This cracker candy or "crack candy" is a fun and EASY recipe to celebrate Mardi Gras. With the flavors and colors of a king cake recipe, you can snack on this all Carnival season!
Cracker Candy is a toffee bark recipe made with a base of saltine crackers. It's a sweet and salty snack that you can't stop eating! Also known as "Crack" candy or cracker bark, it is typically popular during Christmas time, but today we are adding it to our Mardi Gras recipes! If you love the flavors of Mardi Gras, check out my king cake recipe, too!
Cracker Candy Ingredients
This recipe has the same flavors of king cake, but is much easier to make. Here's what you need:
- Saltine crackers -- serves as the base and the salty of this sweet candy.
- Brown sugar -- I typically use light, but dark works, too.
- Unsalted butter -- we're melting this with the sugar to make toffee.
- Ground cinnamon -- because King Cake has cinnamon and who doesn't love a cinnamon sugar combo?
- White chocolate chips -- these will melt and spread over top as your King Cake "icing".
- Sanding sugar -- you'll need purple, yellow, and green. Separately, not combined.
How To Make Cracker Candy:
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place saltine crackers in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- In a medium nonstick saucepan, melt the butter, sugar and cinnamon over medium heat. Allow to boil 3 minutes without stirring.
- Pour hot toffee mixture over the saltine crackers and use a rubber spatula to evenly spread. Bake 7 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt white chocolate in microwave.
- Remove pan from oven, pour and spread melted white chocolate chips evenly over top.
- Sprinkle with sanding sugar in diagonal pattern.
- Freeze for 30 minutes, or refrigerate longer, until hardened and can crack into pieces.
This king cake cracker candy will not last long. No one can resist that sweet and salty snack! And, with the cinnamon added in, you better believe this is going to be a favorite.
The "crack" candy you see during Christmas is made with chocolate chips, but for this king cake version we are using white chocolate chips with a decorative sugar topping.
Expert Tips:
Melting the white chocolate -- We originally sprinkled the white chocolate chips over the toffee then returned to the oven to melt and then spread. However, this method wasn't consistent and was difficult to spread depending on the chocolate chips used. As of February 2022, we updated the recipe to melt the white chocolate in the microwave first.
Sanding sugar -- You can find sanding sugar at any store that carries baking products. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby in a carousel that had all three colors. Michael's and Walmart carries sanding sugar, too.
Homemade sanding sugar -- If you absolutely cannot find purple, yellow and green sanding sugar, you can easily make your own with granulated sugar and food coloring. See my recipe for king cake with instructions on how to make your own sanding sugar.
How long to store cracker candy -- Cracker candy can be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator or at room temperature. It should last for up to 2 weeks, but you'll never know because it's going to be gone within a day or two. 😉
Recipe variations
Christmas cracker candy -- I first made cracker candy for Christmas two years ago using this recipe.
Ritz crackers -- I make my Christmas crack recipe with Ritz crackers just because I love Ritz crackers. You can try it with this recipe, too, but I think using saltines might be better since they are white.
Valentine's Day cracker candy -- Instead of purple, yellow and green sanding sugar, top this same recipe with red and pink! Maybe some red hot candies, too!
More Mardi Gras Recipes:
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This article was originally published January 2020 and updated February 2022 with changes to how to melt the white chocolate.
Recipe Card
King Cake Cracker Candy
Ingredients
- 40 saltine crackers
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 12 oz. bag white chocolate chips
- purple, yellow, and green sanding sugars
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line the bottom and sides of a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. (Tip: Spread butter on bottom of baking sheet to help hold down the paper.)
- Place crackers, salt side down, on baking sheet side-by-side in single layer; set aside.
- In a medium skillet, melt the sugar, butter and cinnamon over medium heat. Once melted, increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 3 minutes, without stirring.
- Pour hot toffee mixture onto crackers in pan. Use a rubber spatula to evenly spread. Bake 7 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt white chocolate chips in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. (Usually takes about 2 minutes total.) Remove pan from the oven, let set 30 seconds, then pour melted chocolate over top and spread evenly to cover.
- Decorate top with sanding sugars, alternating colors in a diagonal pattern. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the counter then freeze for 30 minutes or until hardened. Or, place in the fridge until hardened.
- Remove from freezer and crack into bite sized pieces. Store candy in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Christina says
Hi there! So good!
My brown sugar, butter mix was super, super chewy. Is the brown sugar supposed to be packed? I felt I boiled for 3 minutes. Did I maybe cook it too long…not enough?
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Christina,
Did you boil without stirring? It's possible you didn't boil long enough. Maybe next time time out an extra 30 seconds to ensure you got all 3 minutes in. There's also the possibility of the type of cookware used may interfere with results. I'm not scientific enough to know for sure, however. 😉 Hope this helps!
CK says
This is such a fun recipe! I put the chips in the microwave to soften (not melt) and then put on top of the crackers before putting in the oven for 3 mins. I found if I continued to put back in oven because chips weren’t completely melted, the chips began to burn.
Nikki Gladd says
Thank you! I'm actually updating this recipe today to melt the chips in the microwave then pour over the toffee. I did this method this weekend and I think will be better for those who couldn't get their to melt in the oven. Appreciate your feedback! 🙂
agnes says
I tried to make this today but had to throw everything away - my white chocolate just set and I could not spread it evenly at all:(
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Agnes, I'm sorry you had issues with the white chocolate spreading. If mine doesn't spread right away, I return it back into the oven for another minute and that usually helps.
Hayley Costanza says
This King Cake Cracker Candy is AMAZING! My family can’t stop eating it! I’m a Louisiana girl so I love king cake but I do get tired of too much dough. This is a great option for a party snack. It’s crispy and buttery and so pretty on the table. It would be perfect for any special occasion just change the colored sprinkles!
I’m so thankful for this blogger for all the tasty treats!
Nikki Gladd says
Thank you, Hayley!