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These Christmas Crack Cookies are layers of crunchy cracker, butter toffee, and rich chocolate. It’s just like your favorite cracker toffee, but made in a cupcake pan.
Using a cupcake pan means perfectly uniform cookies with equal amounts of cracker, toffee, and chocolate. No more uneven pieces or guessing how to divide them up and no cracking required!
For more quick and easy Christmas treats, try these Peanut Clusters, Cinnamon Candied Pecans, and Santa Coconut Rice Krispie Treats. I also have a really great recipe for homemade Hot Chocolate Mix.
These Christmas Crack Cookies are the ultimate sweet and salty treat that my family goes wild for every holiday season. I make batch after batch to package up as food gifts for neighbors, our mailman, friends, and for family parties. They disappear so fast that I have learned to keep a few at home for myself!
What makes this recipe special is that each cookie is perfectly uniform in size and shape, plus there’s an equal amount of cracker, toffee, and chocolate. When you use a cupcake pan instead of a baking sheet, you know exactly how many cookies you’re getting. No more uneven pieces or wondering how to decide them up evenly.
If you really love toffee, try my Coffee Toffee Chocolate Cookie Bars.
Video Tutorial:
Christmas Crack Cookies Ingredients
Here’s everything you will need to make this recipe and a few important notes too. Keep reading!
- Ritz Crackers: These are the crunchy base of our cookies that hold it all together. Typically Christmas Crack is made with Saltine crackers, but these are round and fit in the cupcake baking pan better. They also make the cookies more buttery and rich than Saltines.
- Unsalted Butter: Feel free to use salted butter if that’s all you have.
- Brown Sugar: You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar if you want a more rich, molasses flavor. To get the perfect amount of brown sugar, you’ll also want to lightly pack it when measuring.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: These melt down so much easier than standard chocolate chips. I use semi-sweet chips from Aldi. But feel free to use your favorite brand and type of chocolate chips.
P.S. You can make these Christmas Crack Cookies even better with toffee bits, holiday sprinkles, flaky sea salt like I did, Toasted pecans or other nuts, Christmas M&M’s, candy cane pieces, and even more crushed Ritz crackers are more great choices.
How to Make Christmas Crack Cookies
1. Prep and Bake the Base. Place crackers in cupcake baking pan, boil the butter and brown sugar, and pour over the crackers. Bake.
2. Add Chocolate and Toppings. Remove from the oven, sprinkle over mini chocolate chips, allow them to melt before spreading the melted chocolate with a spoon. Add optional toppings immediately.
3. Harden and Serve, Store, or Gift. Let cookies harden completely in a cool spot like your garage, porch, or the refrigerator. Run a sharp knife down one side of the cookies to easily pop them from the pan. Serve, store, or gift them as you like.
Find the complete recipe instructions with measurements below.
Storing and Freezing Information
You’ll want to store these Christmas Crack Cookies in an airtight container or sealable bag. At room temperature they’re good for up to 7 days, as long as they’re in a cool spot. You can also refrigerate them for up to two weeks.
You can even freeze them for up to 1 month! When you do, wrap each cookie with a cupcake liner or place a piece between layers of cookies before putting them in the freezer. This little trick keeps them from sticking together so you can grab one whenever a craving hits or when friends come over.
Extra Information and Tips
Be prepped for success. This is a quick moving recipe, so you’ll want to have everything prepped and sitting out ahead of time. If you can get a helper to do the second pan at the same time as you, that works great too.
Gift them for friends and family. Because you know how many cookies you’re getting and that they’ll be the same size, it makes them a great holiday food gift. I like to put them in a cookie tin or cellophane baggies, and make them cute with bows, ribbons, and gift tags.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
More Christmas Desserts To Try
Christmas Crack Cookies
EQUIPMENT
- 2 cupcake pan
- saucepan - small
INGREDIENTS
- 24 Ritz crackers
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar - lightly packed
- 1 ½ cups mini chocolate chips - semi-sweet
- optional toppings - Toffee pieces, holiday sprinkles, flaky sea salt, toasted nuts, Christmas M&M's, candy cane pieces, crushed Ritz crackers
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400 °F. Very lightly grease the cupcake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Place one cracker in each cavity.
- In a saucepan, melt together the unsalted butter and brown sugar over medium heat while lightly stirring with a silicone spatula. Allow it to come to a boil and reach 290 °F to 300 °F. NOTE: If you don't own a candy thermometer, allow the mixture to rapidly boil for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour 1 tablespoons of the sugar mixture over each cracker. Bake in the oven for 4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle 1 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips over each toffee cracker. Let sit for 2 to 3 minutes before spreading the chocolate with a small spoon. Immediately sprinkle with optional toppings. NOTE: If using standard sized chips, you may have to pop them back in the oven for a minute or two to help melt them.
- Allow the Christmas Crack Cookies to harden completely in a cool place like your garage, covered porch, or the refrigerator if you have neither.
- To remove the cookies push a sharp knife down one side of the cookie (not around, just down), it will release and pop right out. Storing information below.
VIDEO
RECIPE NOTES
- Instead of greasing the pan, you can use cupcake liners. This is great for gifting or if you plan on taking a tray to holiday parties.
- Troubleshooting the toffee: If the end product is sandy in texture, the sugar mixture wasn’t boiled enough. If too hard, the sugar mixture was boiled too long.
STORING INFORMATION
- At room temperature, in an airtight container or sealable bag, for up 7 days.
- Refrigerated, in an airtight container or sealable bag, for up 2 weeks.
- Frozen, in an airtight container or sealable bag, for up 1 month. To keep the cookies from freezing together, place parchment paper between them or wrap them in cupcake liners.
Metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Hi made these Christmas Crack Crackers this year and everyone loved them ❤️ only problem was the 1 cup butter was too much butter with 1 cup of brown sugar, so I dumped the first batch and started over with 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup brown 😃 that was sooo much better 😀 was this a misprint on the recipe posted? I hope so, and could you please fix it for other’s? Thank you in advance 😃
Hi Lynda,
Glad you enjoyed the cookies!
I wanted to clarify, there is no mistake in the recipe. 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar is for 2 cupcake pans (or 24 cookies). If you wanted to only make 1 cupcake pans worth, then you would cut the recipe in half as you did.
Thanks for the comment.
~Elizabeth
Would paper cupcake liners work okay for this recipe?
Hi Abby,
Yes, I have used liners and they work great. Just make sure you allow the cookies to cool completely before you try removing the paper.
~Elizabeth
Hi can I use store bought caramel
Hi Barbara,
This recipe does not use caramel, so no. The butter and brown sugar mixture is actually toffee that cooks and harden to make the crispy toffee candy layer.
Store-bought caramel will not do the same thing or taste the same.
~Elizabeth
I’m going to try mini muffin pans. Will. I need the whole carmel recipe
Hi Cay,
If you are going to try this in only one mini muffin pan you will need to half the recipe. As written it would make 2 pans worth of mini Christmas Crack Cookies.
Hope this helps!
~Elizabeth
Never made toffee with brown sugar before and was a little skeptical as to how it would turn out. The butter didn’t seem to blend as well with the sugar, but once it hardened it was fine and tasted great. They’ll be a nice addition to my Christmas goodies bags.
Hey Pam,
So glad you enjoyed them!
Just a quick note on the butter and sugar not mixing. It can be tricky, but I just whisk in small strokes and vigorously to get it to emulsify.
~Elizabeth
I’m going to make the Christmas Crack Cookies for my grandchildren. Wish my luck.
Good luck Nancy!