Saltine Cracker Toffee is an easy candy recipe to make for the holidays. The sweet, salty and crunchy cracker candy is irresistibly good!
For many people (myself included), baking Christmas cookies and making sweet treats is a favorite activity for the holiday season. One of the easiest homemade treats to make is saltine cracker toffee.
It's a delicious homemade candy, similar to chocolate bark candy, but with layers of salty crackers and buttery toffee. For such a simple candy, the flavor is perfection!
Whether you're hosting a party, contributing to a potluck, or making something to nibble on during gift opening, this cracker candy recipe will fit perfectly into your festivities.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It's fun to make. Let your kids help you make and decorate the toffee candy!
- No fancy decorating skills are needed. If you have trouble frosting cookies and making layered desserts, this is the recipe for you!
- An easy and tasty homemade food gift to share. Wrap up some of the cracker toffee in a container or cellophane bag. It makes a great gift for neighbors, family, delivery drivers, and even teachers.
Ingredients
See ingredient substitutions in the next section. ⬇️
To make this saltine cracker toffee recipe, you'll need:
Substitutions and Recipe Variations
- chocolate: Use whatever flavor you enjoy... Dark, semi-sweet, milk chocolate or even white chocolate. I use chips, but because you'll be melting it, broken up bars of chocolate, melting wafers, and almond bark will also work.
- butter is an essential ingredient for making toffee, and both salted and unsalted butter work. I do not recommend using dairy-free butter substitutes.
- crackers: Saltines are the cracker most people like to use, but honestly, any type of light cracker will work. Buttery crackers like Ritz are a delicious substitute, or consider using graham crackers!
- brown sugar: Light and dark brown sugar both work for this candy recipe. Just keep in mind that dark brown sugar has extra molasses in it, which will change the flavor of the toffee a little bit.
- sprinkles: Because cracker toffee is the most popular as a Christmas treat, I use Christmas-themed sprinkles.
To make this treat for other holidays, use other colors of sprinkles! Maybe pink and red Valentine's Day sprinkles, pastel colors for Spring or Easter, green and white for St. Patrick's Day, or festive black and orange Halloween sprinkles.
Toppings: You can top the saltine cracker candy with pretty much anything! Pretzels, chopped nuts and sprinkles are all delicious!
How to Make Saltine Cracker Toffee
Summary only. The complete recipe instructions are in the card at the bottom of this post ⬇️
- Make the toffee. You'll need a heavy-bottomed pot and a candy thermometer for accuracy.
- Arrange the saltine crackers on the baking sheet and spread the toffee over them. Be sure that they are in a single layer.
- Bake and cool the saltine toffee. When the cracker candy is in the oven, the toffee mixture will harden onto the crackers.
- Melt the chocolate while the the candy is cooling.
- Spread the melted chocolate over the toffee.
- Decorate with festive sprinkles.
Liz's Tips for the Best Cracker Candy
- The only tricky part to making toffee is knowing when it's reached the hard crack stage. Using a candy thermometer is helpful, but if you don't have one, that's okay (I don't!). Just be sure to bring the mixture to a full boil, and let it cook for 3-5 minutes.
- Use nonstick foil. Using nonstick foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray helps ensure easy removal of the cracker candy, and it's easier to clean up.
- The toffee is thin, so spread the mixture into an even layer, being sure to cover each of the crackers. An offset spatula helps with this.
- When it comes out of the oven, be sure to let the candy cool on the pan for 10 minutes.
- For the cleanest slices, cut or break the bark into pieces while it's still cold, straight out of the fridge.
Ideas for Serving and Gifting
There are so many ways you can serve saltine cracker candy, but here are a couple of my favorite serving options:
- In a bowl: It really can be this simple. Just grab and snack!
- With hot cocoa
- Gifting: Wrap in cellophane bags or put in a holiday tin lined with parchment paper or colorful tissue paper for a DIY holiday gift
- Chocolate charcuterie board or dessert table: Pieces of the saltine cracker toffee will look amazing on any dessert table or dessert charcuterie board. You can even display them in cupcake liners for an easy to grab treat.
Storage
Storing: You can store this saltine cracker candy for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
Freezing: We don't recommend freezing saltine toffee. The crackers can get very soggy.
Cracker Toffee Candy Recipe FAQs
If your candy is too soft, it could be due to undercooking the butter/sugar mixture, or not allowing it to reach the proper temperature during the boiling stage. Also, ensuring that the toffee reaches a firm consistency before cooling will prevent the crackers from becoming soft.
Hardtack and saltines are both types of crackers. Hardtack is a dense, unleavened cracker, while saltines are light and flaky. I do not recommend using hardtack to make cracker candy.
Other Easy Holiday Treats to Make
Saltine Cracker Toffee Candy
Ingredients
- 40 saltine crackers
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar light or dark
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups chocolate chips semi sweet, dark, or milk chocolate
- candy sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400℉ and line a baking sheet with foil. Spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
- Arrange the crackers in a single layer on the foil, then set it aside.
- To a medium sauce pan over medium heat, add butter and sugar. Whisk continuously to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it cook for 3-5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
- Pour the butter mixture over the crackers. Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread it into an even layer, being sure to cover all of the saltines.
- Place the pan of crackers in the preheated oven. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven. Let the crackers cool on the pan for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in the microwave, stopping every 20 seconds to stir the mixture. This helps to prevent it from burning.
- Pour the melted chocolate over the crackers and use a spatula to spread it out in an even layer. Top with sprinkles.
- Chill the cracker candy in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or until hardened. Use a sharp knife to cut the bark into smaller pieces.
Helpful Notes and Tips From Liz
- The only tricky part to making toffee is knowing when it's reached the hard crack stage. Using a candy thermometer is helpful, but if you don't have one, that's okay (I don't!). Just be sure to bring the mixture to a full boil, and let it cook for 3-5 minutes.
- Use nonstick foil. Using nonstick foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray helps ensure easy removal of the cracker candy, and it's easier to clean up.
- The toffee is thin, so spread the mixture into an even layer, being sure to cover each of the crackers. An offset spatula helps with this.
- When it comes out of the oven, be sure to let the candy cool on the pan for 10 minutes.
- For the cleanest slices, cut or break the bark into pieces while it's still cold, straight out of the fridge.
- To make this treat for other holidays, swap out the Christmas sprinkles. Use pink and red sprinkles for Valentine's Day, pastels for Easter, green and white for St. Patrick's Day, or black and orange for festive Halloween treat.
Charlene Despain
Love your recipes!
Liz Marino
Thank you so much!