I have made the "Nieman Marcus" 250 dollar cookie recipe using chocolate bars chopped up in the food processor. You could probably use any kind of chocolate candy, even though the recipe calls for a grated bar of chocolate.

Ingredients:

2½ cups rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
4 ounces milk chocolate, grated or finely chopped
1½ cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Blend the oats in a food processor or blender to a fine powder. In
a medium bowl, whisk together the blended oats with the flour, baking
powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and
both sugars until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides
of the bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each
addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and
gradually add the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. With a
rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips, grated chocolate and
walnuts.

4.
Roll the dough into 2-ounce balls (or about 2 heaping tablespoonfuls
worth) and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake one
sheet at a time until the edges are set but the center still looks
undone, about 10 minutes. Cool the cookies completely on the baking
sheets. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room
temperature for up to 4 days (they can also be frozen for up to 2
months).

Sorry for the degrading of the case of wine.....it's been my practice to not toss good food after bad. If the chocolate is cheap and tasteless, adding good stuff will just degrade the good stuff. Squirrels don't have discriminating tastes.
I am almost afraid to post this here, but I guess it's obscure enough. But I have a very dear friend who every year at Christmas presents me with a huge platter of home made fancy cookies. Sugar cookie cutouts, frosted, gingerbread men, spritz, jam buttons rolled in nuts, chocolate chip cookies, pecan snowballs....and a few others.
Nasty! How can anyone make tasteless dry crumbling cookies and not know that there are better reci[pes is beyond me>
She means very well....it's a lovely gesture.....we say thank you....eat a few....remark about her needing new recipes and the squirrels get fat>
I wish I could think of a tactful way of suggesting new recipes. She's not poor, and $6 or $7w orth of butter would make a huge difference.

Yes, if the chocolates are really that bad, just throw them out. The bars I used were middling OK, the cookies were delish.

No problem chucking bad chocolate!

If it's "mediocre chocolate taste" I'd turn it into ganache.

Yes, I know the quality of ganache depends on the quality of chocolate and heavy cream, but if it's just "mediocre", I'd add McCormick's immitation rum flavouring - a spoonful of that works wonders even with such chocolate. That's been my experience, there being no lack of mediocre choc in this world.

I wouldn't chuck it.

An enormous gift box of mixed chocolates...probably thirty

An open box of awful mixed chocolates... A mix of thirty different chocolates?

I don't see how you can used mixed chocolates as an ingredient in anything. And since you say that they're awful, then Why even try?

Open box, so you can't donate them to a soup kitchen/ homeless shelter.

Only two things that I can think of that they would be useful for--Bear Bait, if you know someone who hunts bears...Or pig food if you know someone who raises pigs.

Mole? Maybe if you add enough spices you can hide the mediocre taste?

If you know anyone with a mouse or rat problem, give it to them to use as bait. I found out the hard way that mice love chocolate.

Sally

About good recipes--my mothers holiday cookies have turned less and less and into nothingness by cutting out all things cookie. They have no flavor. She cuts out most of the butter and almost all the sugars and cuts chocolate chips etc. and she does not cook them long enough.

I don't see the point. Maybe add rosemary and a bit of parmesan so they are maybe a cracker. No one eats them but her. We do tell her. She considers them healthier. : )

Her chex party mix is really just mixed cereal out of the box. With pretzels and a few peanuts. Again not toasted at all.

An extreme opposite is my neighbor. She makes the most divine chocolate truffles. Every holiday throughout the year a small box of six is hanging on our door knob. Usually six new flavors she is trying. Always amazing.

Wow, lets just let this thread die...

I looked at the treats DH put in the garage and ready for the garbage. It is an 'international' selection so Turkish, Canadian, etc. I originally though i was being surly or pissy...

We tasted a tiny bit and opened the packages and it was tasting of desel fuel and not a bit pleasant. (the truffle box above had two tiny foil bits in that large box and not so good)..

Just surprised a company can get away with selling something so horrid.

Garbage it all goes. Will not try or attempt a re-make.

(i just thought some of it might be ok)

Well if it all tasted of diesel fuel, perhaps it sat in a warehouse where there were fumes or was shipped in container that was getting fumes from an inefficient exhaust or something, and it was strong enough to seep through the wrappers. That is, maybe it really was diesel fuel! It's happened...

"Just surprised a company can get away with selling something so horrid." I think that same thing every time I drive past the fast food joint with the golden arches.

There's also a company that sells vegetarian packaged food, such as pizza, soup, entrees and the like. (It's a 3 letter woman's name starting with "A".) I've tried them more than once, they're awful. I don't understand why that company is so successful. I see them everywhere, so someone likes them, I guess.

The packaging on your chocolates is pretty. That's probably why people buy them.

Sally

(It's a 3 letter woman's name starting with "A".)

Wouldn't it have been easier to just write Amy's? (grin)

I've tried a few of her selections. The only one that I like is the Vegetable Lasagna. It's actually pretty good.