It's that time of year again! This past week several batches of my family's favorite candy of the season have been made. If you like all the textures then cracker candy is for you!
There's crisp salty crackers on the base, chewy and slightly crunchy caramel toffee in the middle, and creamy chocolate and crunchy nuts on top. It's such a wonderful thing to behold and ingest!
And easy to make! That might be one of the best parts about the treat.
You line a sheet with greased heavy duty foil and slap on a layer of saltine crackers.
Then you make a yummy toffee-like layer by cooking an respectable amount of butter with some brown sugar.
After that you pour the gooey awesomeness on top of the crackers and pop it all in the oven for a short but important for overall textural reasons bake.
Then you remove the bubbling magnificent looking tray of beauty and sprinkle chocolate all over the top. I like all the kinds of chocolate on cracker candy, today I did a mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate.
Then you let your candy sit for 5 minutes so the chocolate can melt before spreading it on top of the caramel layer in a nice smooth appearance way.
Lastly, chopped nuts get sprinkled on top. I've also done crushed candy cane, Oreos, M&M's, really whatever strikes my fancy, but most of the time I put walnuts or pecans on the candy. Since I was out of those, I used peanuts today.
And then the hard part is upon you, the setting up bit. That's right, the candy needs to set. So I usually throw it outside in my school room/library because its winter when I make cracker candy and that room is like a meat-locker. The freezer is also a good place to speed up the setting up.
Finally, the fun part, the break up! Cracker candy is meant to be broken into pieces like brittle and I must say I enjoy that part.
Well, the part I actually enjoy the most is the eating of it. But honestly, I hardly ever get to eat any of the cracker candy since I tend to give most of it away, but I think that's what makes it special.😊
Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a bite or two of this batch!
Cracker Candy
1 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar, plus a bit extra
40 saltine crackers
2 cups of chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nutsLine a cookie sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil, then grease the foil with cooking spray or your favorite greasing medium.
Line the foiled sheet with a single layer of crackers.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Place the butter in a saucepan on the stove and melt it over low heat, once the butter is melted, add the brown sugar. I use one, packed heaping cup of brown sugar, so my brown sugar total is probably closer to 1 1/8 cups, but to be honest I am never exact and the candy turns out awesome every time.
Turn the heat up to medium and bring the mixture to a low rolling boil, stirring the whole time. Set timer for three minutes and boil while stirring.
Pour the mixture over the crackers, spreading it with a spatula to make sure all the crackers are covered with a layer of chocolate. Then place into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.
Let the candy sit for five minutes so the chocolate can melt, then, using a rubber spatula, spread the chocolate so that the top is completely covered.
Next, sprinkle the chopped nuts on top of the chocolate and pop the whole tray into the fridge, freezer, or a cool room to set up. Once solid, break the candy into pieces and try not to eat the whole batch.