Christmas Crack is a delicious homemade candy that’s impossible to resist! It’s salty, sweet, crunchy, and filled with chocolate and caramel.
Christmas Crack is an irresistible sweet and salty candy recipe. It’s a great filler for holiday cookie plates, along with Marble Bark, Turtles Candy, and Gingerbread Cookies!
Saltine Cracker Toffee
If you’ve never tried Christmas Crack before, it’s a homemade toffee made with saltine crackers, caramel sauce, and chocolate.
This candy recipe is deliciously crunchy and hard to resist (just like our Classic Toffee recipe and Pretzel Toffee recipe).
The salt of the saltine crackers balances out the sweetness perfectly. We love to break this saltine toffee up into pieces and add them to our cookie plates.
English Toffee as we know it today became prominent in the early 1800s in Great Britain. The Saltine Cracker was first made in the late 1800s by what is now Nabisco. I couldn’t find who first thought to combine a saltine with toffee, but whoever it was is a person after my own heart.
How to make Christmas crack
No Fuss Toffee: Put away the candy thermometer, this Cracker Candy is much more simple than traditional Toffee. Simply boil for 3 minutes, and pour over the crackers.
PREP. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 10×15-inch pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.
CRAKERS. Place the saltine crackers on the baking sheet to cover the entire pan in 1 layer of crackers.
TOFFEE. Melt together the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, bring it to a boil for 3 minutes while stirring constantly.
BAKE. Carefully pour the mixture over the crackers. Spread it overtop so that all of the crackers are covered. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.
CHOCOLATE. Add the chocolate to a medium heatproof bowl. Microwave on medium power for 1-minute bursts, stirring between each. When the chocolate is almost melted, stir until smooth.
Spoon the chocolate over the crackers, and spread it smooth to completely cover the pan. Decorate with sprinkles.
CRACK. Let the toffee harden until the chocolate is set. Either at room temperature or in the fridge. Once completely hardened, remove from the pan and peel the aluminum foil off. Break/”crack” it into pieces.
Recipe Tips
Gritty Christmas crack. The main culprit to grainy toffee happens while boiling the mixture. While stirring the mixture, consistently scrape the sides otherwise the sugar will crystallize on the sides of the pan.
If this happens, don’t scrape it off. One way to avoid this is to bring the mixture to boil slowly giving time for the sugar to dissolve.
Boil for 3 minutes. It’s important that the butter/sugar mixture boils for exactly 3 minutes. If it doesn’t boil long enough the mixture won’t set and will just make the crackers soggy. If boiled too long, the temperature will rise too high causing it to be grainy.
Decorate. I like to decorate my Christmas Crack candy with holiday sprinkles. Chopped nuts like pecans, crushed candy canes, holiday M&M’s, Heath toffee bits, or a drizzle of white chocolate works perfectly too.
Variations:
- Saltine crackers can be replaced with Ritz Crackers or Graham Crackers.
- Use white chocolate chips, semi-sweet, dark, peanut butter chips, or milk chocolate chips for the topping. A higher quality chocolate like Ghirardelli, will melt and set the best.
Storing info
Christmas Crack makes a great homemade gift. Wrap it in holiday cellophane bags or tins, and everyone will be excited to receive a batch. Gift it to friends, family, or neighbors – or make a big batch for yourself!
Make ahead of time. Easily make it in advance and have it on hand for cookie plates or neighbor gifts.
STORE. Saltine Cracker Candy can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days, in the fridge for 10 days, or in the freezer for 4-6 weeks.
But trust us – it most likely won’t last that long. This Christmas Crack is so delicious, and the perfect easy homemade toffee recipe.
For more easy homemade candy recipes:
Christmas Crack Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 sleeve saltine cracker about 35-40 crackers
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Line a 10×15 inch-pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.
- Place the saltine crackers on the cookie sheet to cover the entire pan in 1 layer of crackers.
- Melt together the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Once the butter is melted, bring it to a boil for 3 minutes while stirring constantly.
- Carefully pour the mixture over the crackers. Spread it overtop so that all of the crackers are covered.
- Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.
- Add the chocolate to a medium heatproof bowl. Microwave on medium power for 1-minute bursts, stirring between each. When the chocolate is almost melted, stir until smooth.
- Spoon the chocolate over the crackers, and spread it smooth to completely cover the pan. Decorate with sprinkles.
- Let the toffee harden until the chocolate is set. Either at room temperature or in the fridge.
- Once completely hardened, remove from the pan and peel the aluminum foil off. Break/"crack" it into pieces.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the fridge for 10 days.
All I can say is Yummy
I have made this twice and both times it tasted like old oil. First time I used spray oil and today I just used unsalted butter. Any guess as to what I’m doing wrong.
Have you ever tried it with Almond Bark? I am not a big fan of the milk or dark chocolate on it.
I haven’t! You’ll have to let us know how it turns out if you use the almond bark. 🙂
I used chocolate almond bark instead of the chocolate chips since I didn’t have any. They came out great!
This is perfect when I need a quick treat!
Oh my goodness! This is FABULOUS!
A yearly must make! You will NOT be sorry!
Super easy, and tastes amazing!!!
Such a yummy treat and great for neighbor gifts.
This one is easy and addictive!!
Make these for my kids all the time. The best!!!
Going to try and make these this year
So easy and so delicious! We couldn’t stop eating it!
Love this recipe
White chocolate chips did not melt like the semi sweet. Not sure why.
We are going to make mine today, can’t wait to eat them!
Readers. You need to compare other real candy makers recipe to this one. I tried making this recipe 2 times. Both times it was a fail. The boiling of the sugar is key and your recipe says 5 minutes cook time. The toffee part never thickened up. I followed the instructions. So I did it again and cooked 7 minutes. Again the toffee part was better but still not thick enough. It was better but still not good enough. I’m very disappointed. It was a waste of a lot of ingredients. I do love your tortilla recipe though. Good luck y’all.
Thanks for the feedback and for giving the recipe a try. Glad to hear you enjoy the tortilla recipe!
Made this for a New Years Eve party. It was easy to make. Thanks for the recipe.
Followed the recipe and it came out perfect! I saw some comments about the chocolate chips not melting, I melted mine first in a small fondue pot and then poured them over the top – super easy. This is definitely a family favorite, thank you so much for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad that you enjoyed the recipe. It’s a favorite over here for sure!
Had to tell you I’m making it again – the third time this weekend-absolutely addictive! My son requested it for a get together with his high school friends, it was gone in no time – this is a keeper!
Oh yay!! I’m so happy to hear that! So glad your family loves the recipe. It is pretty addicting! 😉
I made this and my sugar mixture came out grainy
It may need to be boiled a little longer so that the sugar completely melts. Just make sure to continually stir so it doesn’t burn.