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Christmas Crack is a popular holiday treat made with just a few simple ingredients. Traditionally the dessert is made with saltine crackers, homemade toffee and chocolate. The combination of sweet and salty, plus the crunch make it addictive, thus the name: Christmas Crack. Several years ago I decided to experiment with my recipe and replace the saltines with pretzel crisps. I figured they’d give a better crunch and boy was I right. The pretzel crisp base never disappoints. The toffee layer, however, needed an update.
With all Christmas Crack recipes preparation is the same. The toffee first gets cooked on the stove and then poured over the base of crackers, or pretzel crisps, and then baked to reach the hard ball stage. The only problem with this method is you can’t guarantee the toffee ever hits that necessary temperature of 260 degrees to become crunchy. One out of every five times I’d make it, sure enough, the toffee would come out gritty like wet sand after it cooled. If you’ve made Christmas Crack enough, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s incredibly frustrating.
The directions in my original recipe state to cook the toffee stove-top for three minutues once it starts bubbling in the middle. Well, when is it technically “bubbling in the middle”? Does time start at the very first bubble or when it’s rolling? There is too much room for interpretation. And then you pop it in the oven and hope for the best. That’s why I decided I had to base the toffee on reaching the hard ball stage of 260 degrees on the stove rather than basing it on time. There’s no questioning the thermometer. That’s why it’s imperative to have either a candy thermometer or a digital instant read thermometer. It’s also helpful to make the toffee in a non-stick pot.
After removing the additional step of cooking the Christmas Crack in the oven I thought it would be fun to experiment with simpifying it even more by using chocolate covered pretzel crisps. Typically you cover the hot toffee base in chocolate chips once is comes out of the oven, or in this case, after you pour it over your crisps. The heat softens the chocolate chips after several minutes and you finish by spreading out the chocolate and topping with flaky salt. By using pretzel crisps already covered in chocolate, you eliminate another step. Not to mention there is more chocolate as both sides of the pretzel crisp are completely covered. If you can find the chocolate covered crisps, they come in both milk chocolate and dark chocolate. If you’re a huge chocolate fan, they’re worth finding. If you’re a bigger fan of the toffee layer, I think the bare crisps are the way to go.
If you’ve given up on Christmas Crack because of texture issues I implore you to try this recipe. You’re going to get the perfect outomce with crunchy toffee, smooth chocolate and a snap of the pretzel. I promise this will become your go-to recipe.
Pretzel Crisp Christmas Crack
Ingredients
- 60 Snack Factory pretzel crisps or chocolate covered pretzel crisps.
- 1 c salted butter (2 sticks)
- 1 c light brown sugar
- flaky sea salt
- 10 oz milk chocolate chips (if you don't use chocolate covered pretzel crisps)
Instructions
- Lay pretzel crisps on a parchment lined half sheet pan barely overlapping.
- To a non-stick pot over medium heat melt butter.
- Add a packed cup of brown sugar to the pot and continuously stir with a rubber spatula. It will take about five minutes for the butter and brown sugar to fully combine.
- Continue stirring with the spatula until the temperature reaches 260 degrees (hard ball stage). The mixutre will be thick and amber in color.
- Evenly pour over the pretzels crisps.
- If you're using plain pretzel crisps and not the chocolate covered ones you'll need to add your chocolate chips immedately on top of the hot toffee. Wait 5 minutes and then spread out the chocolate.
- Sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Cool for a minimum of 3 hours before breaking into pieces.