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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
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
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
One of my favorites! So yummy 😋
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.
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! 😉
Does it make a difference if you use a brown sugar substitute verses real brown sugar and margarine instead of real butter? Mine never thickened. I started over twice. Still couldnt get it right and I measured it properly and cooked the exact time. Ty
Made this for a New Years Eve party. It was easy to make. Thanks for the recipe.
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!
We are going to make mine today, can’t wait to eat them!
White chocolate chips did not melt like the semi sweet. Not sure why.
Love this recipe
So easy and so delicious! We couldn’t stop eating it!
Going to try and make these this year