Warning: Addictive

Ingredients:

Prepare room in your freezer for a jelly roll pan to fit in flat.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan (or a cookie sheet with high edges) with parchment paper; then line the saltines on the tray. Resist the temptation to use broken crackers; they're more trouble than they are worth in this case. If you get to the edge and a whole cracker won't fit, break the edge crackers to the right size.

Open the bags of chocolate chips and walnuts so that they'll be ready to use on short notice, and set out a rubber spatula. Melt the first three ingredients together on low heat. Raise the temperature to medium. Stir well while cooking. Bring to a hard boil and keep stirring well with a metal eggbeater or a fork for about three minutes, until it is somewhat thick (Test the thickness by pulling the eggbeater out and looking for a thick, viscous drip of caramel). Pour the caramel mixture on top of the saltines, spreading carefully with the spatula to cover all the crackers without dislodging their arrangement.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees, for about 10 minutes or until very bubbly (Check a little early to make sure you don't burn it). Pull the pan out of the oven and immediately sprinkle and the chocolate chips over the saltines until well covered. More than 12 oz. of chips may be necessary, but use no more than 16 oz at most, as too much chocolate makes it hard to taste the caramel. The chips should begin to melt as soon as they come into contact with the hot caramel. Spread them thoroughly with a rubber spatula, and then sprinkle the nuts on top and pat down with the spatula so that they adhere to the chocolate.

Allow to cool, then freeze the trays until hardened. When the candy is hard, break it. This candy will store at room temperature but is less likely to stick if refrigerated. If making it as a gift, it is good to store in layers of parchment or wax paper so that it won't stick together.

Hint: There will be a lot of crumbs when you break the candy. These (and any that are left over) make a wonderful "heath bar" type topping for soy ice cream or other frozen desserts. Store them in the freezer.

Lower-fat version: You can leave out the margarine by using water and a flavored liquor instead, in the following ratio: 3 parts water / 2 parts brown sugar / 2 parts brown rice syrup / 1 part alcohol. Boil hard for only 2-3 minutes and bake 5-7 minutes only. This makes a harder, crunchier candy that is still quite tasty, but keep in mind that the crackers, the chocolate and the nuts still contain oil, and lower-fat in this case doesn't mean low fat.