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.
A popular 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 recipe is perfect for busy holiday schedules and can be prepared in advance to save time. With its addictive flavors and customizable toppings, it's a crowd-pleaser that brings joy to both kids and adults during the festive season.
This was inspired by our Cashew Clusters, Peanut Butter Balls, and Pecan Clusters and on this site, and pairs well with our Christmas Bark, Original Fantasy Fudge recipe and Christmas Popcorn.
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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-y and peanut butter-y and just silky smooth and delicious.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Ease of Preparation: This recipe is incredibly easy to make, requiring only a few simple ingredients and minimal effort. It's perfect for busy holiday schedules or for those who are new to cooking.
- Easy to get "perfect" results: Using the ingredients listed will enable you to get the perfect results every time, easily. It's an easy go-to crowd pleaser.
- Scalability: Whether you're making treats for a small gathering or a large holiday party, the recipe can easily be scaled up or down to accommodate the number of guests.
- Kid-Friendly: Children will love participating in making this sweet treat, as it involves simple steps and assembling fun ingredients. This is a fun treat for an older kid who wants to make something all by themselves for a party.
- Delicious Flavors: Crockpot Christmas Crack combines the sweetness of chocolate and peanut butter and the saltiness of peanuts, creating a delightful blend of flavors and textures.
- Perfect for Gifting: Package the Christmas Crack in festive tins or bags, and it makes for wonderful homemade gifts during the holiday season for neighbors, friends and co-workers.
- Customizable: While the base recipe is delicious, you can add your own twist by incorporating various toppings like chopped nuts, sprinkles, or even crushed candy canes.
- Minimal Cleanup: Using a crockpot means fewer dishes to clean up, making your holiday cooking experience much more enjoyable.
Ingredients
- 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.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
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
- 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.
Variations
- 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
- - add crushed potato chips (ketchup 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!
Equipment
- slow cooker/ crock pot
- spatula
If you don't have a slow cooker, you can make this in the instant pot on the slow cooker setting, but check it regularly to make sure it doesn't scorch!
You can also make this on the stove top. 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.
Storage
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 tip
Do not over cook or let it scorch or it will be ruined!
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.
- Spoon onto parchment or wax paper. Top with sprinkles immediately before it has a chance to cool and harden.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature
- Feel free to use any mixture of chips you'd like. Just make sure the total volume is the same!
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
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
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!
Sharon
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
Oops! I changed it- it is 2 pounds total. Thank you!