Don’t throw out leftover candy canes or shredded coconut: How to use surplus baking ingredients

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Holiday baking can mean extra items on the shopping list you don’t often use. If you find yourself with half-packages of surplus ingredients, here are some ways to incorporate them into your day-to-day meals.

Unsweetened chocolate

Extra squares can be chopped and whisked into steaming milk (or a combination of milk and cream or coconut milk) and sweetened to taste with sugar or honey for a dreamy hot chocolate. Aim for around 1 oz. chocolate per ½ to 1 cup milk/cream, plus sweetener to taste.

Molasses

As a form of sugar, molasses has a long shelf life, so there’s no rush to use it. If you’re a fan of its licorice-y flavour, drizzle some over your oatmeal instead of maple syrup or honey, or add some to your barbecue sauce or baked beans. It can be used as a flavourful sweetener in cakes, muffins and quick breads, or add a spoonful to your chocolate chip cookies for a deeper toffee flavour. If you’re running low on brown sugar, make your own by blending 1 tbsp. of molasses into 1 cup of white sugar.

Coconut

Sweetened or unsweetened, shredded coconut is delicious in homemade granola, or toast some in a dry skillet to top coconut-based curries or soups, or to add crunch to peanut noodles or your morning oatmeal.

A holiday party-ready panettone you can make at home

Crème fraîche or whipped cream

Swirl a spoonful of tangy crème fraîche into soup or mashed potatoes, use in curries or toss with pasta – crème fraîche and other high-fat cream won’t separate when combined with acidic ingredients or heated. Leftover sweetened whipped cream can be frozen in dollops to place on top of hot chocolate or coffee later, or folded into pancake or waffle batter, replacing about half as much of the liquid in your recipe (i.e. if you have a cup of whipped cream, dial back the milk by ½ cup).

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Sweetened condensed milk

Most recipes call for a full can, but if you find yourself with surplus, use it to sweeten your smoothie, make a Vietnamese-style coffee, or whip it into cream cheese, then spoon into jars over crushed cookie crumbs to make no-bake cheesecakes you can top with any kind of fruit compote – even cranberry sauce.

Canned pumpkin

Stir spoonfuls into pancake or waffle batter (no need to alter the other ingredients) or add some to your smoothie. It can also be used in soups and curries – it’s just puréed squash, after all – or stirred into oatmeal, mashed potatoes, pasta sauces, mac and cheese or dal. Or make pumpkin gnocchi: crack an egg into ½-1 cup pumpkin purée, then work in 1½ to 2 cups flour and a big pinch of salt, shape into gnocchi and cook as you like.

Host a holiday party, Dan Pelosi style: cookies, and nothing else

Dried or candied fruit or citrus peel

All make delicious additions to homemade granola – add it after baking, as it cools. Any dried or candied fruit, from chopped dates to candied citron or even glace mix, can be stirred into carrot cake or muffin batter, or into your morning oatmeal or muesli. To make no-bake energy balls, blitz any quantity in the food processor with nuts or nut butter, a shake of dry oats and/or coconut, a spoonful of cocoa and another of honey and roll the mixture into balls.

Brandy, Cointreau or Grand Marnier

If you have leftovers from your fruitcake, make classic sidecar cocktails by shaking an ounce each of brandy and Cointreau or Grand Marnier with a squeeze of lemon in a cocktail shaker with ice; strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Candy canes

Crush and stir them into hot chocolate or softened ice cream, or into cookie or brownie batter before baking.