This Crockpot Christmas Crack recipe is so easy to make! This homemade Christmas Candy is chocolate heaven and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Made in the slow cooker, the hardest part is getting the ingredients from the store. Just dump, wait, stir and drop onto wax or parchment paper.
An easy Christmas recipe, we also love to add different colored sprinkles and serve them up for Halloween, Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.
This easy-to-make candy is perfect for busy holiday schedules and can be prepared in advance to save time. It's a total crown pleaser with it's peanut clusters
This was inspired by our Cashew Clusters, Christmas Chex mix, Peanut Butter Balls, and Pecan Clusters and on this site, and pairs well with our Christmas Bark, Sugar Cookies Truffles, Original Fantasy Fudge recipe, Christmas Cookie Bars, Christmas Popcorn. You'll also love making this Graham Cracker Toffee!
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What I Like About This Recipe
My favorite thing is how easy it is to make. I love that I can throw everything in and walk away and that my personal time investment is less than 10 minutes total. I also love how these are chocolate peanut goodness and silky smooth and delicious.
Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients needed for this recipe. Follow our tips on each ingredient for best results.
- Peanuts - the peanuts add the bulk to this recipe. It's what all the yummy flavor surrounds. Without the peanuts, they would be flat chocolates
- Chocolate chips- You can use white or semi-sweet chocolate chips. We prefer it with semi-sweet to help it have that perfect not-too-sweet flavor.
- Baker's chocolate- The Baker's chocolate is so smooth and creamy. The addition of it to this recipe is not essential for flavor, but for texture. It makes the perfect extra smooth texture.
- Reese's peanut butter chips - these are the star of the show and give the crack the flavor that is so amazing. Without these, it would basically just be fancy chocolate covered peanuts.
- White melting wafers - these help with the texture too! They make everything nice and smooth and keep the chocolate and peanut butter chips from getting chunky. We tested this recipe with almond bark and the melting wafers. Our taste testers couldn't tell much of a difference, but showed a slight preference to the wafers over the almond bark.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Crockpot Christmas Crack
Use these process shots to help get the results you are wanting. The pictures can help with texture and be a visual guide for best results.
1. Pour the peanuts into the crockpot. Spread them out so they are in an even layer.
2. Add the chocolate chips and the baker's chocolate. Again spread out in an even layer.
3. Add the peanut butter chips and spread out evenly. Finish it off with the white chocolate chips. Turn on the crockpot on low. Check the crack at 60 minutes, and stir.
4.Check every half hour and stir. It should be done after 2 hours. Spoon onto parchment paper or wax paper. Sprinkle the sprinkles on top before they have a chance to dry!
Hint: The white chips melt the most quickly, so they do the best on top, giving everything else a chance to melt.
Substitutions and Variations
- Cashews - feel free to substitute cashews in for the peanuts.
- Milk Chocolate - we highly recommend this recipe with semi-sweet chocolate chips and semi-sweet baking chocolate. Because of the peanut butter chips and the white chocolate, it is very milky and sweet and the semi-sweet compliments it perfectly.
- Chocolate chips- any ratio of chocolate chips or other chips that melt is fine to use, just use the same total volume.
- Red Hot - after scooping the crockpot Christmas crack onto the wax paper, drop Red Hots on top for a pop of cinnamon.
- Butterscotch - use butterscotch chips instead of peanut butter chips
- Extra Peanut Butter- stir in some peanut butter m&m's Reese's pieces or peanut butter cups at the end for some yummy chunks of peanut butter.
- Caramel- drizzle caramel over the top for chocolate caramel- yumminess.
- Cayenne Pepper- we love a good spicy chocolate! Add ½-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper at the end for that cayenne chocolate flavor!
- White Chocolate Chips - use white chocolate chips instead of melting wafers- use the same weight.
Stove Top Directions
You can also make this on the stove top if you don't have a crock pot. Stove top directions: Put burner on the low heat. Add everything but the peanuts. Stir constantly to prevent from scorching. As soon as everything is melted, remove from heat and stir in the peanuts. Spoon onto parchment paper and top with sprinkles.
Storing Crockpot Christmas Crack
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or more. These are great because they last a long time without going bad or changing texture!
Top tips
Do not over cook or let it scorch or it will be ruined!
Work quickly after scooping out the individual servings. Apply the sprinkles before they harden up so that they will stick. This might mean doing about ⅓ of them at a time.
Recipe
Crockpot Christmas Crack
Equipment
- 1 slow cooker
Ingredients
- 2 pounds peanuts I like to use one pound salted, one unsalted
- 20 oz peanut butter chips
- 20 oz white melting chips I like Ghirardelli, but you can use Almond Bark or high quality white chips. Low quality white chips will leave chunks.
- 12 oz chocolate chips I prefer semi-sweet, but any will work
- 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate baking bar optional, but makes the whole thing smoother.
- Christmas sprinkles
Instructions
- Place peanuts on the bottom of the slow cooker
- Layer the chocolate chips, chocolate, peanut butter chips, then white chips.
- Put the lid on and cook on low. At one hour, stir the mix. Stir every 30 minutes until it's all melted together, then turn off the crockpot. See photos above for a visual.
- Spoon onto parchment or wax paper. Top with sprinkles immediately before it has a chance to cool and harden.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature. We do not recommend freezing this recipe unless eating frozen. They will make a mess if thawed after freezing.
- Feel free to use any mixture of chips you'd like. Just make sure the total volume is the same!
- The white chocolate wafers melt the fastest, which is why they're on top! It gives everything else a chance to melt before they start melting too.
- If you make this with almond bark instead of melting wafers, chop up the almond bark and place it more towards the bottom (at that point the order won't matter very much).
- Even if you like a milk chocolate flavor, consider using semi-sweet chips for this recipe. The peanut butter chips and white chocolate are incredibly sweet and the semi- sweet helps balance out the flavors and it's definitely a milk chocolate flavor already.
Nutrition
FAQ
It will keep 1 week up to a month. Store in an airtight container to keep fresh longer.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for the freshest left overs.
Food safety
- Never leave cooking food unattended
Nicole says
YUM. Crockpot Christmas Crack Candy is a favorite of ours around here. The best part is how easy it is and how much everyone loves it!
Jacob says
We love the crockpot version of Christmas Crack!! The Christmas Candy is so good. So easy to make and so chocolatey and peanut buttery. It's hard to save enough for the neighbors!
Rhonda Rodick says
First time trying this recipe. It was so easy and everyone loved it. I added some pretzels for a little sweet and salty.
Andrea says
Love this idea! Sweet salty are a great combination.
Sharon says
I would love to make these for Christmas, but when I read the ingredients it calls for 1 lb. of peanuts but your note says you like to use "1 salted, 1 unsalted". Does that mean you use a total of 2 lbs. or that you use 1/2 lb. of each. I just want to clarify, as it says to make sure you use the exact measurements of ingredients. Please respond.
Nicole says
Oops! I changed it- it is 2 pounds total. Thank you!
Maryann Moore says
One jar of salted in one jar of unsalted, but I prefer not to use so many nuts in it.That's up to you. But it's very simple to make although I don't use the peanut butter chips in it. I use milk, chocolate and semi. Sweet chocolate chips and then the white bark. Good luck, it's real easy.
Eva says
I made this last year and it was so good! We are going to make it again this season, I am so glad I found it. I bookmarked it so I will have it next year too.
Nicole says
Yay! We're so glad you love the Christmas crack as much as we do!
Stephanie Nelson says
Would be so helpful if you offered the ingredients list in metric as well
Andrea says
We totally understand, be we are a US based food blog and the majority of our readers are from the US so we only have imperial on our site like the majority of US based blogs.
Tony says
Great recipe are the peanuts dry roasted or like regular cocktail type peanuts?
Andrea says
Up to your personal preference but we prefer using the dry roasted peanut.
Tony says
We just got the makins and tthe dry roasted peanuts and off to Crackland!. Merry Christmas
Nicole says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Maggie says
mine did not harden. no idea why.
I followed the recipe but all I have is a mess on my counter
Nicole says
Hi Maggie! So sorry you are struggling with this! All of the ingredients are hard at room temperature. I have a couple of thoughts, one is to make sure that they are not in a warm place (maybe they are on your counter above the dishwasher that is running?) and that you didn't add any oil. My only other thought is that maybe one of the items you purchased made the difference? You could try putting them in the refrigerator, that should help.
Lindsay says
Love this recipe thank you for this! A couple variations - I ended up using the combo of chocolate/peanut butter chips and it turned out well, along with scooping them into mini baking cups that imprinted the sides like little Reese’s cups. Was able to make about 100 little cups with your recipe!
Andrea says
That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
Eva says
Yum. This looks so delicious!