This Chocolate Saltine Peanut Butter Toffee is so easy to make and so addictive, you’ll quickly see why it’s called “Christmas Crack”.
Eight days til Christmas! Are you done shopping? I ordered my last present (I think) yesterday and it should be here tomorrow. Christmas really snuck up on me this year.
Kinda like this baby seems to be doing. I never had six months go so quick.
Anyway, I was helping to cater a party for my mom (as I mentioned yesterday) and decided to make this “Christmas Crack” last minute.
I had everything on hand in my pantry, maybe you do too. You only need really basic ingredients – saltines, brown sugar, butter, chocolate, and peanut butter.
I think many versions of Christmas Crack don’t include peanut butter but I think pretty much *all* things should include peanut butter, so mine does.
Such simple things but together – so good! I like it best straight from the fridge so it’s cold.
It doesn’t have to Christmas-y. You could use any kind of sprinkles. Or no sprinkles. But, really, what’s life without sprinkles?
Tips to make this Christmas Crack a success
- Make sure you use a lipped pan for this recipe. It could get really messy without a lip.
- I also highly recommend using a silicone baking mat (or parchment paper) to help with clean up. Toffee is sticky.
- Not everyone uses peanut butter in their Christmas Crack recipe. You could skip it if you don’t like it (but I’m not sure we can still be friends).
- I haven’t tried it yet, but you can swap out the saltines with pretzels or graham crackers to add some variation.
- I recommend using a good chocolate (you know I love Ghirardelli baking chips) but you could use semi-sweet, milk, or even white chocolate, if that’s what you like.
- I always top with sprinkles to make it fun but you can skip that layer altogether or…fancy it up with other toppings. Like maybe mini M&Ms, or chopped nuts, use your imagination.
- This Chocolate Saltine Peanut Butter Toffee keeps really well, up to two weeks, in an airtight container. I like to keep mine in the fridge & eat it cold.
Things you may need to make Christmas Crack:
- A lipped pan – you don’t want all that hot goodness oozing off the pan.
- Heat safe spatulas for spreading the hot goodness
- Sprinkles! to make it festive
Chocolate Saltine Peanut Butter Toffee {Christmas Crack}
Ingredients
- One sleeve of saltine crackers which is 40 crackers
- 1 cup brown sugar I used dark
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter (I used 1 stick of salted, 1 stick of unsalted)
- 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips I used Ghirardelli baking chips
- 6 Tablespoons peanut butter melted
- various sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a lipped baking sheet with tin foil and generously spray with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Line your crackers in the pan, leaving a little space between each one.
- In a large sauce pan, over medium heat, add the butter and brown sugar and bring to a boil, stirring to break it up. Once it starts to boil, leave it alone for about 3 minutes, without stirring. Pour the boiling mixture over the crackers and bake for 5 minutes.
- While the toffee is baking, melt the peanut butter in the microwave (it will probably only take about 30 seconds, stir, maybe another 15-20 seconds).
- Remove the pan from the oven and pour the peanut butter on top (the toffee will be bubbly; I had to "dunk" some of the crackers under the toffee & straighten them back up before I poured the peanut butter on top). Smooth it into an even layer with a spatula.
- Evenly sprinkle on the chocolate chips and put the pan back in the oven for 1 minute.
- Remove the pan from the oven and smooth the chocolate chips into the melted peanut butter into one smooth layer.
- Sprinkle with various sprinkles. I made strips of different colors/shapes so when I broke it up, there was a variety.
- Put the entire pan in either the freezer for at least an hour or the fridge for two hours.
- Once cold and set, break up the toffee into random sized pieces.
Notes
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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This is the best bark ever!
I LOVE toffee and this recipe is the best! Thanks for sharing! 😀