“Crack” Cookies x’s 2 = Chocolate “Crack” Cookies & Vanilla “Crack”

My cookies are ready to go to Cortney Schields bridal shower.

     Seems only fitting that Eddee Anderson made these cookies (or are they candy?) for a recent Ladies Literary League meeting. The recipe came from a book by Joanne Fluke, Apple Turnover Murder (one of those books that interjects recipes with the text).

   The cookies are super easy and addictive – surely that’s the reference to crack! And, actually I’ve seen variations of these cookies on several sites (and Pinterest) lately.        

     The basic idea is not a new one . . . at least for the chocolate version. We were making them in the late 1960s in Home Economics classes . . . we topped them with chopped pecans and called them “Hotrods” (I have no idea why); since then I’ve seen them referred to as Chocolate Toffee, etc.

     Helen Farley, another LLL member, recalled that Mrs. Leonard (she owned a music store in downtown Abilene) used to make the vanilla version back in the 1950s.

     Recently I’ve seen recipes where the chocolate “crack” begins with saltines and the vanilla “crack” begins with grahams; instructions for both variations are very similar.

Chocolate “Crack” Cookies     Makes a 10”x15” jellyroll pan full of cookies

Honey graham crackers – I used 13 crackers (about 1½ of the 3 packages in the box of grahams)

2 sticks (1 cups) salted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12-oz pkg.)

1.  Preheat oven to 350°; position oven rack in the middle of the oven.

2.  Line a 10”x15” jellyroll sheet or jelly roll pan with heavy-duty foil. Spray the foil with Pam®.

3.  Line the pan completely with a single layer of graham crackers. Cover the whole bottom. (You can break the crackers in pieces to make them fit if you have to.)

A 10"x15" pan is lined with foil and 13 graham crackers.

4.  Set the cracker-lined jellyroll pan or cookie sheet aside while you cook the toffee mixture.

5.  Combine the butter with the brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat on the stovetop, stirring constantly. Boil it for exactly five minutes, stirring it constantly. 

Brown sugar mixture is bubbling and boiling.

6.  Pour the mixture over the graham crackers as evenly as you can. It'll spread out quite a bit in the oven.

Brown sugar mixture has been spread evenly over the graham crackers.

7.  Slide the pan into the oven and bake the cookies at 350° for 10 minutes.

8.  Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Give the chips a minute or two to melt and then spread them out as evenly as you can with a heat-resistant spatula or a frosting knife.

Chocolate chips are added to the cookies once they are removed from the oven. Let them set for a couple of minutes and then . . . 

. . . spread so the chocolate forms an even layer on top (an off-set spatula works well for this task).

9.  Slip the pan in the refrigerate to chill. When the pan has chilled, peel the foil from the cookies and break them into random-sized pieces. (I just let mine completely cool at room temperature – takes awhile but the chocolate does become firm.)

Vanilla “Crack”     Makes a 10”x15” jellyroll pan full of cookies

Original Saltine crackers – I used 1 sleeve from the standard-sized box of crackers, 40 total crackers)

2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup salted nut pieces, optional – I used dry roasted and salted peanuts

1.  Preheat oven to 350°; position oven rack in the middle of the oven.

2.  Line a 10”x15” jellyroll sheet or jelly roll pan with heavy-duty foil. Spray the foil with Pam®. (You want to be able to peel it off later, after the cookies harden.)

3.  Cover the pan completely with a single layer of soda crackers, salt side up. (You can break the crackers in pieces to make them fit if you have to; I just overlapped a few of them.)  Set. the cookie sheet aside while you cook the topping.

A 10"x15" pan is lined with foil and 40 saltine crackers.

4.  Combine the butter with the white sugar and vanilla in a heavy saucepan. Bring it to a full boil over medium high heat on the stovetop, stirring constantly. (A full boil will have breaking bubbles all over the surface of the pan.) Boil it for exactly five minutes stirring it constantly.

White (granulated) sugar mixture is bubbling and boiling

5.  Pour the mixture over the soda crackers as evenly as you can. Don't worry it will spread out quite a bit in the oven. If you are using nuts, sprinkle them on top now.)

 White sugar mixture has been spread evenly over the saltines & then chopped peanuts have been sprinkled over the top.

6.  Slide the pan into the oven and bake the cookies at 350° for 10 minutes.

7.  Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. When the cookies have thoroughly cooled, peel off the foil and break them into random-sized pieces (acutally I just left them in cracker-sized pieces).

For another cracker based sweet treat, check out the recipe for Nutty Cracker Delights.