A recipe sourced from Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe’s ‘Special Guest – Recipes for the happily imperfect host’), which was in turn sourced from one of Annabel’s podcast listeners. My family and many friends are now hopelessly addicted, necessitating the regular activation of my crack lab. Those fearing a visit from the drug squad could always call it ‘snap’.
Ingredients
1 x 250 g pack of Salada-style biscuits
200 g butter
185 g (1 cup) soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
generous pinch of salt
200 g dark chocolate, chopped (I find it easier to use dark cooking chocolate buttons)
50 g slivered pistachios (skip this for those with nut allergies)
15 g dried raspberries (or any other dried fruit – I use cranberries)
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C/160°C fan
- Use a baking tray lined with foil and then with baking paper and lay out the Saladas in a single layer. Try to fit three Salada crackers in one direction and four in the other. You can of course snap them to fit if you can’t find quite the right tray, but this is the sort of surface area you’re after.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar together over medium heat, then cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. The caramel should be thick and gloopy, and bubbling away sullenly. Stir in the vanilla and salt.
- Take the caramel off the heat and quickly pour it all over the Saladas. Smooth with an offset palette knife or spatula or basting brush.
- Place tray in oven for 15 minutes, or until the caramel has darkened to a deep gold. Keep an eye on it, as the caramel can quickly turn. When it’s a good dark colour, remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes.
- Sprinkle the chocolate over the toffee. As the chocolate melts, use your spatula to spread it out evenly – this is extremely satisfying. While the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle over the pistachios and raspberries.
- Allow your salted caramel ‘crack’ to cool (not in the fridge, please), then snap into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Serving Notes: You can serve ‘crack’ just as it is, but this version is tarted up with some festive pistachio slivers and dried raspberries. You could use any sort of nuts. Or use half dark, half white chocolate and swirl to mix! You can use other saltine-style crackers for this recipe or Schär gluten-free crackers. For a quick dessert, serve bowls of store-bought ice cream with a couple of crack shards stuck in like wafers.
Six Crooked Highways 