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This Christmas crack recipe is a delicious homemade candy that’s impossible to resist! It’s salty, sweet, crunchy, and filled with chocolate and caramel.
Christmas crack is a great treat and filler for holiday cookie plates, along with Butter Mints, Turtle Candy, and Gingerbread Cookies!
Reasons Why We Love It!
If you’ve never tried saltine cracker toffee 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).
- Simple. With a quick prep time, these are a favorite!
- Flavor. The salt of the saltine crackers balances out the sweetness perfectly.
- Sharing. We love to break this saltine toffee up into pieces and add the treats to our cookie plates.
Just a Few Ingredients
- Saltine Crackers – (about 35-40 crackers) You can also use Ritz crackers or graham crackers.
- Unsalted Butter
- Brown sugar – We use light brown sugar but dark works too.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips – Higher quality chocolate like Ghirardelli, will melt and set the best. Change the flavor and use white chocolate chips, dark chocolate, peanut butter chips, or milk chocolate chips
- Sprinkles – Add chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or pistachios), crushed peppermints, holiday M&M’s, toffee bits, flaky sea salt, or a drizzle of white chocolate.
How to Make Christmas Crack
- PREP. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 10×15-inch pan with aluminum foil, or parchment paper, 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 texture. 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.
- Boil for 3 minutes. It’s important that the brown 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.
- Giftable. Christmas cracker candy makes a great homemade gift. Wrap it in holiday cellophane bags or tins, and everyone will be excited to receive a batch.
Storing info
- Make ahead of time. Easily make Christmas crack candy in advance and have it on hand for cookie plates or neighbor gifts.
- STORE in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days, in the fridge for 10 days, or in the freezer for 4-6 weeks.
For More Homemade Candy:
Christmas Crack Recipe
Christmas crack is a delicious homemade candy that's impossible to resist! It's salty, sweet, crunchy, and filled with chocolate and caramel.
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.
Video
Notes
Make ahead of time. Easily make it in advance and have it on hand for cookie plates or neighbor gifts.
STORE. Saltine Christmas crack 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.
Nutrition
Calories: 113kcal, Carbohydrates: 10g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 12mg, Sodium: 3mg, Potassium: 59mg, Sugar: 8g, Vitamin A: 145IU, Calcium: 12mg, Iron: 0.6mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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The perfect give away gift! It makes plenty for family and friends. Its taste so good with the combination Of all the flavors!
This would make the perfect addition to any CHRISTMAS goodie plate. I love the salty sweet combination!
This Christmas crack was delicious!! it was incredibly easy to make & a hit with our friends!
These are serIously amazIng!!
I think so too!! Thanks for sharing that!
These look so good and Easy to make!
It really is!! Thank you so much!
I make this every year and everyone expects me to! It is so bad but so darn good!
LOL!! I know what you mean 🙂 Thank you for sharing that!
This is so good. I make mulit batches for teacher christmas gifts.
Perfect for teacher gifts!! Thank you for sharing!
I am glad he does!! Thank you for sharing!
LOVE this recipe! we do 2 cups butter and brown sugar.
Because the crackers are slightly cupped, salt side up is better for us. Less floatage movement and less seepage under the cracker
And we don’t pre-melt the chocolate:
Right after removing from the oven, Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Adjust the crackers if they’ve moved and overlapped in the oven. Let chocolate soften 1 to 2 minutes and spread evenly. But here’s the risk; Spread as soon as it softens and before it begins to cool. If the chocolate cools and cannot be spread, the batch is ruined. The chocolate will not remelt and be spreadable.
If adding pecans, add to top while chocolate is still warm. Gently press the pecans into the chocolate so they won’t easily fall off when eaten.
Sounds perfect! Thank you for sharing that!
thank you for sharing this recipe, great reminder of something I haven’t had in years and certainly never with sprinkles so love that new twist, at least for me
You are so welcome!! Thank you so much for sharing that!