Cracker Toffee made with 5 simple ingredients and 15 minutes! This saltine cracker toffee is not only easy to make, but the results are a sweet treat that everyone will devour.
Make saltine cracker candy using basic kitchen ingredients like butter, brown sugar and chocolate chips. Often referred to as Christmas crack, this homemade toffee is absolutely delicious and irresistible.
What is Cracker Toffee?
This homemade toffee is the perfect combination of sweet and salty! It’s a layered dessert that couldn’t be easier to make. This saltine cracker toffee is a great treat to make during the holidays and gift to friends, neighbors, or even your delivery drivers or mail carriers. This is a simple recipe, it comes together quickly and inexpensive too. With some folks referring to it as Christmas crack, you know it will be loved and well received!
Tips for making Cracker Toffee
When you make this cracker toffee with brown sugar, you’ll see how fast it comes together. That being said, I have a few helpful tips for you if you’ve never made this before.
Firstly if you love salt flavor use fully salted Saltines and consider sprinkling a little salt over the tops when they get spread out on the baking sheet too. If you want less salt, opt for less salty crackers. You can even make this saltine cracker toffee without chocolate, but let’s not get too crazy.
Secondly, you should also make sure that you do not attempt this recipe without parchment paper or aluminum foil on hand (unless you want to spend forever scrubbing a baking sheet!) They seriously make cleanup a breeze and help you to save your sanity- a well worth it investment if you ask me.
Cracker Toffee Ingredients
Crackers: For the first layer in this treat, you will need 4 ounces of regular saltine crackers (1 full sleeve).
Butter: Use 1 cup of butter to create the rich, sweet toffee coating.
Brown sugar: Adding in 1 cup of dark brown sugar will make the toffee layer perfectly sweet and delicious.
Chocolate chips: You will need 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips for one of the other amazing layers in this cracker toffee.
Nuts: Add ¾ cups of chopped walnuts or pecans as the final layer to this dessert recipe.
How to Make Cracker Toffee
Prep
Get started by preheating the oven to 400 degrees F. Then, spread parchment paper (or aluminum foil) over a cookie sheet. It’s actually a jelly-roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides), which is what we need for this recipe.
Continue to line the cookie sheet with saltine crackers in a single layer, leaving some space between each cracker.
Candy mixture
Next, in a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a full, rolling boil, and then boil for 3 minutes.
Immediately pour the sugar mixture over the saltine crackers. Do your best to pour some on each cracker, but don’t worry about covering each one completely.
Bake
Proceed to place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 7 minutes. Once it’s been in the oven for 2-3 minutes, it will start to bubble. This is when the candy will cover the crackers on its own. Your cracker will also move around a bit, so you can see why it’s important to have a bit of excess foil/parchment up around the sides.
After the 7 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and then sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Put it back in the oven for another 2 minutes.
Remove from oven again, spread the melted chocolate using a knife or spatula and then sprinkle the top with the chopped nuts.
Let the toffee cool completely (about 15 minutes), then break into pieces, serve and enjoy!
Cracker Toffee
Ingredients
- 4 oz Regular Saltine Crackers (1 sleeve)
- 1 cup Butter
- 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips
- ¾ cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans
Instructions
- Prep: Get started by preheating the oven to 400 degrees F. Then, spread parchment paper (or aluminum foil) over a cookie sheet. It's actually a jelly-roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides), which is what we need for this recipe. Continue to line the cookie sheet with saltine crackers in a single layer, leaving some space between each cracker.
- Candy mixture: Next, in a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a full, rolling boil, and then boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour the sugar mixture over the saltine crackers. Do your best to pour some on each cracker, but don't worry about covering each one completely.
- Bake: Proceed to place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 7 minutes. Once it's been in the oven for 2-3 minutes, it will start to bubble. This is when the candy will cover the crackers on its own. Your cracker will also move around a bit, so you can see why it's important to have a bit of excess foil/parchment up around the sides.
- After the 7 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and then sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Put it back in the oven for another 2 minutes. Remove from oven again, spread the melted chocolate using a knife or spatula and then sprinkle the top with the chopped nuts. Let the toffee cool completely (about 15 minutes), then break into pieces, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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How long does Christmas Crack last?
Assuming you somehow make this cracker toffee last longer than a few hours and you didn’t eat it all right away, you can expect it to last up to about 2 weeks, if kept in an airtight container. After the first week the chocolate on top may begin to discolor (this is normal) but it is still fine to eat.
Can you freeze Christmas Crack?
Yes! If you keep your broken pieces well wrapped and inside of an airtight container, you can freeze it too. Just note that as the cracker toffee begins to cool back to room temperature the chocolate on top may break off from the toffee and the toffee may being to sweat. So it’s a little messier to eat, but will still delicious!
How do you store Cracker Toffee?
After breaking up the toffee, wrap the completely cooled Christmas crack saltines in plastic wrap and store inside of an airtight container or Ziploc bag. You can then store it at room temperature if it doesn’t get too hot (we don’t want the chocolate to melt) or you can keep it inside of your fridge too.
Can you make Christmas Crack with margarine?
Absolutely! You can actually make this cracker toffee recipe vegan by using vegan crackers, vegan chocolate, and a plant based margarine. The recipe still turns out pretty great!
Need more holiday treat ideas? Try these great recipes:
- Cherry Jelly Hearts
- Candy Cane Fudge
- Homemade Candy Corn
- Martha Washington Candy
- Valentines Candy Bark
- Valentines Cream Cheese Butter Mints
- Salted Nut Roll Bars
- Homemade Peppermint Patties
- Buckeye Balls
- Peanut Butter Fudge
- Sweet Salty Marbled Chocolate Bark
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bark
- Tiger Butter Fudge
- Peanut Cluster
- Easy Gumdrop Fudge
Cracker Toffee is so easy to make, with only 5 basic ingredients and 15 minutes of your time! This saltine cracker toffee is not only easy to make, the results are an incredibly tasty treat that everyone is sure to enjoy.
Brandie says
We made these last night. Delish!!!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!!!
Sharon says
Even good without the chocolate.
Chelsea says
Made this today but substitute crushed candy canes for the nuts. Not only was is scrumptious, it looks so festive. Thanks!
Brandi says
Not sure what I did wrong but never bubbled in the oven. Just burned. 🙁
Lynne Johnson says
Brandi, I don’t know if this could be the reason but did you use “Convection”.
Diane Mehok says
Brandi – Try 350 in your oven instead of 400
Andrea says
Your picture shows 2 half sticks of butter which equals a 1/2 cup of butter but the directions say 1 cup (4 half sticks). I tried 1 cup of butter and when I started to pour, it was like pouring pure melted butter. So I added another cup of sugar to thicken it out. Then it looked right when I poured it. Should it be 1 stick of butter instead of 1 cup?
Jessica Williams says
Andrea- the pic shows 2 sticks of butter, which equals 1 cup ~ 1/2 cup per stick. 🙂 1 cup of butter is correct!