"Christmas Crack" Recipe

 

Recently my friend Kristin invited me to go to girls' weekend in Delaware. A tradition for this trip was having bags of tasty junk food. The last 2 years, Kristin made muddy buddies/puppy chow, but this time she had 3 huge zip-loc bags of this amazing stuff that was dubbed "Christmas Crack". After that weekend I knew I had to make this at home (even though I know I shouldn't....)

Here we go:
Gather your ingredients!

• 2 cups of Rice Krispies
• 3 bags of microwaved popcorn (popped and all the un-popped kernels removed)
• 1 large Vanilla Almond Bark bar
• 1 (or more) tablespoons of peanut butter
• Large bowls to mix the crack
• Wax or parchment paper
• Plastic bag/bags to store the crack

Decide how you are going to melt your bark. I chose a large pot almost filled with water and a glass bowl above it to melt the bark in with out it burning. When the water gets close to a boil, I put the bowl on top and put in the bark.














Next, pop your bags of popcorn! I used the setting on the microwave to avoid burning it. One of the bags I tried to pop myself ended up very burnt....oops.




After you have popped your corns, your bark should be looking like this. Make sure you are stirring it often.

In your large bowl, mix some of your popcorn and 1 cup of your Rice Krispies. Trust me, you will thank me later for telling you this as you will need space in the bowl to move this stuff around and mix it.

Now comes an important decision: One tablespoon of peanut butter....or two. Well, I just took a spoon and dug it in and what ended up on the spoon was what was going into the melted bark :)  NOTE: the more peanut butter you use, the less hard the bark will be when it cools. Personally, I would not go over 2 tablespoons.

Mix in the peanut butter and make sure everything is melted together and there are no lumps. Your kitchen should smell amazing and people will be trickling in and out wondering what you are making....don't tell them. If you have a mother like mine, she will start eating the stuff before it has cooled. Now before you start mixing, lay out 2 long strips of wax or parchment paper side by side (and over lap them a little). This is where you will spread the crack to cool.

I used my scraper to drizzle the mixture over the popcorn and Rice Krispie mix and slowly mix it in. This made it pretty easy and I could spread the melted mixture out with out it being really heavy in one area. Not every popcorn will be completely covered, but you want that! Then the salt and butter flavor will come through. I filled this bowl with popcorn and Rice Krispie mix about two and a half times.

As you get everything mixed, dump out the mixed parts on the wax paper and then keep mixing, refilling the bowl with popcorn and Rice Krispies and pouring the bark mixture as needed. After it is all mixed and spread out on the paper, let it cool. Do not be surprised if you return to the crack to see that the edges have been picked at, this would just be other members in the house hold walking by and grabbing it before it is done cooling. There will still be plenty left.

Once cooled and hardened, break up and put in storage containers. I used a jumbo 2.5 gallon zip-loc bag to store mine. You can also put into decorative bags, tins, or boxes to give a way as gifts. Yum yum! Make sure you include a print out of the recipe or people will be all over you to make more.











For other ideas, you can crush up candy canes and sprinkle over the top while this is cooling. You can break up into large pieces and drizzle chocolate over them for added decadence. You can mix in chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, Reese's pieces, mint M&M's or anything else you can think of!

A big thank you to my friend Kristin who shared this awesome recipe with me and I can't wait until the next girls' weekend!!!

Jenn