Do you love chips and crackers like I do? Did you know that you can make some fantastic sweet treats from Saltines, pretzels, and potato chips? What could be better than a salty sweet treat that is easy to make and delicious. Believe me they are all delicious and the bonus is that they freeze or refrigerate well; so you can make a bunch of each and serve them later. I'm making and freezing these for Easter, which isn't all that far away...
First up - Saltines. Great for settling tummies but even better for making the best, melt-in-your-mouth toffee! Tastes wonderful but is very budget friendly.
Chocolate Toffee
40 Saltine crackers, approximately
1 c. butter
1 c. light brown sugar
1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate (I sometimes mix some of each)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large jellyroll pan (cookie sheet with sides) with aluminum foil.
Arrange saltines side by side in jellyroll pan, salted side up.
In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over the crackers evenly. Put the jellyroll pan into the oven and bake for about 5 minutes until bubbly. Remove from oven.
Sprinkle chips over crackers. When the chips have melted, spread them over crackers. If you want Almond Toffee, sprinkle chopped almonds (or any nut) over chocolate before it cools.
Let pan cool a bit and then put pan in freezer for 15 or 20 minutes. When cool, break into pieces and store in airtight container.
Next up is potato chips. What's better than a Peanut Cluster? Making Peanut Clusters does not get any easier than this. Make the whole thing in the microwave annnnd your done! This recipe is from Taste of Home.
Peanut Clusters
2 c. peanut butter chips
1 c. milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. dry roasted peanuts
1 c. crushed ridged potato chips
Mix peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips together. Melt in microwave. Follow the directions on the chip package for melting in microwave - chips are incredibly easy to burn in the microwave. That's the voice of "I can burn anything" speaking.
Stir chips until smooth. Stir in peanuts and potato chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper. Refrigerate until firm.
Tips: I sometimes use semi-sweet chips or a mix of both semi-sweet and milk chocolate. I always double this recipe because one batch is never enough!
Last but not least - Pretzels. This took a little more time because I have short, stubby fingers and am a little uncoordinated. This isn't difficult, it just has a few more steps to make because you have to unwrap all those caramels and snack size chocolate and try not to eat them before you use them in the recipe! Anything that you make with caramels and Hershey's bars is truly delicious! This recipe is all over the internet using Rolos, which sounds delicious, but I didn't have Rolos - I had caramels and Hershey's snack bars. (I might not need my elliptical if I didn't have caramels and candy bars in my house.)
Pretzel Snap Turtles
Caramels
Hershey's snack size chocolate bars
Pretzel Butter Snaps
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Unwrap caramels and cut in half. Unwrap Hershey's snack size chocolate bars and break apart the four sections.
Place pretzel snaps on cookie sheet. Place 1/2 caramel on top of each pretzel snap. Bake for 10 minutes.Remove from oven and place one square of Hershey's on top of caramel and squish down a little. Place back in oven for 2 minutes.
Remove from oven and place pecan on top. I didn't use a whole pecan, just a half or so.
Let pan cool a bit and then put pan in freezer for 15 or 20 minutes.
There you have it - salty snacks and sweet treats in one nice easy to make package!
~Laurie
You also can use HUGS the hershey kisses filled with caramel. Little less work.
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