It’s a bit of an unusual one this week…

As with most things in January we are faced with the excess we indulged in for the holidays. I found myself with a whole packet of cream crackers that hadn’t found their way into my mouth covered in cheese (strange I know) and not wanting to continue eating cheese three meals a day I wanted to use them in a more inventive way. And thats where I stumbled on an American recipe for ‘Crack Candy’ which uses Saltine crackers (similar to cream crackers but more salty… key is in the name) so I thought why not! And wanted to try them for myself, and was not disappointed. In trying to maintain the saltiness of the American cousins I added salt to the caramel and turned it into proper salted caramel. Paired with the dark chocolate and more flakey sea salt these are a naughty but very classy treat to have with a coffee or a glass of wine, it is lockdown after all! 

This recipe is a little more involved than some other recipes in that I call for you to melt the chocolate and add it after the caramel has cooled rather then to add chocolate chips to the hot caramel and allow that to melt it. I found that this can burn the chocolate and cause it to separate or even turn gritty. So learn from my mistakes and melt that chocolate separately, you’ll thank me later! 

Ingredients

250 g unsalted butter 

200 g soft brown sugar 

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 pack of cream crackers 

To decorate - 

300 g dark chocolate 

1-2 tsp flakey sea salt such as Maldon salt

Method 

1 - 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Line a large deep sided sheet tray (mine was 29 x 43cm) with tin foil and spray with nonstick spray or brush with oil. Then, lay down a single layer of crackers placed side by side to cover the entire base of the sheet. Set this to one side.  

2 - 

In a heavy bottomed deep sided pan, melt your sugar and butter together, stirring occasionally. Once melted, bring it to a boil and allow to bubble away for three minutes uncovered. DO NOT stir at this point as you may split the caramel. 

3 - 

Once the three minutes are up, remove your pan from the heat, add your 1/2 tsp salt and stir vigourously to incorporate the salt. Then, working quickly and carefully, pour the hot caramel evenly over the crackers. If any of the crackers begin to float, carefully press them down with a spoon or spatula. 

4 - 

Place your sheet of hot caramel and crackers into the oven and bake for 2-3 mins to reheat and evenly spread the caramel. Once done, remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool fully.

5 - 

Once cool, you are ready to decorate. In a large bowl set over barely simmering water, melt your dark chocolate until it is just about melted (about 80% done is a good marker). At this point, remove your chocolate from the heat to allow it for finish melting fully. Keep stirring your chocolate the entire time until it has cooled slightly and is super shiny and pourable. When ready, pour the chocolate over the cooled caramel crackers and smooth everything out with a spatula or spoon. You can swirl it to give it a nice texture or you can jiggle the tray to make it super flat and smooth. When you are happy with your chocolate layer, sprinkle the flaky salt evenly over everything and set it aside to set fully. 

6 - 

Once set, break your caramel cracker bark into large chunks and store in an air tight container for up to 1 week.