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
Graham Cracker Toffee (aka Graham Cracker Crack)
Video
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.*
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.
This is my 2nd batch in 2 days. I used toffee on the first batch, it was amazing, but this time I’m using sliced almonds. Mmmmm!
Thank you for the five star review Aimee and I love hearing that this is your second batch in two days! And I love that you’re doing different toppings, yummy!
Delicious!
Thanks so much Karen!
I’m very sad at the moment. This was my first time making Christmas Kraft. My toffee consistency was not like what the video looked like and then once I put the chocolate chips on top of the toffee covered graham crackers I put it in and out of the oven for multiple minutes and my chocolate chip morsels would not melt.
It’s always hard to say what happens in people’s kitchens when I’m not there so it is tricky for me to try to troubleshoot this from afar. If the consistency was not the same, you either over boiled or under boiled is my guess. In terms of the chocolate chips, some are very resistant to melting. I like either Trader Joe’s brand, or Ghirardelli is another one that melts well. I tend not to use Nestlé. Thank you for giving the recipe a try though.
I plan on making these and was wondering if using Hershey milk chocolate bars would work.
No one has ever asked me, but I think that would be fine. Hershey’s milk chocolate bars tend to melt very easily so I think you’ll be fine with that.
Well dont know what I did wrong but the toffee layer separated from the chocolate and the graham cracker turned a lil mushy. It tastes great but unfortunately not a ‘giveable’ as a gift treat, bummer!
Thanks for trying the recipe Bev, and in this case, based on what you described, saying that it separated, and it turned mushy, I’m thinking that you did not boil it quite long enough. If yours wasn’t thickened with the consistency of medium-thick caramel sauce then you could have likely gone another minute or so. I’m sorry that it didn’t set up exactly like you wanted to, but for the future that should help you.
Easy to make and delicious! The only thing I changed in the recipe was I used parchment paper instead of aluminum foil. I want to try it again using other toppings such as crushed peppermint, nuts, or mini marshmallows.
Love this recipe!
Thanks for the 5 star review Donna and I’m glad to hear this was easy to make and delicious! That’s wonderful that you’re going to try again with other toppings, too!