One of the best things about Valentine’s day being over is that all the sweets gets marked on deep discount — all the truffles, fruit and caramel filled chocolate, plus the giant solid pieces of chocolate. In the spirit of leftover holiday candy, I wanted to choose a project that could integrate some of this leftover chocolate because otherwise, it might just all sit there. I will preface this by saying that Valentine’s candy doesn’t get as cheap as Halloween candy, so maybe the other option here is to just use the candy given to you by your significant other. I also wanted this project to be a relatively easy project since last project’s truffles did require some talent — or maybe just buying candy coating rather than chocolate chips. These seem to be an easy, unique dessert to bring to a party or into the office one morning.

What you need:

– 1 pound of cookie dough

– 1 box of brownie mix

– 1 package of oreos

– leftover chocolate or Valentines candy chopped up

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spread the cookie dough out on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan.

3. Layer oreos on top of the cookie dough.

4. Make the brownie mix according to the directions on the package.

5. Intersperse the chopped up candy in the cookie layer or mix it into the brownie mix.

6. Pour the brownie mix over the oreos and candy.

7. Bake for 40 minutes. Test it with a toothpick, and if it doesn’t come out clean, bake for another 10 minutes.

8. Let it cool for half an hour.

Again, it’s a pretty easy project, but it yields a dessert that’s the right mix of chocolate chip cookie, Oreo and brownie. There have been several variations of this, so it’s easily customizable to whatever you have in your kitchen. You could also make your own cookie dough and brownies from scratch, which makes the project slightly harder, but when you’re craving something sweet, why work harder than you absolutely need to?