
- Melt the butter and let cool, in a medium bowl.
- Crush the graham crackers. I usually put the crackers in a sealable plastic bag, fold a thick towel around it and pound it with a rolling pin or heavy metal meat tenderizer, using the flat side.
- Add the graham crackers to the butter and stir thoroughly.
- Add the powdered sugar and heath bar bits and stir until well combined. If you use something other than Heath bars, be sure to break them up into tiny bits for the crust.
- Press into a 10-11” pie pan. I use a flat bottom glass or cup, or just use my hands, dampened, but not real wet.
- Refrigerate until well chilled, about 2 hours.
Filling Ingredients:
16 oz Cream cheese, softened
¼ C Caramel topping (ice cream topping or homemade)
¼ C Kahlua (Optional)
2 C Powdered sugar
8 oz Whipped topping, thawed
10-12 oz Snickers bars, broken up and divided (save some for the very top)
½ C Heath bar chips (save some for the very top)
Beat the filling:
- With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth
- Beat in caramel topping and Kahlua.
- Add the powdered sugar and beat well.
- Thoroughly stir in the thawed whipped topping.
- Stir in most of the Snickers and Heath bar bits. Save some for sprinkling over the top of the pie.
- Spread the filling in the cold pie crust.
- Sprinkle the rest of the candy on top.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours or more before serving.
Easy Substitutions:
- If you’re short on cream cheese for the filling, just use 8 ounces and increase the whipped topping to 16 ounces. It will give you a lighter filling, but still have the volume to fill the pie crust.
- Don’t have Snickers or Heath bars on hand? Go ahead and use any chocolate covered candy bars, one or a mixture. Kit Kats, Baby Ruths, double dipped chocolate covered peanuts, Milky Ways - they all work.
Options:
- Halloween is a great time to make this pie. Raid the kid’s Halloween treasure trove. In fact, get them involved in deciding what to use and mix them up. Decorate it with some scary ghoulish candy. It’s a fun way to use up the candy for everyone in the household to enjoy.
- Change it up with chocolate, lemon or mint sandwich cookies – use crushed Oreo cookies instead of graham crackers in the pie crust. They have so many flavors! Break up more Oreo cookies and stir in the filling. Then, crush some more Oreo cookies and sprinkle on top like “dirt” and get the kids involved in sticking gummy worms in the “dirt.”
- Make bars with this recipe. If you don’t want a round pie, make the entire pie in a square 9”x9” baking pan. In that case you may want to line the pan with parchment paper in case you want to lift the entire dessert out of the pan before you slice it. (If I am using a non-stick pan, I still line it with parchment paper so I don’t ruin the pan's coating when I cut the bars.) Press the crust into the bottom of the pan. No need to bring the crust up the sides. Pour the filling in, then decorate and refrigerate it.