New Year’s Eve is just on the horizon and you decide you want to celebrate with some friends with some fun and games. But honestly by this point in the season you are kind of tired of cooking. You want to impress but without a lot of work. So here’s a couple of ideas for treats and games that you can share to ring the New Year in without tearing your hair out to do it.
Salted Caramel Cracker Candy
Sweet and Salty – you’ve got both palates covered. You don’t need to turn on the oven for this, the ingredients are handy and the only ‘baking’ you’ll do is in the microwave. Doesn’t get much easier than that.
Ingredients:
1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 cup butter (no substitutions)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. flaky sea salt (optional)
Directions:
1. Line a large jelly-roll pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Place saltines on pan in a single layer.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter on high for one minute (or longer if needed). Whisk the sugars, vanilla and cider vinegar in until the mixture is smooth. Microwave in 2 minute intervals for 6 minutes on high, whisking between each 2 minutes before placing back in the microwave. Microwave another 1 or 2 minutes until the mixture is a dark amber color.
3. Carefully remove from microwave and pour over the crackers, spreading the mixture overtop of the saltines in a thin layer. Tap the pan on a flat surface to get out the bubbles and make the caramel even. Sprinkle with salt if desired.
4. Cool for 15 minutes or as long as it takes for the caramel to harden, and then break into pieces and bag up for gifting or store in an airtight container.
And then of course you want to have some fun! Nostalgia always tends to go over well on New Year’s Eve, so break out those board games.
Rummy-O, Monopoly, Risk and my personal favorite Clue will have your guests wanting the chance to play one more round so that they can win. If you’re still pretty agile Twister is always worth a few good laughs or you could try playing deal or no deal bingo at William Hill. That may give you yet another reason to celebrate the New Year!
Whichever way you decide to celebrate your New Year’s Eve, whether it’s a fancy black tie affair, chilling at home with your best buds, or cuddled up on the couch watching the big ball drop in Times Square on the TV, I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2016.
Tammy Litke is a Dallas blogger, blogging since 2008. She loves to watch movies, play video games, spend time in the kitchen, and travel. Between recipes and reviews you’ll find many helpful and some just plain funny posts on her blog. Welcome, pull up a chair and stay for a while!
I love how simple that recipe is. It is really similar to the chocolate covered matzah we make at Passover every year, just add chocolate on top of everything else!
You can’t go wrong with chocolate! Never enough of that 😉
My sister makes something similar every Christmas, but with the chocolate melted on top. This time of year I’m always looking for no bake treat recipes becuase when its 85F outside the last thing I want to do is put the oven on. These taste just as good if not better than my sisters and it was done in half the time! I did melt the chocolate on top too only because thats the way Im used to these bars. I was a bit leery of the vinegar thinking it would affect the taste but once it was done you dont taste it at all. Thanks for a great recipe!
I absolutely love caramel! This is such a delicious fall treat that my family and guests would enjoy eating!
We love caramel and what an easy and fun treat to make! I want to try it!
Looks yummy. Thank you for the recipe!
I just made three batches to put with my gifts. How long can I store this?
That’s a good question, I honestly don’t know, it never stays around long enough in our home to store it!
I have everything but the vinegar, can I still make them or is there a substitute?
I would l9ve to know the answer to this too.
I’ve never made it without the actual ingredient list, so I don’t know how it would turn out with a substituted ingredient. I suppose you could look for vinegar substitutes online, but I can’t verify that it would turn out or taste the same.
Other recipes I have seen doesn’t even have the vinegar. Butter and brown sugar only.
I made this a week or so ago but it didn’t work. Caramel never hardened so it never formed into that “crack” that I’m familiar with. Also, vinegar smell was very strong. Next time, I just dig out my old recipe instead of trying to take the easy way.