Gluten & Nut Free Toffee Crunch Bark is a perfect recipe for gift giving!
If you're in need of gift ideas for your children's teachers or for neighbors or family, this recipe is a winner. Needing only 5 ingredients and 5 minutes in the oven, this toffee crunch bark is simple to make, but looks like you like you slaved away in the kitchen to make it. You can make this with nuts of course but being that many schools now are nut free, using seeds is a great option.
I've made this recipe many times over the years for my children's music and dance teachers. Everyone always comments on how much they love it. Choosing to use brown rice syrup instead of honey was simply because it tends to make foods crisper than honey and also has a mild butterscotch flavor I like and thought was perfect here. It's also less sweet then honey or even sucanat and since I was adding the chocolate chips I felt it was a better choice. You'll see substitutions below. Here's a great breakdown of many natural sweeteners from Sparkpeople.
If you prefer a nice uniform toffee bark, after it's hardened simply cut into squares. I will tell you this toffee you see here was cooked over the time limit by accident on my part and was quite a bit harder to cut then you'll see in the free form toffee bark below. So when I say boil only 3 minutes on the stove, set that timer because otherwise you'll end up with something you can't even bite into. I've also tried this recipe increasing the brown rice syrup, but it resulted in way too much toffee on the crackers so follow the recipe and you'll be fine. No one wants to waste ingredients right?
My family loves this recipe and I love how simple and quick it is to make, bake and then refrigerate and pack. My daughter and I packed about 5 pieces each into a clear pretty holiday designed baggie. Just be sure to let this harden before trying to cut or break into bars or you will have a gooey mess in the center.
This picture shows you the thin layer of toffee, a result of reducing the butter to one stick instead of what I suggested in the recipe I share today. So I recommend not changing anything folks, I've done it with less than stellar results. Still tasty but not perfect.
Notes on substitutions:
- If you don't have brown rice syrup you could also use honey.
- If you don't have liquid vanilla stevia you could use plain or powdered. I would suggest 4 packets or 2 teaspoons of powdered.
- Add vanilla extract if not using vanilla stevia, ½ teaspoon.
- If you choose to not use stevia, DO NOT increase the syrup without increasing the butter by ¼ cup each.
- If you can't find sugar free chocolate chips, you can use any you like or look for grain sweetened or for an allergy friendly brand is Enjoy Life.
- I have not tried subbing the butter for coconut oil, but it may work.
- I found gluten free rice crackers by the brand Back to Nature, from Stop & Stop. It was a 4 ounce box, but I did not use 16 crackers. The original recipe is made with saltine crackers.
- You can replace the sunflower and pumpkin seeds with any nuts you like.
Gluten & Nut Free Toffee Crunch Bark {Refined Sugar Free}
Ingredients
- 3 ounces or 35 gluten free crackers
- 1 ½ sticks or ¾ cup butter
- ¾ cup brown rice syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia
- 10 ounce package sugar-free chocolate chips
- Optional toppings: sunflower seeds pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries or cherries, chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Spread 35 cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet, not overlapping.
- Set aside.
- In a pot melt butter with brown rice syrup and bring to a boil.
- Boil 3 minutes and remove from heat.
- Stir in vanilla stevia.
- Pour over crackers and spread if needed.
- Bake 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and pour chocolate chips over all. Spread as quickly as it melts.
- Sprinkle optional toppings over the chocolate if desired.
- Allow to cool slightly then refrigerate until hardened.
- Break or cut into pieces then refrigerate or freeze.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
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