Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Christmas Crack

As a kid, I had never heard of Christmas Crack. In fact, I’d never tasted anything like this recipe before. I’ve never melted butter and brown sugar before in a sauce pan and tasted the liquid gold that’s produced from combining this sugar and fat together. It’s dangerous. Dangerously good. Yes, I understand that Christmas crack is an absolutely ridiculous name. At first I thought it was about how crave-able this recipe is. Then again, I really love donuts – but do we call a gluten-free donut the crack donut? No. I was a child of the 80’s and 90’s, I remember Nancy Reagan and the DARE program – drugs are bad, right? And then I realized that it’s about the instructions. You break apart the recipe, after it’s done freezing. It breaks apart in its natural cracks. So, before you start leaving comments about the name of this recipe, that’s just what you call it. 

My girlfriend Chandice at This Vivacious Life just posted about Christmas Crack and I finally dug into the recipe and realized I could totally make this with the ingredients that I already had in my kitchen – all dairy free! I always have Schar Table Crackers on hand, along with dairy-free butter alternative and dairy-free chocolate chips! Schar is an amazing sponsor of Celiac and the Beast, and I just love their products!

PS if you’re looking for an alternative to this recipe, my other girlfriend Cindy at Vegetarian Mamma put a spin on this recipe by adding peppermint! She also had Schar Table Crackers on hand for her recipe – what a great cracker!

What You Need: 

Schar Table Crackers
1 C (two sticks) Dairy-Free Butter Alternative – like Earth Balance
1 C Packed Brown Sugar
2 C Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips (Either Pascha Chocolate or Enjoy Life Foods)
1 T Coconut Oil

How To Do It: 

• Set oven 325°F, make sure there is no Elf on the Shelf inside before setting the oven.
• Find a rimmed baking pan or shallow baking dish, line with parchment paper or foil
• At the bottom of the pan or dish, place Schar Table Crackers in a row. If they overlap it’s fine, I’ve actually done this with a few layer of crackers and it really doesn’t matter. Keep in mind that the thinner the “crack” the easier it is to break!
• In a sauce pan, carefully (seriously) melt the dairy-free butter alternative and the brown sugar over low medium-low heat, and whisk until combined. Make sure to keep whisking so the bottom doesn’t burn. After you start seeing bubbles, whisk for about a minute more!
• Pour the dairy-free butter and sugar mixture over the crackers and bake for about 5-10 minutes – on the low side for a thinner “crack” on a rimmed cookie sheet and on the high side for a thicker “crack” in a baking dish.
• Carefully put the dish into the fridge for 10 minutes.
• Hopefully you’ve cleaned that saucepan, because we’ll need it again to melt the chocolate! On medium-low, melt the chocolate together with the coconut oil. Be extra careful not to burn the chocolate – melt it just to the point of smoothness.
• Take the baking pan/baking dish out of the fridge, and pour the chocolate over the sugar mixture.
• Freeze until chocolate hardens, and then you can “crack” the pieces off into a bark.

Holy cow, that butter + crackers + sugar magic at the bottom of the “crack” is incredible. I mean, I guess if you soak anything in enough sugar and fat it’s bound to be delicious, but man – I finally understand the massive appeal of making this around the holidays. I hope you’ve found your favorite way to make this bark/crack and enjoy it during the holiday!

*Schar is a sponsor of Celiac and the Beast. I am a paid blogger with Schar and often receive complimentary product as well.*