This Christmas Crack recipe for saltine cracker toffee is sweet, salty, and totally addicting! Make half with pecans and half with sprinkles!
We are making Christmas Crack this year along with our favorite Christmas recipes, homemade candies, and holiday cookies!
Saltine toffee is a long-standing holiday favorite because not only is it easy to make, but it also tastes fantastic! Put some in holiday tins or cellophane bags to give as gifts from the kitchen.
What You’ll Find In This Post About Making Christmas Crack
Saltine Cracker Toffee Ingredients
To make saltine toffee bark, you’ll need crackers for the bottom, toffee ingredients for the middle, and chocolate for the top!
- Crackers: We used saltine crackers in this recipe, but you can also use Club crackers.
- Toffee: The toffee layer is made with butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Frosting: This recipe calls for a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a cup of white chocolate chips that are used as the frosting on top, along with a little shortening to thin it.
- Toppings: We topped half of the pan with chopped toasted pecans and the other half with Christmas sprinkles. Kids love the sprinkles and the adults love the nuts.
How To Make This Christmas Crack Recipe
One of the things people love about Christmas crack is that it is really easy to make! Simply prepare the pan, make the toffee, spread chocolate over the toffee, and add a topping.
- Crust: The bottom layer is only saltine crackers, so all you have to do is lay them out in the pan.
- Toffee: To make the toffee layer, cook the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Then, pour it over the crackers in the pan and bake for about 5 minutes.
- Chocolate: Once the pan is out of the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over the toffee and allow them to melt before spreading them over it. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave and drizzle it over the semi-sweet chocolate layer. Drag a knife through the layers of chocolate to create a pattern.
- Topping: Sprinkle chopped toasted pecans over half of the pan and sprinkles over the other half.
Variations
Other Kinds of Crackers
You can substitute the saltine crackers with another kind of cracker. Try using Club crackers, graham crackers, or Ritz crackers.
Pretzel Toffee
Rather than using crackers, make pretzel toffee with a salty crunch! Pretzel squares or snaps would be the easiest to line up in a pan.
Cookie Toffee
Another option is to make cookie toffee by using cookies for the crust. Try Lorna Doones, Walker Shortbread cookies, or Biscoff Cookies.
Double Decker Christmas Crack
Make the cracker toffee bars in a 9×13-inch pan instead of a jelly roll pan. Spread half of the crackers in the bottom of the lined pan. Pour half of the caramel mixture over the crackers. Next, add a second layer of crackers and top it with the second half of the caramel mixture. Then, bake and top as directed in the recipe.
Toppings Ideas
We used two kinds of toppings on one pan so that we would have pieces that kids and adults love. You can use only chopped pecans or only sprinkles, depending on who you are making the toffee for. As far as other toppings ideas go, the sky is the limit! Even though it is called Christmas Crack, it can actually be made any time of the year so switch up the sprinkles to make the occasion. Here are a few more ideas:
- Nuts: Use chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, peanuts, or chopped cashews.
- Plain: Skip adding a topping and enjoy the chocolate on top.
- Candy: Top the Christmas crack with toffee bits, chopped candy bars, M&M’s, cookie crumbles, or crushed candy canes.
- Chocolate: Substitute all or just part of the semi-sweet chocolate chips with dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips to make different flavors.
- Melting Wafers: Use colored candy melted wafers (also known as candy coating or candy melts) instead of (or in addition to) the white chocolate chips to make colorful swirls in the chocolate.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a few reasons. The first is that it tastes so good that you can’t stop eating it. The second reason is that you break it into pieces once it has cooled. And the third is that it cracks when you bite into a piece.
We lined our pan with heavy-duty foil and greased the foil as well. Some people say they have better luck with using greased parchment paper. Either way, the toffee does stick somewhat, but you can peel the foil (or parchment) off of the toffee before breaking (or cutting) it into pieces, or you can peel it off as you go.
The sugar didn’t melt while boiling. You need to bring the butter and sugar to a full boil and then continue to boil it for 3-4 minutes.
Want more holiday recipes? Try these next:
Homemade Peppermint Patties are even better than store-bought and they are fun to make!
This Fudge Recipe only takes about 10 minutes to make and it is melt-in-your-mouth perfection!
Candied Pecans are the perfect gift from the kitchen that everyone loves!
Peanut Butter Balls are an irresistible combination of chocolate and peanut butter with a little crunch in the middle!
Christmas Crack Saltine Cracker Toffee
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- 48 saltine crackers
- 1 ½ cups butter
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoon shortening
- ¾ cup chopped toasted pecans
- 2 tablespoon sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line a jelly roll pan with foil (or parchment paper) and grease well. Spread the saltine crackers on the foil in a single layer. Set aside.
- Put the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Boil for 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from heat and CAREFULLY stir in the vanilla. The mixture will splatter while stirring so use caution and possibly wear oven mitts.
- Pour the caramel mixture over the saltine crackers and spread out evenly.
- Bake at 400˚F for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove from oven and sprinkle with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Allow the chocolate chips to soften for about 5 minutes and then spread it out over the toffee.
- Melt the white chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave on high for 45 seconds. Stir and continue heating in 10-second intervals, stirring each time, until smooth. Drizzle over the chocolate in horizontal lines. Then, drag a knife vertically through the white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate, alternating directions, to create a pattern. (See the video for the technique.)
- Sprinkle with chopped toasted pecans on 1/2 of the pan and add sprinkles to the other half.
- Allow the toffee and chocolate topping to cool and harden before removing it from the pan. Peel the foil off before cutting (or breaking) the toffee into pieces. Or you can peel the foil off as you go if that is easier.
Toni says
What is the best way to store Christmas Crack??
Tonia says
You can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to two months. Enjoy!