Crack is Whack Christmas Crack!

Dutch Oven Detour (recipes that should have been included in the Dutch Oven Cookbook)

Wow - so sorry to have been away for so long - life has a funny way of getting in the way things...anyway glad to be back and with the holiday's just around the corner we're in full on DO (dutch oven) mode.  Oh...and in case you noticed we've encountered a few...ummm...challenges with our URL (www.thedutchovendiaries.com) - which you may have noticed isn't currently working - and if  you haven't noticed - shame on you!  Anywho - we're workin' on it - in the meantime, you can find us right here at www.thedutchovendiaries.blogspot.com.

So Christmas Crack seemed to burst onto the holiday baking scene last year - introduced to us by the very talented Kilted Chef.  The holiday baking scene hadn't experienced a frenzy like this scince Martha Stewart introduced us to cookie flooding!  Everyone was talking about it, it was even named the "must have" holiday treat of 2011 by Good Housekeeping magazine (totally made this up).  The interesting tidbit about this sweet treat is that it is made using saltine crackers (premium plus).  The crackers bring the salty to this highly addictive sweet'n salty snack.  Saltine crackers are baked with a brown sugar butter mixture that forms a toffee base, this is layered with chocolate, and then topped with candy cane pieces and nuts.



So of course, we couldn't leave well enough alone...more is more as we say.  Toffee, chocolate, candy cane, nuts - how can it get any better you ask.  Well - instead of soda crackers, we substituted rippled potato chips - yup!...and instead of nuts we substituted score bits - yup!...and instead of candy cane we substituted more crushed potato chips - yup! - and just to make it festive, we added some red and green sprinkles!

As the late great chantreuse Whitney Houston once said - Crack is whack...and so definitely is this Christmas Crack!  We must warn you however - once you start to eat the Christmas Crack you will not be able to stop.  So eat at your own risk!

Here's how we did it...

Ingredients:

1 sleeve of Saltine Crackers or ripple potato chips for the whack version - enough to cover the pan (press chips lightly to flatten)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
12 ounces chocolate chips or chocolate cut into small pieces
Whatever you want for the top...of course we recommend score bits and crushed potato chips - but candy canes and nuts work great too.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a 10x15 inch cookie sheet - line with foil or parchment.  Cover sheet with layer of saltines (or potato chips!).  Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil and boil for 3 minutes.  Pour brown sugar mixture over crackers/potato chips and spread as evenly as possible.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle chocolate on top - allow to melt and then spread evenly over top.  Sprinkle with your favorite toppings.  Allow to cool and transfer to the fridge to completely set.  Cut or break into pieces for serving.

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