This Christmas crack recipe is saltine toffee made with crackers, brown sugar, butter, chocolate and holiday sprinkles. A sweet and salty treat that’s addictively delicious and perfect for feeding a crowd!
I love to make homemade treats around the holidays like reindeer chow, peppermint patties, and this unique and unexpected Christmas crack toffee.
So right about now you may be wondering, what exactly is Christmas crack? It’s saltine toffee. I think the name relates to the fact that it’s made with crackers and is also super addicting. This salty sweet combo is SUPER easy to make, and it’s a unique treat that will have all of your guests begging for the recipe.
This is one of my favorite Christmas recipes along with rum balls, Grinch cookies, caramel popcorn and peppermint bark.
Table of Contents
Christmas Crack Ingredients
To make Christmas crack you will need saltine crackers, butter, brown sugar, chocolate chips and sprinkles.
How Do You Make Christmas Crack?
To make this Christmas crack recipe start by placing your crackers in a single layer on a sheet pan or baking sheet. Put butter and brown sugar in a pot, and bring the mixture to a boil. Pour the hot sugar mixture over the crackers. Next, bake the crackers in the oven until the sugar and butter bubbles. Remove the pan from the oven. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the crackers and toffee mixture. Put the pan back into the oven to melt the chocolate. Take the crackers out of the oven and use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate in an even layer. Add sprinkles, then let everything cool to room temperature. You can also refrigerate the Christmas crack so it will set up faster. Break into pieces, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Dish
- This recipe is simple to make, but you do need to watch the toffee mixture carefully as it boils. You want to boil it for exactly 3 minutes or you run the risk of it burning. If you watch the toffee carefully, you won’t need a candy thermometer.
- You can make Christmas crack up to 5 days before you plan to serve it. Store it in the fridge, then break it into pieces and enjoy.
- I use an offset spatula to spread the toffee and chocolate layers. It makes the job so much easier.
- You can use a baking mat or parchment paper to make the toffee easier to take off your sheet pan or baking sheet.
- You can easily double this saltine cracker toffee recipe if you need to feed a crowd. Simply double the ingredients and spread the crackers over two sheet pans instead of one.
Quick Tip
Use high quality chocolate chips for the best results. My favorite brand is Guittard because it has a rich flavor and melts smoothly.
Recipe FAQs
You can make Christmas crack with just a handful of simple ingredients, including saltine crackers, butter, brown sugar, chocolate and toppings such as sprinkles.
This dish gets its name from a few sources. It’s called “crack” because it’s made with crackers, makes a cracking sound when you cut or break it, and also is addicting in nature because it’s so delicious!
You do not need to refrigerate Christmas crack for food safety purposes, but I do prefer to store mine in the fridge in an airtight container. If you store it at room temperature, it can get soft if your kitchen is warm. I typically keep it in the fridge, then let it sit out for about 10 minutes before serving so that it comes up to room temperature for eating.
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Flavor Variations
This recipe is delicious as-is, but you can easily change up the ingredients to customize the flavors to your tastes.
- Chocolate: Not a fan of semisweet chocolate chips? Milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips will also work well. You can even use two types of chocolate and swirl them together!
- Crackers: While saltine crackers are traditional, you can use other types of crackers such as Ritz crackers or graham crackers with good results.
- Toppings: Swap out the sprinkles for a different toppings. Try using nuts like chopped pecans or chopped walnuts. You can add other toppings like shredded coconut, crushed candy canes, small pretzels or mini M&M candies.
You may want to plan to make a double batch of this Christmas cracker candy because this stuff goes fast! You can also check out my favorite Christmas cookie recipes to make an amazing dessert platter.
More Holiday Treats
Peppermint Brownies
1 hr 10 mins
Rocky Road Fudge
12 mins
Crock Pot Candy
1 hr 35 mins
Candy Cane Hearts
16 mins
Buckeye Balls (Peanut Butter Balls)
1 hr 2 mins
Christmas Crack Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Christmas Crack Recipe
Ingredients
- 40 saltine crackers
- 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips I recommend Guittard or Ghirardelli. DO NOT USE NESTLE!!!
- 1/2 cup holiday sprinkles or 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Line a sheet pan with foil and coat with cooking spray or alternatively you can use a nonstick silicone baking mat.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Place the crackers in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Place the butter and brown sugar in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes.
- Pour the brown sugar mixture over the crackers and spread with a spatula to coat.
- Place the sheet pan in the oven and bake for 3-5 minutes, or until bubbling.
- Remove the pan from the oven and immediately scatter the chocolate chips over the top. Place the pan back in the oven for another 2-3 minutes to melt the chocolate. Spread the chocolate evenly over the top.
- Place the sprinkles on top of the chocolate. Let the toffee sit until completely cool, either at room temperature or you can refrigerate.
- Cut into pieces and serve.
Notes
- Christmas crack can be made up to 5 days before you plan to serve it. Store it in the fridge, then break it into pieces and enjoy.
- As this recipe has become very popular over the years, I’ve had readers encounter issues with Nestle toll house chocolate chips. Nestle tends to change the formula of their chocolate chips and chunks, and sometimes they melt, and sometimes they don’t. I recommend avoiding Nestle chocolate for this recipe.
- I use an offset spatula to spread the toffee and chocolate layers. It makes the job so much easier.
I have always used Nestlé tollhouse chocolate chips and did so today. They worked beautifully. I have used another recipe but the caramel was that good. Yours is great.
Made these tonight for one of our Christmas Eve desserts. Used the Ghirardelli semisweet chips and it turned out perfectly. Much better than a similar recipe I previously used. This will be my new go-to recipe for Christmas Crack. Thanks for posting!
Made this with my 10 year old grandson. Fun to make and fun to eat.
Everyone always loves this. I don’t even use chocolate I just put almonds on top. I no longer eat any Hershey’s or Nestle’s products including their candy bars They never sat well in my stomach. Duncan’s Hines and Pillsbury both have bioengineered ingredients in them
I would like some quick and easy recipes for Christmas candy
Here’s my list of Christmas candy recipes! https://www.dinneratthezoo.com/50-irresistible-christmas-candy-recipes/
Why did my recommended chocolate chips not melt?
What brand did you use?
Thanks for the recipe
Does this use 2 cups of butter to double the recipe? It’s confusing because the regular recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter (1 cup) and to double it,4 sticks of butter but it still says (1 cup). I’m guessing this should be 2 cups of butter correct?
It’s 4 sticks of butter!
I like to use crushed vanilla crackers on the top. I also add a bit of vanilla to the Carmel mixture.
Why is my crack grainy
It sounds like maybe the sugar crystallized on the sides of the pan which changed the texture of the toffee. You can prevent this by occasionally scraping down the sides of the pot, especially if you see sugar on the sides.
I used Ghirardelli semi sweet chips, but it was very gritty. Why?
Same! The Ghirardelli chips called for in recipe came out grainy as well for me.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ll re-test and report back!
These are delicious !
Thank you SO much for this recipe! I followed a different one right before this and it was a complete disaster and I had to toss the whole thing! This one was much more informative and helpful and my Christmas bark came out beautifully! Thank you!
An oldie but a goodie.
These are always a hit.
I have made them using Nestles Toll House semi chocolate chips forever with no issues.
I use pecan chips on top.
These sound great! Should I use unsalted or salted butter?
Either works, I’ve done it both ways!
I’m curious as to why you have to bake the mixture? Can you not just heat your sauce up to 300 on the stove top and by pass the oven?
You could try that but I haven’t tested the recipe this way so I can’t say for sure that it will work! You may also run into an issue of the chocolate not melting all the way if you don’t put it in the oven.
Baking it after adding the toffee mixture really helps it to sink into the crackers making it so much better. It’s worth it.
Have been making this for the last few years. I always get requests for it. Very easy and delicious. Thanks so much for sharing..
I’ve made this a few times and we love it. But the last couple of times after it has cooled and I cut it up, the choc layer will separate from the cracker layer. Why is it doing that? I always use Ghirardelli choc chips
Thanks
I haven’t seen this happen before! One thing to try would be to let it come to room temperature before you cut it up.
Did you put the pan back in the oven when you added the chocolate? I wonder if it didn’t get into the crackers that much. I’m only guessing
I used Nestle semisweet chocolate chunks. Did NOT work well. Going back to get Ghirardelli chips tomorrow 🤦♀️
So versatile…I’ve used pretzel crackers and mixed half chocolate and half peanutbutter chips….so yummy
Dang that sounds like a fantastic idea, gonna have to save it for all our pretzel fans!