Pretzel Christmas Crack

This delicious and chocolatey pretzel Christmas crack takes about 20 minutes to make and is such a fun treat to make around the holidays. It is the perfect sweet and salty treat! If you like chocolate and toffee or chocolate covered pretzels, this holiday dessert is for you!

Pretzel Toffee Bark

After eating a bunch of Christmas appetizers, like this Crescent Roll Wreath or these Spanakopita Puff Pastry Pinwheels, you probably want to eat a little something sweet. This recipe for Pretzel Christmas Bark, also known as Pretzel Toffee Bark, is the perfect sweet treat.

Christmas crack is usually made using a base layer of saltine crackers, however you can use any sort of cracker, cereal, or chips as the bottom layer. In this version I am using mini pretzels. I absolutely love chocolate covered pretzels. And if you are a big fan of chocolate covered pretzels like me, this pretzel Christmas crack takes it up a notch by adding a layer of toffee.

The entire dessert is made in less than 20 minutes, but you do have to take into account the cooling stage which can take an hour or two. Since the cooling part is hands-off, this pretzel Christmas crack is such a great and easy dessert to make. Once you break it into pieces, you can add them to containers to bring to neighbors, friends, and holiday gatherings. Or, you can be like me and just keep a container of it in your refrigerator for any time you want a sweet and salty treat.

What do you need to make Pretzel Christmas Crack?

1. Pretzels – I use mini pretzels, but it does’t matter what size you use as you will be breaking them up a little once you add them to the sheet pan. Do not buy very thick pretzels like sourdough pretzels or pretzel rods unless you plan to really crush them up.
2. Butter – I use salted butter in almost everything I make and I think it really works here because this is going to be a sweet and salty treat anyway. If you do not have salted butter on hand, do not fret, as you can always just add a sprinkle of sea salt to the top of the chocolate.
3. Brown Sugar – Brown Sugar plus Butter creates a delicious caramel and once you bake it slightly it will turn into toffee. Brown Sugar has the delicious, deep, and warm flavor that this pretzel Christmas crack needs.
4. Chocolate – you can use your favorite brand of chocolate chips. I like to use semi sweet as this gives me the exact flavor I would like. You can also use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or white chocolate.
5. Vanilla Extract – I don’t use a lot of this, but I think 1 teaspoon of vanilla gives the toffee a little extra oomph
6. Sprinkles – this ingredient is optional, but I love how festive it makes the dessert. If you are not making this for the holiday season, feel free to use rainbow colored sprinkles or any type of sprinkles. I chose red, green, and white sprinkles for Christmas
7. Sea Salt – I like to use a little flaky sea salt on top when I am adding the sprinkles to give it an extra touch of salty flavor within all of the sweetness.

How did Christmas Crack get its name?

Every time I’ve heard someone say “Christmas crack”, I have always wondered where it got it’s name. Some people say that because it is addictive, people gave it the nickname as crack, as if it was a drug.

However, I prefer to think it came about another way. It was traditionally made with “crack”ers, and you “crack” it up to break it into pieces. Also, it makes a delicious “crack” when you bite into the pretzel toffee layer. Choose whichever story you like best, and roll with it.

How to make Pretzel Christmas Crack

INGREDIENTS  

• 2 sticks salted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 8 oz mini pretzels
• 2 cups chocolate chips semi sweet
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• christmas sprinkles optional
• flaky sea salt optional

INSTRUCTIONS 

• line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 400F
• add the pretzels to the baking sheet, while gently crushing the pretzels into smaller pieces using your hands. make sure they are spread out evenly.
• melt the butter in a medium size saucepan and then add the brown sugar. mix well and let it come to a boil. Let it continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes until it looks thicker and turns a beautiful caramel color. Add in the vanilla and mix well.
• Remove the caramel from the heat and slowly pour it over your pretzels making sure to get them all covered. You can mix them all up in the center of the baking sheet as well and then evenly distribute the pretzel mixture on the baking sheet once all of the pieces have a little caramel on them. 
• Put the pretzel mixture in the oven for 3-4 minutes and then remove it so you can add your chocolate chips. 
• Without giving the mixture time to cool, add your chocolate chips on top of the pretzel mixture. Add it to the oven for another 3 minutes. Remove it from the oven. 
• Using a silicone spatula, blend all the chocolate into a nice chocolate layer on top of the pretzels and caramel. Top with flaky sea salt (optional) and sprinkles.
• Add it to the freezer to cool for an hour or two. Then take it out, break it into pieces, add it to a container, and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to eat it.