Dairy-Free Cracker Toffee Bars

A dairy-free take on the infamous saltine toffee—this easy cracker toffee or “christmas crack” recipe is sweet, salty, chocolatey, and addictively good! With rice cakes instead of crackers for a gluten-free crunchy base, dairy-free toffee made healthier with sugar and coconut cream, creamy SunButter swirled in the middle for extra decadence, and melted dark chocolate on top.

SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER

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With the holidays sneaking up on us, the concept of a vegan toffee was floating around my head. At first I was thinking of a shortbread type bar with a crackly toffee top. But then I wanted to lean a little more in the candy direction with just a straight nutty toffee. But then my favorite non-nut butter, SunButter, inspired me to create a nut-free toffee treat, and the addictively good concept of saltine toffee seemed like a fun jumping off point for that recipe mission. So I took the cracker toffee bark idea, swapped the crackers for a gluten-free crunchy alternative, extensively tested a dairy-free toffee recipe that doesn’t use vegan butter, and snuck a layer of creamy SunButter underneath the chocolate chip topping. It’s salty, sweet, snappy, simple, and ideal for holiday gifting and sharing!

How To Make Dairy-Free Cracker Toffee

Toffee is essentially homemade candy, so there is some stovetop whisking and candy thermometer usage involved. But don’t be scared off! There are literally just 2 ingredients in the toffee, and even if you don’t get the temperature just right you will still end up with a delicious sweet crunchy bark thanks to the cracker base. I won’t tell you these vegan toffee bars are foolproof, but if you are new to homemade candy making and have decided it’s something you want to try out this Christmas season, then I can tell this is a great place to start. And I have lots of tips to set you up for success too…

Gluten-Free Saltine Alternatives

If you’ve ever made saltine toffee—sometimes lovingly referred to as “christmas crack” because yes it’s THAT good—you know it starts with a sheet pan blanketed in a layer of saltine crackers to create the crunchy base. To make this recipe gluten-free, I have a few different ideas for you:

• gluten-free crackers (any brand you love)
• rice cakes (the thin square kind)
• cereal (rice crispies or corn flakes would be perfect)

Whichever you choose, make sure you line the pan with parchment paper first and then lay out a single layer of your chosen crunchy option before starting on the toffee.

Dairy-Free Toffee (without butter!)

Toffee is classically a one-to-one ratio of white sugar and butter. I swapped the white sugar for organic cane sugar for a less processed option. And instead of using vegan butter like most the dairy-free recipes out there, I swapped it for full-fat coconut milk. Because if you think about it, butter is just fat + water. And coconut milk is also just fat + water. Sure the ratio is slightly different, but since we are boiling it to a certain temperature (a.k.a. a certain amount of evaporation), it still creates a beautiful caramelized toffee without any of the oils that make up most vegan butter. Coconut cream would be fine too, but you can shake the can no need to just use the solid stuff.

So this is where a little bit of stovetop stirring and patience is required. In a large (the bigger the better so you don’t have to worry about it boiling over) saucepan you will combine the coconut milk and sugar and boil that at a high heat until it cooks down and caramelizes and thickens to a sticky sweet golden brown mixture and reaches soft crack temperature (about 270°F). This process will take about 15 minutes, and will require almost constant watching and whisking. Once it reaches temperature, it’s GO TIME. You need to work quickly, have your pan and potholders nearby and ready, and have the oven preheated. As the mixture cools it will thicken very fast and become impossible to spread evenly over top of the crackers. So I’m not trying to stress you out but…work fast!

After you cover the crackers as best you can, we are popping the pan in the oven for just 5 minutes at 400°F to add some extra heat that will help the sugar spread into every cracker crevice. Carefully remove this hot pan of sugar from the oven and set it aside while we work on the tasty toppings to come.

SunButter Chocolate Swirl Topping

Typically saltine toffee bark is covered in a layer of chocolate and a sprinkle of chopped nuts. But like I said, we’re keeping this version nut-free. Don’t worry there is still plenty of chocolate on top, but underneath that we are sneaking in a delicious layer of No Sugar Added SunButter! Not only does it swirl beautifully with the melty chocolate chips to create an aesthetic marbled top, it also adds an extra textural element that I think saltine bark has been missing all this time. The crackers crunch, the toffee cracks, the chocolate snaps, but that SunButter layer is creamy and smooth and a super yummy contrast. You could use any variety of SunButter, even Crunchy would be fun here, but I opted for No Sugar Added as there is already lots of sweetness going on in this recipe.

Tips and Storage Suggestions

The ingredients and process for making this dairy-free cracker toffee are simple, but after testing this recipe many many times I do have a few tips to make sure your toffee turns out perfectly the first time:

1. Prepare everything before you start boiling the sugar. Line the pan with crackers, preheat the oven, have a spatula at the ready, have potholders out of the drawer. Make sure that as soon as that thermometer reads 270°F you are ready to pour, spread, and pop it in the oven asap.
2. Use a half sheet pan. Not a quarter, not a full, you will have either too much or not enough sugar to coat. A half sheet pan is 13×18″ in size.
3. Make sure the parchment paper is covering ALL sides of the pan. If any sides are exposed, grease them with oil or nonstick spray. You want to easily be able to lift this sticky toffee out of the pan after it’s set.
4. Grease your spatula. A spritz of nonstick spray on your spatula will make spreading the toffee easier.
5. Only cool the toffee for 10ish minutes. If the toffee is still slightly warm, it will make spreading the SunButter easier and start melting the chocolate chips before they even reach the oven.
6. Store the toffee bars in the refrigerator. They can hang out at room temperature for a few hours, so no problem for a party, but for longer storage you want to keep them sealed up and in the refrigerator.
7. Share with friends and family. It’s too addictively good and will disappear too fast if you don’t.

Recipe FAQs

More Easy Homemade Candy Recipes You’ll Love For The Holidays

• Chocolate Peppermint Truffle Bars
• Cookie Dough Chocolate Bark
• Dairy-Free Maple Fudge
• Matcha Coconut Bars

If you try these Dairy-Free Cracker Toffee Bars, let me know what you think by leaving a comment or rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for even more yummy recipes!

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