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Saltine toffee, affectionately known to some as “Christmas Crack”, is SO easy, so tasty, and so perfect for gifting! It’s an irresistible blend of salty and sweet, with layers of saltine crackers, homemade caramel, and your favorite chocolate. No matter your skill level, this easy recipe will have your friends and family thinking you’re a candy chef!
Before You Get Started
- The key to an incredible batch of saltine toffee is that beautiful balance of salty and sweet. To ensure the components come together in perfect harmony, use unsalted butter to make your caramel. The saltines are already pretty salty. Adding more salt via the butter can overshadow the sweetness in the candy and throw the flavors out of balance.
- To keep the caramel and chocolate layers contained, use a jelly roll pan or something similar. What’s special about a jelly roll pan? It’s essentially a cookie sheet, but all 4 sides are rimmed instead of just 1.
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Lay out the Saltines.
Depending on the size of your pan and the amount of toffee you’re making, you may need to use more than one pan. Whatever you do, don’t stack or overlap the crackers! Make sure they’re arranged on the aluminum foil in a single, even layer. I do place mine so that they touch – that way you don’t end up with layers of chocolate and caramel without a saltine base.
Make the Caramel Layer.
Melt 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan, then whisk in your brown sugar. Keep whisking while you bring the mixture to a boil, making sure that all the sugar is dissolved and incorporated into the melted butter. Keep a close eye on the mixture once it starts boiling, and take it off the heat as soon as it’s a light caramel color.
Carefully pour the caramel over the layer of saltine crackers, making sure the caramel layer is as even as possible.
Add the chocolate layer.
After baking the caramel-covered crackers for a few minutes, the caramel layer should be nice and bubbly. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the caramel before it has time to cool at all. That heat will melt the chocolate chips enough that you can spread them out into a full layer of chocolate. While that layer is still melty, sprinkle crushed saltines across the top.
Since each layer of this saltine toffee is pretty thin, you want to make sure they’re each as even as possible. Working with hot caramel and melted chocolate isn’t easy, though, so don’t stress if you end up with thicker or thinner spots.
let it cool.
Once all your layers are in place, pop the pans in the fridge or freezer until everything’s fully set. You can leave the saltine toffee to cool at room temperature if you’re short on fridge space (holidays, amirite?) but it’ll take a little longer to set up. Once it has set up, though, break or cut the sheet of toffee into pieces as large or as small as you like. Serve them at room temperature and enjoy!
What I Love About This Recipe
- The flavors in saltine toffee are, ugh, so dreamy and irresistible. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is one of the very best blends of salty and sweet. On paper it makes total sense, even if it does seem a little “too simple to be true”. Butter + salt + chocolate + brown sugar = a no brainer combo, right? In reality, though, it’s somehow even better than you could imagine, with a delicious crunch and a deep, caramel-y richness slathered in silky chocolate.
- One of my favorite “uses” for saltine toffee? Holiday gifts! You’ve probably heard this snack called “Christmas Crack” before, and it comes by that name pretty honestly. I mean, we talked about the flavor already, so I’m sure you can figure out the “crack” comparison. It’s also almost-embarrassingly easy to make (not to mention budget-friendly!) and it makes a lot, so it’s a fantastic option for edible holiday gifts! So next time you’re panicking over what to get your mailman or your child’s teacher or your cousin’s new boyfriend who you just found out will be at this year’s family Christmas, just whip up a batch of saltine toffee, package it up super cute, and call it a day.
Recipe Variations
- Brown Sugar: For a richer flavor, use dark brown sugar instead of light.
- Toppings: Feel free to swap out the crushed saltines with finely chopped toasted or glazed pecans. A little flake salt would be nice, too, but be careful not to overdo it!
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Saltine Toffee
Equipment
- Oven
- large jelly roll pan or 2 small jelly roll pans
- Aluminum Foil
- neutral cooking spray
- stovetop
- medium saucepan
- whisk
- sealable, food-safe plastic bag
- butter knife or offset spatula
- freezer
Ingredients
- 35-40 saltine crackers
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 full-size sticks, cut into small pieces
- 1 packed cup light brown sugar
- 5-10 saltine crackers
- 8 ounces chocolate chips dark or semi-sweet chocolate, approximately 1 ⅓ cups
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Line jelly roll pan(s) with aluminum foil, then lightly spray foil with neutral cooking spray.
- Arrange 35-40 saltine crackers salt-side down in single layer on top of aluminum foil. Set pan aside.
- Place medium saucepan on stovetop over medium heat. Add 1 cup unsalted butter to saucepan and let butter melt completely.
- Once butter begins to melt, add 1 packed cup light brown sugar to saucepan. Gently whisk sugar into butter, then increase heat under saucepan to medium-high.
- While whisking constantly, bring butter-sugar mixture to boil, then allow mixture to boil 2 to 3 minutes or until mixture develops light caramel color.
- Once mixture develops light caramel color, remove saucepan from heat. Carefully pour mixture into jelly roll pan(s), covering saltine crackers completely. Distribute caramel layer as evenly as possible.
- Once crackers are completely covered with caramel, carefully place jelly roll pan(s) in oven. Bake caramel-covered crackers approximately 3 to 5 minutes, watching caramel closely.
- While caramel-covered crackers are baking, place 5-10 saltine crackers in sealable, food-safe plastic bag. Seal bag and crush crackers into small pieces. Be careful not to crush crackers into powder. Set crushed crackers aside.
- When caramel just begins to bubble, remove jelly roll pan(s) from oven.
- Immediately sprinkle 8 ounces chocolate chips evenly over caramel layer. When chocolate chips begin to melt, use butter knife or offset spatula to spread melting chocolate over caramel layer, covering caramel completely.
- Let chocolate set slightly, then sprinkle crushed saltine crackers evenly over chocolate layer. If needed, gently press saltine pieces into chocolate layer to help pieces stick.
- Place jelly roll pan(s) in freezer. Freeze toffee 15 to 20 minutes or until sheet of toffee is very cold.
- When toffee is cold, remove pan(s) from freezer. Use knife or hands to break sheet of toffee into pieces of desired size.
- Let toffee pieces come to room temperature, then serve.
- Yield: The number of toffee pieces you get from a batch will depend on the sizes of the pieces you break your sheet of toffee into.
- Freezer: You can skip the freezer altogether if you want. Just let the toffee cool at room temperature until the chocolate is completely set, approximately 30 minutes.
- Storage: Store toffee pieces in an airtight container at room temperature. Toffee will keep approximately 2 weeks.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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These are gorgeous and so simple!! Such a great recipe!
I NEED to try this. So so genius, Cheryl — happy new year!!
Yes, yes you do, Cynthia! Happy new Year 🙂
Ahhh love everything here! I go crazy for sweet and salty combos, and your action shots are amazing. Pinned!
Yes, sweet + salty is the best! OMG I am obsessed with action shots.. it has become a real problem. My husband is trying to get me help (or is he just tired of slowly pouring things?)
Saltine toffee never disappoints!
Love the images and everything here… so glad I stumbled upon this!
Hope you had a lovely holidays + an extra special New Year
So glad you did too Graham! Thanks and happy New Year to you as well 🙂