Millionaire Cracker Candy Recipe: A Saltine, Toffee, & Chocolate Treat

Author:
Jan Charles
Updated date:
Oct 30, 2022

Jan has been cooking and writing about food for over 20 years. She has cooked on multiple television stations, including the Food Network.

This millionaire cracker candy/saltine toffee candy with chocolate and almonds is fantastic. Luscious buttery toffee, chocolate, and almonds are a perfect combination.

Millionaire Candy Makeover

I've had soda-cracker candy—also known as saltine candy—and, frankly, wasn't impressed. Matter of fact, I was somewhat put off. It was ugly, unappealing, and just didn't look good. Frankly, it looked like saltines with chocolate. Ew. It tasted OK but not great enough for me to want to have any more of it.

Then I started thinking about millionaire shortbread. This is a simple shortbread that is then dressed up with the addition of chocolate and caramel, maybe nuts—and I realized that the simple country cracker candy should have the same lavish spa treatment that had been given to millionaire shortbread. Think Ellie Mae Clampett getting a makeover by Zsa Zsa Gabor.

At the same time, it had to still be super easy. I want to look like a rockstar, but I don't want to work very hard at it. So after a couple of attempts, I got exactly what I wanted: Millionaire Cracker Candy. The same ease as the traditional country saltine cracker candy, but oh the difference in results!

I swapped out jarred caramel for making a lightning-quick homemade toffee. Baking the toffee into the crackers created a casing around the crackers—meaning the homey, ugly crackers didn't show. (Like not showing your Spanx under a ballgown).

Spreading the chocolate creates a lovely peekaboo effect for the toffee layer, and of course, the gorgeous almonds are just the perfect finishing touch. None of which would matter if the candy didn't taste as good as it looks. But it does, leading my daughter to announce to the other kids: "OMG! Mom's making crack!"

There you have it. Supermom. No effort. Win, win, win.

Ingredients

This list is so short it's almost embarrassing. Almost.

1 sleeve saltine crackers (maybe a few more depending on the size of your baking sheet)
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening
2 cups chopped almonds (you can use slivered almonds if you like)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cover a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Lay crackers out on the baking sheet in a single layer. This takes about a sleeve or so; maybe a few more or less depending on the size of your baking sheet. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar. Let this come up to temperature relatively slowly, don't crank the heat up. Once it does come to a full boil, boil for right at three minutes. *Important: don't skimp on the size of the saucepan. Bigger is better and safer. Boiling sugar is liquid napalm —you don't want it boiling over and making a huge mess (nothing is worse to clean up than spilled boiled sugar). Or even worse, getting on your skin. Trust me on this one.
Pour boiled toffee (butter/sugar) evenly over the crackers. Go a little slowly—it'll spread out nicely on its own. If need be, nudge it a bit to cover the surface of all the crackers. The toffee will slow underneath and between the crackers, and create a pretty uniform sheet. That's exactly right.
Bake cracker/toffee stuff for just about five minutes. That's literally all it takes.
While the toffee is baking, chop almonds. Remove the toffee from the oven, and while still bubbly, spread the top with the chocolate chips, then sprinkle on almonds.
Let the chips soften for a couple of minutes, then spread them out with a rubber spatula, patting the almonds down. Stick the baking sheet in the fridge and let it chill for at least 3 hours.
Once chilled through, break the candy into pieces. Protect from invaders.

Lay Out crackers: On a parchment-lined baking sheet, lay out the saltine crackers. Keep them touching but not overlapping—although, in all honesty, they'll wiggle out of place when you pour on the toffee and then bake. No problem. This is easy stuff.

Butter and Brown Sugar: Make the toffee layer by melting together equal parts butter and brown sugar. You can use salted or unsalted—it doesn't matter. I'm Southern so I use salted, but no fret about that part.

Boil Three Minutes: Bring the butter and brown sugar up to a boil and let it boil for 3 minutes. This creates that stunningly delicious butter toffee flavor. It's only 3 minutes, so be patient.

Pour Toffee Over Crackers: Slowly pour toffee over the top of the saltine crackers. If you move slowly, you won't knock all your crackers out of whack. The toffee will self-level pretty much, so don't stress.

Chop Almonds: You can certainly use slivered almonds, but I buy whole almonds in bulk which are amazingly less expensive. So I take just a minute or two and chop mine.

Sprinkle Chips and Almonds: When the hot toffee comes out of the oven, immediately sprinkle on chocolate chips. This melts the chocolate so you can spread it. Sprinkle the almonds on top and let it sit for a couple of minutes to soften the chocolate.

Spread Out the Chocolate: With the back of a silicone spoon or spatula, gently spread out the softened chocolate, pressing the almonds into the chocolate as you go.

When I Said Protect from Invaders . . . Chill the candy for at least three hours—this lets it set so you can break it into pieces. I think the invader here was either Bladen or Lanthe, possibly both of them. They used a 'distract and snatch' method.

Ready to Go: Once chilled, break it into pieces and it's ready. You can use a sharp knife to cut even pieces if you want, but I'm into the 'rustic' style (also known as lazy).