Chocolate Caramel Crack-ers

I love sweet awesome candy goodness, but I like to pretend that I don’t want to eat it ALL the time (especially when my kiddo is looking). Admit it… you’ve snuck the candy you JUST told your kiddo they could not eat, after they go to bed. Ha! Or, maybe that’s just me? I mean, she has a crazy sweet tooth and will eat all the candy/chocolate around and then she goes on an insane sugar trip and I lose my mind.

That’s what this recipe is for. I used all sugar free candies (except for the 10 Chewy Caramels). I’m still not going to let her go crazy and eat the whole thing, but I used sugar free caramels and chocolate. Let me tell you: it’s soooo good. So good. Cannot stop eating it! Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Caramel Crack-ers

Recipe adapted from Serious Eats and All Recipes.

Caramel supplies:

– 65 Werther’s Original Sugar Free Hard Candy, unwrapped

– 10 Werther’s Original Chewy Caramels, unwrapped

– 1 Tablespoon of butter

– 2 Tablespoons of water

– 1 cup dry roasted peanuts

– 1 teaspoon baking soda

– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

– Optional: 1/2 cup of coconut

Remaining ingredients:

– Approximately 51 saltine crackers

– 12 oz of chocolate chopped into small chip sized pieces (regular or sugar free, whatever you prefer)

 

Directions:

– First, prep the crackers. Cover a large cookie sheet with foil (I’d suggest using a cookie sheet with sides, so caramel doesn’t spill out). NOTE: I’d really suggest placing a Silpat over the foil. The caramel WILL leak through and stick to parts of the foil. If you don’t have a Silpat, maybe parchment paper would help?

– Evenly lay out your saltine crackers (salt side up). If you have any gaps or spaces in the saltine “blanket”, fill it with a broken cracker or crumbs.  If you have more saltines than you do space, prep another cookie sheet with foil/silpat and the remaining crackers. Set aside.

– Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

– Prep your caramel: In a heavy bottomed medium-sized saucepan place all your Werther’s caramels and candies, butter, and water. Over low heat, heat mixture of caramels and candies until it’s melted. Stir often.

– Once melted, add your peanuts and cook for another 2 minutes.

– Stir in baking soda, coconut, and vanilla. IMMEDIATELY take your caramel off the heat and gently pour over the saltines. If needed, use a rubber spatula to carefully spread the caramel (without moving the crackers too much).

– Bake the saltine cracker/caramel goodness for about 5 minutes (or when it’s bubbling a bit).

– Remove from the oven and evenly sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the caramel. Allow the heat of the caramel to heat the chocolate a bit, then use your rubber spatula to evenly spread out the chocolate.

– Let your Chocolate Caramel Crack-ers cool completely. We waited overnight. BUT, if you’re in a hurry… maybe refrigerate? I do feel like refrigerating the chocolate may make it turn a bit white. Wont hurt it, just a little discoloration.

– Once completely cool, use a knife to chop up your treat into bite sized pieces. I guess you could leave it as one giant crack-er, but it’s hard to fit that in your mouth.

– Put it in a jar/container.

– Enjoy.

OPTIONAL: You can print out one of my jar labels and tie it to the jar with a little string. Give it to a friend. OR, give it to yourself. I gave a jar to myself. I loved it. (right click + save here or on the image below)

Let me know if you try this out. It’s good.

– Chelsey

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.