Crack Candy

Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty good at putting together a care package. 

Just ask Margot :) she'll tell you! 

She's in her first year of college and as I miss her terribly, I like to send her care packages! I used to love getting them from my mom and family so I like to make sure that I keep Margot well supplied with the essentials.

P.s. love and miss you, Marge! I know you'll see this <3

Back to the reason I'm sharing this post: she had texted me last week asking if we could make crack when she was home for Christmas. 

Guys, relax, it's just candy! The nickname is because it's addictive! 

This is another recipe I saw on Food Network awhile back (it's pretty much my favorite channel ahaha) that Trisha Yearwood was making on her show. Let me tell you, it's amazing! It's a tradition now in my family so whenever I make a batch I know I should double it because I'll be giving it away to multiple people! 

It's really simple and easy to make. I gotta warn you though, it's not exactly very macro-friendly. And by not exactly, I mean not at all. 

But you gotta live sometimes! I just estimated it as best as I could and went with it. 

You'll need (for a single batch): 

35-40 saltines 

1 cup brown sugar

2 sticks butter

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips 

*Original recipe can be found here*

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

2. Line a baking sheet or pan (make sure it has sides! Amanda made this mistake before) with foil and spray with cooking spray. If you're using a pan then just spray it with the non-stick spray. We did both ways since we had to make such a huge batch!

3. Lay the saltine crackers salt-side down. You can break them in half to fill in the edges since they won't all fit perfectly. 

4. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together until you get a bubbly caramel-like consistency. It takes a few minutes so make sure you keep stirring so that it doesn't burn. Again, I doubled mine which is why I used four sticks and two cups of sugar. 

5. Pour the caramel topping over all the crackers and spread it quickly with a spatula. This part you have to do quickly because it'll start to set in a few seconds as soon as it starts to cool. 

6. Then, put all the pans in the oven and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Keep an eye on it because it'll go fast and you don't want to burn it!  

7. Once the caramel layer is just slightly bubbly, remove all the pans from the oven. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and let them sit for a couple minutes while they melt. 

I was taking pictures as Amanda did this and I first took the one on the left and started cracking up. It wasn't really that funny but it looked like she had this little dinosaur hand, and I kept laughing about it. So to make her feel better I took the picture on the right as a more flattering angle. She approved of that one so I said I'd post it, buuuut I also didn't say anything about not posting the other one ;) 

You'll know that the chocolate is ready to spread once the chips are glossy and squishy. I'm sure there's a more culinary technical term for it but I clearly don't know it. 

Use a spatula and smooth out the chocolate as evenly as you can. It's not going to be the most perfect looking dessert but trust me, everyone will be eating it so fast they won't be able to tell or even care! 

See? Glossy and squishy! 

Let it sit and cool until the chocolate is set. We usually put ours in the freezer for about 30 minutes. 

While the chocolate was cooling, I showed Layla her new toy! I finally caved and got her a kong even though they're like the most expensive toys ever. Not really but $25 seems pretty steep to me for a dog toy but she's at the size now where she destroys all of her toys. She's quite the chewer and thank goodness we have her well-trained not to chew anything in the house or else she could destroy everything in sight! People are always impressed when we tell her that she's never even touched our shoes or anything else like that. 

I had to get her the extra large toy (she's a lardo) and upgraded to the power chewer extreme so hopefully there's no way she'll be able to destroy this thing! 

She loves it, though, as I was making the crack I crumbled up a couple of saltine crackers and put it in the kong which entertained her for a very long time. I also put a dab of peanut butter in there and she loves that, too! 

Once the chocolate is set and everything is cool, break the crack up into pieces. There's no particular way to do it and they'll come off uneven but that's the fun of it. Like I said, this isn't going to impress based off of looks, it's all about the taste with this dish. 

I've made this for people before as Christmas gifts and it's always a hit! I mean who doesn't love food as a present? This year I think I'll try using festive sprinkles and some other toppings! I'll keep you updated :) 

When the crack was done, I boxed everything up to send to my love! Very important side note but I finally managed to find this cake batter chapstick that everyone has been talking about. I got one for Margot but snagged one for myself as well :) it's amazing! 

To wrap up my lovely Saturday afternoon, I had a chicken tortizza for dinner! 

And, of course, Layla brought her new favorite toy over to me to play after dinner! She always asks so nicely :)