Retirement is fattening. It is a constant round of eating out, taking in, cooking, BBQs & noshing. Residents of Victoria Gardens hail from every state in the Union, so imagine the array of dishes at a pot luck! A few of my friends have a "specialty"....Rox is chili, Sue pizzelles, and Vicky is known for her Rocky Road Cracker Bark. It so darn easy and so darn good. When I know Vicky is attending a party, I keep my fingers crossed that she'll whip up a batch of this chocolate candy. I've tweaked the original recipe with add-ins to make this a delightful combination of sweet, salty, tart and crunchy. It'll have your taste buds dancin'. If you enjoy a toffee flavored candy, then you'll enjoy this confection.
A couple of tips: 1) Whisk the butter and sugar for the three minutes it is boiling. 2) Use a standard size baking sheet/pan not larger. 3) have all ingredients chopped and ready to go. 4) don't add more sugar.
Don't worry that the butter/sugar mixture isn't spread out enough, once it goes into the oven it will melt even more.
This is Vicky's basic recipe. It's delicious even before adding the extra ingredients. I love dark chocolate, but use milk chocolate if you like. How about tiny pieces of pretzel sticks? A dash of cayenne pepper? butterscotch chips? The salt topped Saltines gives this a pinch of salt taste, but how about Ritz crackers? Hmmm salty and buttery. Or Graham crackers for more of a S'more taste. Just about everything goes. Having said that...sometimes less is more. Enjoy and thanks Vicky!
Rocky Road Cracker Bark
1 sleeve of Saltine Crackers
1 bag chocolate morsels
1 cup brown sugar
2 sticks butter
Add ins: 1/2 c dried cranberries, 1 c mini marshmallows, 1/2 c chopped nuts
Preheat oven at 400 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with PAM. Line pan with entire sleeve of saltine crackers.
In sauce pan combine brown sugar and butter. Bring to a boil, then boil while whisking for 3 minutes. Pour butter/sugar mixture over the crackers. Spread. Put pan in oven for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and put chocolate morsels on top and quickly spread morsels with a spatula. While still hot- top evenly with add-ins. Refrigerate until candy has hardened, peel back foil and break into pieces.