you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ah, the famous Christmas Cracker Candy, or as you may have heard it called, Christmas Crack. While the name of this treat may be a bit controversial, there’s one thing we can all agree on: it is DELICIOUS. Some crunchy, salty layer covered in a carmeley toffee and topped off with chocolate. What’s not to love? This has been a staple in our holiday baking lineup for quite some time and this year I decided to try a little twist on the original: pretzels!
We’ve seen many variations of this cracker candy over the years. People use saltines, ritz crackers, graham crackers. It’s hard to go wrong here. But one base layer we hadn’t tried yet was pretzels! And boy had we been missing out.
You start by laying out the pretzel sticks on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (you could also use foil here). From there you’ll boil the brown sugar, butter, and salt. You’re not making a true caramel here so exact temperature isn’t crucial. You’ll just want to boil it until it thickens and the color begins to darken.
Once your sugar mixture is prepared, you’ll pour it over the pretzels in one even layer. I did find that the pretzel sticks can float around here a bit so it’s good to really pack them tightly on the baking sheet. Once you have a nice even layer, pop the baking sheet in the oven for 5 minutes and melt your chocolate. From there, you’ll just pour the melted chocolate over your first layer and (the hard part) let it cool. I recommend waiting overnight to cut into it, but I know that’s a difficult task. This might just be our new favorite version. Try out the recipe and we think you’ll agree.
Christmas Pretzel Bark
Yield(s): Serves 12
15m prep time
5m cook time
3h inactive
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 15 oz bag of pretzel sticks
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 20 oz high quality chocolate, chopped
- Optional: Christmas sprinkles
Preparation
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Lay an even layer of pretzel sticks across entire sheet, set aside.
- Add butter, brown sugar, and salt to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue boiling mixture for 4-5 minutes while stirring frequently. When mixture thickens and darkens remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
- Pour mixture evenly over the pretzels and place baking sheet in the oven for 5 minutes.
- While the first layer is baking, melt chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time until smooth.
- Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool 1 minute, then pour melted chocolate evenly across the top. Add holiday sprinkles if desired.
- Place in fridge (not freezer!) for 3-4 hours or overnight. Once cool, cut into squares and serve.
- Store in an airtight container.
Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes.