First, I take stock of everything in the pantry.
During the fall and winter season, I often purchase bulk buttery crackers, for both soup and appetizers.
In addition, with holiday baking, I end up with excess brown sugar and pounds of butter.
Now I could freeze the butter, I prefer not to.
Instead of freezing items, or breaking buttery crackers into breadcrumbing, I make desserts.
After all, my extra pantry ingredients were originally meant to be used for desserts or soups, so incorporating them into a fantastic no-bake dessert is a great way to use them up!
Waste not, want not.
Keeping ingredients fresh is always important.
Therefore, making simple recipes out of ingredients already in the house is a must!
Try these No-Bake Buttery Caramel Cracker bars, your family and friends will love them.
For those who love caramel, chocolate, and a crunch, and using pantry leftovers, this no-bake recipe is the one you have been seeking.
Just so you know, you will need space in your refrigerator to store this treat!
Clean that out as well, and make some soup with those leftover veggies!
Now, let’s clean out your pantry of these ingredients so you can update your stock and get ready for other items!
No-Bake Buttery Caramel Cracker Bars
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Simple No-Bake Recipes that Are Allergen-Friendly
One of the hardest things for me to conquer when baking is keeping desserts allergen-friendly for Where Niko Travels.
What this recipe is not, dairy-free, nor gluten-free.
However, you can eat this if you have nut allergies which is totally uncommon when it comes to most caramel.
Use my 4 Ingredient simple soft caramel recipe to make the caramel for this recipe.
Chocolate is also a general, ‘off-limits’ food for most with nuts, however, the chocolate I used has zero nuts in it!
For those who have allergies, you already know what chocolates and ingredients you can use.
Our pantry is always stocked with all of this, so I am sure yours is too!
My Favorite Non-Stick Oil Will Surprise You
While this article does not reflect healthy eating in any way, shape or form, it does show how to use up items in your pantry!
My favorite unflavored, cooking oil is a Coconut Oil by Carrington Farms.
The unflavored coconut oil, in fact, is perfect for high heat cooking or treating a pan for nonstick.
I have this in backstock in my home as I use it that often.
There’s also a great backstory to the unflavored coconut oil and it does not hurt my son’s nut allergies.
Forever, I will purchase this brand as Carrington Farms is a great company giving back to people that are in need.
Did I mention that Carrington Farm products are high-quality and always add to the success of my finished food products?
No-Bake Bars are great for large families and…
I know there are those of you on NOOM, Weight Watchers and fasting diets.
Do you know what else I know?
Most of you have cheat days and indulge in desserts you crave.
The beauty of this no-bake bar recipe is that indulging means, that pre-portioned bars make it possible to NOT over-indulge.
As we all recognize, the key to any good cheat day is indulgence without overness!
These bars SLICE Perfectly as you can see above.
No-Bake bars are great for large families because you can make food in bulk fast and store it.
However, these bars are even better because they can be made in bulk, stored, in the refrigerator up to a week!
Most Important Part of this No-Bake Buttery Caramel Crackers is…..
The pan.
Allow me to offer a few thoughts about the proposed 9×13″ Pan you need to use.
First, you are using this pan because 30, rectangular butter crackers will fit perfectly side by side.
5 across and 6 down in fact.
The crackers will mesmerize you when they line up so perfectly.
I used foil this time, and I don’t know why.
Don’t do that. I mean, if you don’t want a mess, do it that way, but you are going to CUT the foil when you CUT the pieces, so just skip it!
Make sure to grease the 9×13″ Pan, you won’t have a large mess then.
Grease the corners and the bottom of the pan, using a brush. (that’s what I normally do)
You can cut these as big or as little as you want once you are done just in case you were wondering.
No-bake buttery caramel chocolate cracker bars
Have ALL the ingredients ready and your pan prepped with the crackers ahead of making the caramel toffee mixture.
Use my recipe for the 4 ingredients simple soft caramel to make this recipe filling.
I am going to suggest temping your caramel, the first time you do this.
Now that I have made this recipe about 300+ times, I don’t need temp my caramel.
Why? As soon as I see what I will term ‘ball-like’ presence in the pot I know my caramel is ready to go!
Caramel Lathering and the no-bake buttery caramel chocolate dessert
Your recipe will make PLENTY of caramel to cover 3 layers.
Simply ladle and skim until you have enough.
As I spooned the caramel across, I drizzled first, then smeared.
Do take care not to drag a cracker out of its position, but if you happen to, simply put it back in its spot and move on.
Add your mini morsels and repeat all of this until you have created 3 layers constructed of 90 crackers (30 per layer!)
Chocolate Topping for the no-bake buttery caramel bars with chocolate
I prefer baking chocolate pieces.
For this, I just microwaved, stirred and spread.
I use an ‘S’ formation to smooth the chocolate over all of it, then spread it, as you can see.
⇓The Recipe For No-bake buttery caramel chocolate cracker bars ⇓
No-Bake Buttery Caramel Cracker Bars With Chocolate
Ingredients
- 90 Leftover Butter Crackers Like Club Crackers
- My Recipe for 4 Ingredient Soft Buttery Caramel
- 1/4 C mini morsel chocolate chips divided into 2 clumps for use later
- 8 Oz 4 - 2 0z squares of meltable chocolate bricks or 1 bag (10 oz Chocolate Chips
- 9 "x13" baking pan
- ingredients for soft caramel
Instructions
- Prep a 9 x 13" pan.
- Either line the pan from side to side with aluminum foil or *use a brush an unflavored coconut oil to treat the base and sides of the pan for easier release (*preferred option)
- First, unpack all 90 crackers, in a bowl to grab easily for prep.
- Next, you will need the first 30 crackers.
- Start by working across the pan, and placing 5 crackers across and 6 up (heightwise)
- Once that layer is complete it is time to assemble my 4 Ingredients Soft Caramel Recipe.
- Divide the caramel sauce into 1/3's as you will need it for each layer.
- Using the prepared 4 Soft Caramel Recipe, drizzle the sauce in an 's' sweeping motion coating each cracker.
- Repeat until the first layer is complete.
- If a cracker is not covered, use non-stick spray on the back of a spatula then go ahead and make sure you cover all the crackers with the use of the spatula by spreading manually.
- Be careful not to displace crackers, so don't spread too hard.
- Since the caramel is on, now use one of the three clumps of mini morsels and spread them across the caramel.
- Next, add a new layer of crackers exactly as you did above. 5 across and 6 up to = 30 total crackers.
- Again, spread the caramel on this layer exactly as you did above.
- Then repeat the mini morsels.
- Once again for the 3rd time TOP with crackers.
- Use the final portion of caramel sauce to coat crackers.
- Spread as evenly as possible.
- Now, microwave the chocolate pieces or bag of chips until the chocolate is smooth.
- Spread this chocolate across the top of the caramel.
- Chocolate should spread easily and if it does not, use the back of a spoon treated with nonstick spray or unflavored coconut oil to spread evenly.
- Cover with Foil.
- Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
- When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator, use a knife or a strong, unflexible serving spatula to cut through the crackers into bars.
- Remove each bar and place it on a tray.
- Whatever is not used, refrigerate.
- You can refrigerate and store this for up to 7 days.