Easiest Graham Cracker Toffee — 🎄😋❤️ If you’re looking for a recipe that will disappear at holiday parties, cookie exchanges, neighborhood potlucks, or school bake sales, this graham cracker toffee is a guaranteed winner!! It’s EASY and everyone LOVES it!!
Table of Contents
Easy Graham Cracker Toffee Bars
This recipe for graham cracker toffee is a spinoff of my Chocolate Saltine Toffee, but it uses graham crackers instead of saltine crackers.
The “toffee” is sweet, buttery with caramel and nutty undertones, crunchy, and chewy all in one. The slight crunch of the graham crackers is a perfect base for the buttery, caramely, brown sugar-based toffee topping.
Although I didn’t brown the butter per se, it’s boiled with brown sugar for 5 minutes and takes on the rich, nutty flavor quality of browned butter, which is my weakness. It’s absolutely divine. Semi-sweet chocolate chips balance the sweetness of the toffee while toffee bits add crunch and extra flavor.
If you’re looking for a recipe that will disappear at holiday parties, cookie exchanges, neighborhood potlucks, or school bake sales, this graham cracker Christmas crack is a guaranteed winner. Everyone I gave some to couldn’t stop eating it.
Graham Cracker Toffee Ingredients
To make “Christmas crack” with graham crackers, you’ll need:
- Honey graham crackers
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Toffee bits
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Graham Cracker Toffee
This graham cracker toffee crack is super easy to make, but the toffee must cool for at least 2 hours before it can be served so plan accordingly!
- Line the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil, then spray with non-stick spray. Place the graham crackers on the bottom of the pan in an even layer.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter, brown sugar, and salt. Once the butter has melted, let the mixture boil for a further 5 minutes. Pour over the graham crackers, then bake.
- Once the graham cracker crack starts bubbling around the edges, pull it out of the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.
- Return the pan to the oven to melt the chocolate chips, then remove from oven and spread the melted chocolate chips over the graham cracker toffee.
- Sprinkle the graham cracker crack with toffee bits, then let it rest on your counter to set.
Tip
When melting the brown sugar and butter, you must stir it consistently to prevent it from burning. Babysitting the butter for 5 minutes can be boring, but it’s very important that you do it.
Recipe FAQs
With a very sharp knife! Because you’re working with toffee, you’ll wind up with lots of little pieces that have broken off — those were the ones that didn’t make it to these photos. If you made the toffee properly, you should be able to easily break it into pieces with your hands as well.
I’ve had a few readers say their chocolate chips wouldn’t melt or didn’t spread well. If this happens to you, it might be the brand of chocolate chips you’re using. I use Trader Joe’s chocolate chips and they melt perfectly every time.
I use unsalted so I can control how salty the toffee is. However, if you only have salted butter on hand, that’s fine to use in this graham cracker dessert recipe. Your toffee bars will just be more salty-sweet (which some people actually prefer anyways!).
I prefer letting my graham cracker toffee bars set at room temperature and not in the fridge while they set up after being in the oven. When you refrigerate these toffee bars, you’ll see condensation on them after the chocolate has been refrigerated and then comes to room temperature. But this is merely a cosmetic issue. If you’re in a hurry, you can expedite the cooling process by refrigerating, noting that condensation will gather on the bars.
The graham cracker toffee will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, in the fridge for up to 1 months, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Use whichever storage method works best for you!
Recipe Video Tutorial
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Graham Cracker Toffee (aka Graham Cracker Crack)
Ingredients
- about 10 full-size honey graham crackers, or enough to cover pan (I used low-fat)
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup toffee bits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Place graham crackers in pan in a single, flat layer so pan is completely covered with them. You will have to break some crackers to fill in the smaller spaces at the edges. It’s ok if there are slight gaps, doesn’t have to be perfect; set aside.
- To a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan with high sides, add the butter, brown sugar, salt, and heat over medium-high heat to melt. Stir constantly until butter has melted.
- After butter has melted, allow mixture to boil for about 4 1/2 to 5 minutes at a medium-fast boil (lots of bubbles). Stir constantly to prevent burning. As you approach the 4 minute mark, mixture should seem thickened with the consistency of medium-thick caramel sauce. I pulled mine off the heat at 4 1/2 minutes because it was thick enough.
- Evenly pour mixture over graham crackers.
- Bake for about 7 minutes, or until there’s bubbling around the edges.
- Remove pan from oven, evenly sprinkle with chocolate chips, return pan to oven, and bake for about 2 minutes, or until chocolate chips are glistening and have softened.
- Use a spatula to smooth the chocolate chips into an even, smooth layer of melted chocolate.
- Evenly sprinkle with toffee bits.
- Allow toffee to cool for about 2 to 3 hours, or until chocolate has set up and dessert is sliceable.*
Video
Notes
- *I made this on a very warm day and after 4 hours cooling at room temp, the chocolate was still on the melty side. I didn’t refrigerate it because of the condensation effect that happens after chocolate has been refrigerated and then comes to room temp and you can see fine water droplets on it, but this is merely a cosmetic issue. If you’re in a hurry you can expedite the cooling process by refrigerating, noting the condensation effect will occur.
- Toffee will keep airtight at room temp for up to 2 weeks, or in the fridge for up to 1 months, or freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Christmas Treats:
Christmas Crack — A highly addictive, salty-sweet, crunchy, EASY Christmas treat that’s IRRESISTIBLE!! Great for gifts and cookie exchanges because it stays fresh and everyone LOVES IT!!
White Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles — Fast, EASY, no-bake, and the BEST peanut butter truffles! Great MAKE-AHEAD homemade hostess gifts, for cookie exchanges, or set them out at Christmas parties.
White Chocolate-Dipped Oreo Cookie Balls — These are such a simple no-bake treat with only 4 ingredients, and everyone loves them!
Holiday Special K Bars — Super chewy, gooey, FAST, easy, no-bake cereal bars loaded with peanut butter, chocolate, and sprinkles!! Like scotcheroos but with Special K!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls — EASY, NO-BAKE chocolate peanut butter balls that are a holiday favorite!! They have it all: Salty, sweet, crunchy, with chocolate and peanut butter!
Loaded Christmas Puppy Chow — This fast, easy, no-bake holiday treat is LOADED with all the good stuff! Chocolate, peanut butter, sugar, M&Ms, peanut butter cups, and pretzels for a salty-sweet, crunchy, and addictive snack! Makes great little gifts because it keeps well and everyone LOVES it!
The Easiest Foolproof Fudge Recipe — Look no further than this recipe for the EASIEST and most FOOLPROOF fudge that takes less than 3 minutes to make!! Customize it with your favorite add-ins like cranberries and walnuts! Great for gifts and cookie exchanges!!
Originally published September 2016 and reposted November 2019 with updated text.
I think this recipe should be great. Just a word of caution, do not use Nestle Toll House chocolate chips because they will not melt! I have been trying to melt them now for 10 minutes in the oven. I have taken them out at 2 minutes, then 4 minutes, then another 4 and they are still not spreadable. Whenever I take a spatula to spread them they pull up the perfect caramel underneath and look like flattened chocolate chips but they will not melt into a layer. I don’t normally buy this brand, they just happened to be on sale.
I agree with you about Nestle Tollhouse – they are trickier to melt than many other brands of chips. Sorry they’re causing trouble for you. I appreciate you not reducing the star ratings on my recipe for the fault of the chips. Hopefully you were able to get them to smooth out.
The tollhouse chocolate chips made a clumpy mess so I tried the recipe again with ghiradelli and they melted perfectly. Both recipes tasted delicious! I sent the nicer looking ones to family as Christmas gifts and brought the clumpier looking ones to a party and both were a huge success so you really can’t go wrong. Thanks Averie.
Thanks for the followup on what you did and what worked and not. Over the years, I have had at times, but not always, had issues with Nestle Tollhouse chips melting smoothly. It’s very odd why this happens, and it doesn’t always happen, and I have other readers who never have issues, and some like you, do have issues. For this reason, I tend to buy Trader Joe’s chocolate chips because they taste great, always melt, and as chocolate chips go, they’re cheap. Ghirardelli or Guittard are lovely but both are pricey and sometimes not warranted if I’m just making something for my family that’s casual.
I had no trouble at all melting the Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips…
I’m making it now…
I’ve made multiple times..recipe always turns out perfect 😍
I am glad it’s been working out great for you and turns out. perfectly!
I have made this recipe several times but today the chocolate chips would not melt. Help, please, what did I do wrong?
Some brands of chips are resistant to melting more so than others. Nestle Tollhouse chips for me at least tend to be trickier to get to melt than other brands. You could have just kept it in the oven a bit longer until they melted.
I made this with monk fruit brown sugar and half lily chocolate chips and it turned out delicious!
Thanks for the 5 star review, April, and it’s great your substitutions worked out great!
easy to follow recipe.
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it was easy to follow!
The semi-sweet mini morsels melt easily on top of graham cracker. This last Christmas I made it for gifts and it was a Great Hit! My sister has me make it once a week for her. This recipe is so easy, thank you for sharing!
The semi-sweet mini morsels melt easily on top of graham cracker. This last Christmas I made it for gifts and it was a Great Hit! My sister has me make it once a week for her. This recipe is so easy, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this was a hit for you over the holidays and that it was easy!
great
Not sure what I did wrong. I only boiled the Carmel for 4 minutes, but it was very thick. It is just sitting on top of the crackers and the butter is separating out of the sugar. ☹️
Boiled too long and/or at too high of a heat. Your boil was too “fast” of a boil.
Try again next time at lower heat, less time, and a heavier bottomed pot.
And/or all 3 of the above suggestions and that will correct the issue.
Awesome!
Need help from fellow bakers please. I have made this recipe numerous times in the past but big failure tonight. Why would the butter and sugar mixture boil turn to curdle/oily looking mess? TWICE?? Unsalted butter? (Challenge brand) Natural sugar? The first time I thought maybe I heated it too quickly, but low-medium heat did not work either. What went wrong??
What does ‘natural’ sugar mean? You want to use basic, average, white sugar that our grandmothers were using.
If that’s what you’re using, I really don’t know. The odd thing is that you’ve made it successfully in the past so it’s something with the ingredients I am thinking but it’s really hard to guess from afar.
Can you freeze them after they are done?
Yes but honestly it will keep for a very long time at room temp, or in the fridge, if you don’t want to freeze it.
I make a version of this for Passover: matzah boards, the same caramel & chocolate bits, and use walnuts or almonds, and even sprinkle white chocolate bits over the dark chocolate then swirl. It isn’t Passover without Matzah Crunch.
I make a version of this for Passover: matzah boards, the same caramel & chocolate bits, and use walnuts or almonds, and even sprinkle white chocolate bits over the dark chocolate then swirl. It isn’t Passover without Matzah Crunch.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad you have a favorite version of this recipe too!
I made it twice. but the caramel doesn’t soak into the crackers and is a separate layer on top of the cracker.
I think you’re overcooking the caramel then. I would cook for 30-60 secs less, not sure exactly, but it sounds like you need to reduce the cooking time by 20-25% in my opinion. It’s hard to tell from afar what exactly is going on but that’s my gut instinct on this.
These look so good, Averie! And so easy to make, too. I’ve been on a sweets kick since before Halloween but now I’m out of Halloween candy. :( I know these will help fix my sweets cravings!
Haha! Yes this is a good substitute once you run out of Halloween candy but still have a sweet tooth! And yes, easy too!