Spray your parchment paper with a light coating of cooking oil spray, then start laying out your pretzels. This is a crucial step that will make it a LOT easier to remove the pretzel toffee bark from the pan when it is finished. Line your cookie sheet with a layer of parchment paper. You’ll want to preheat your oven to 375 degrees, so it’s ready a little later. The first step in making this recipe is to prepare your pretzels on your cookie sheet.
Prepping Your Pretzels to Make Christmas Crack There are a couple of tools that I’ve found useful in making this recipe that you might want to have on hand: Half a bag of mini pretzels (shapes, not the sticks).I was able to order everything I needed to make this recipe through Instacart from my local Aldi store.įor one batch of Christmas Crack you’ll need: They’re super easy to find and also pretty inexpensive. The ingredients for this recipe are deceptively simple. You’ll want to read the whole post first to get all the tips and tricks to get this recipe right the first time! I’m including a printable recipe at the bottom of this post, but it’s just the basics. Now, I’ve decided to share it with all of you, so you can experience the yummy goodness that is Beth’s Christmas Crack. He stopped me the next day to tell me he broke his own rules about eating on the bus to try it and that very little had made it home to his family that evening. Every year I make this and hand it out to friends and family, and it’s always wildly popular.Ī few years back I gave some to my daughter’s school bus driver. It’s become one of our Christmas Traditions. When I needed a quick and easy treat to make last minute, she passed along this recipe of holiday perfection. This recipe came to me a few years ago when I was looking for something to make for friends and neighbors at Christmastime.Īs I do just about anytime I need advice, I messaged my best friend Beth.Įvery year, Beth makes a HUGE assortment of incredibly beautiful and delicious candies and cookies for her husband to take to his office to share. It’s really hard to eat just a tiny piece. The pretzel toffee bark the perfect combination of sweet and salty, buttery and chocolatey. Y’all! This stuff is SOOOO good! Like seriously delicious.
Get more ideas in this post: 5 Ways to Top Your Christmas Cracker Candy.Today I get to share with you one of my all time favorite recipes: Christmas Crack (also known as Pretzel Toffee Bark)!! While the chocolate is still melty, sprinkle on a half cup of chopped nuts, coconut flakes, crushed pretzels, dried fruit, or anything else that strikes your fancy!.Or add a drizzle of white chocolate over top! Swap the dark chocolate for any other favorite chocolate.Swap the saltines for Ritz crackers, graham crackers, or any other cracker.Next time, try a different brand of chocolate. Sometimes despite all your best efforts, the chocolate melts at a temperature that makes it shrink when it hardens, pulling it away from the toffee layer. If you need to freeze, let the crackers warm up for about 10 minutes before cracking. Freezing means the layers cool rapidly, which can sometimes cause them to separate. Cool overnight in the fridge (not the freezer).Or pop the pan in a 300☏ oven for a minute or so. If your chocolate isn’t melting or spreading easily on the hot toffee (or caramel and crackers) in the sheet pan, use a hair dryer to re-melt the chocolate until it’s workable.(If you forget and the caramel cools, just pop it back in the oven for a few minutes. Let the toffee layer cool for 1 minute and no longer! The toffee needs to still be quite warm for the chocolate to stick.Make sure your chocolate is fully melted so it's ready to go when the saltine toffee layer is ready.
These chocolates have more of a tendency to become brittle and separate from the cracker layer. Avoid chocolates with a really high percentage of cacao.But when they melt, the coating can prevent the chocolate from sticking to the toffee. Chocolate chips have a non-melting coating to help them keep their shape. Use chopped chocolate instead of chips, and the chocolate layer will be more likely to stick.Here are a few tips to help prevent that from happening: The chocolate layer separating from the caramel layer is a common problem with Christmas cracker candy. We agree, hence this recipe's new name "Christmas Cracker Candy." But several readers wrote asking us to change the name because it makes light of something that is a very real addiction for many people. We used to call this delicious treat "Christmas Crack," which is its most common name.