Copycat Ritz Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches (2024)

With two crisp and buttery crackers sandwich crackers and a peanut butter filling, these copycat Ritz peanut butter cracker sandwiches look like the real thing and taste amazing.

They only require a few simple ingredients that you may already have in your pantry, and the process of making them is easy and straightforward.

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These were one of my favorite snacks to find in my lunchbox as a kid, so making them as an adult was super nostalgic and fun. They combine a few pantry staples - flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, butter, and water - to make a simple dough that's rolled out thinly, cut into circles, baked, and then sandwiched around a peanut butter filling.

These are perfect for kids, and they're free from highly processed ingredients like vegetable oils and high fructose corn syrup.

This recipe is part of our better than store bought series, and if you're looking for some better-tasting and slightly better for you recipes, you can check out these Strawberry Poptarts and or these Homemade Goldfish.

Copycat Ritz Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches Ingredients

For the crackers

• Bread flour: Our first test with bread flour went well, so we stuck with it. It has more protein than all-purpose flour and thus develops more gluten. We've found that doughs with bread flour are easier to roll into thin sheets and stay together better when rolled thinly than all-purpose flour doughs.
• Butter: Make sure your butter is cut into pieces (for even incorporation) and chilled so that it breaks into small pieces instead of just smearing onto the bottom and sides of your food processor.
• Baking powder: This is the leavening for your crackers that helps them puff. We tried combinations of baking powder and baking soda, but even a small amount of baking soda really threw off the taste of the crackers, so be sure to stick with powder.
• Sugar: Adds a subtle sweetness to the crackers that pairs well with the butter and salt.
• Kosher salt: To ensure they're not too salty, be sure to use kosher salt and not table salt. If you've ever caught yourself eating a whole sleeve of Ritz crackers, then you'll know salt is a key ingredient.
• Cold water: Cold water helps prevent the butter from melting as you mix together your dough. We just used cold tap water, there's no need to chill it in the fridge.
• Egg: This is for the egg wash. Try to use a cage-free or pasture-raised egg for the best colored yolk.

For the peanut butter filling

• Peanut butter: We used a sugar-free natural peanut butter. This type of peanut butter can be pretty runny, so you'll need to add powdered sugar to avoid a mess when filling and storing these little sandwiches. If you're using a peanut butter like JIF or Skippy, you can probably just use that as your filling, as it won't run at all.
• Powdered sugar: This helps to turn the peanut butter into a more dough-like filling. This is optional if you want to cut back on the sugar, but again, will definitely be messier! You can also use powdered peanut butter mixed with a little bit of water for a thicker filling.

How to Make these Ritz Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches

STEP 1: Make your dough. Add bread flour, chilled butter, baking powder, sugar, and salt to a food processor and pulse until you achieve small, round grains of dough. If you don't have a food processor, you can "chop" everything together with a bench scraper, or gently work the dough together with your fingertips, crushing the butter and flour together.

STEP 2: Shape your dough and chill it. Move dough to a baking mat and press it together until it forms a ball. If it's not sticking together well enough, add water in small increments. Cut into two pieces and flatten each into a ½ inch thick rectangle, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill them in the fridge for at least an hour.

STEP 3: Form your crackers. Roll your chilled dough into a circle 9-10 inches in diameter. It should be about ⅛" thick. Aim for slightly thicker rather than thin if you're not sure. Cut into rounds with your fluted pastry ring and carefully transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.

The crackers don't really expand, so you can space them closely together. Repeat with your other dough half.

STEP 4: Get your crackers ready for the oven. Using a skewer, poke some holes into your crackers. Regular Ritz crackers have 7 holes, and the sandwich crackers have 9. For authenticity's sake, we went with 9, but you can do about 4, since this is pretty time consuming.

Beat an egg and combine it with 1 tablespoon of water, then brush onto each cracker. Note that the paler your egg yolk, the paler the finished cracker. Sprinkle crackers with a bit more kosher salt.

STEP 5: Bake your crackers. Move crackers to a preheated 350˚F oven and bake for around 15 minutes, or until outer edges of the crackers are golden brown.

STEP 6: Make the peanut butter filling and assemble. Let the crackers cool to room temperature. Mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar and pipe or smear onto a cracker, then top with another to create your peanut butter sandwich.

Substitutions and Variations

• Peanut butter filling: We used powdered sugar and peanut butter (best texture and flavor), but you could also use regular peanut butter (tastes great, no sugar, but messy), or powdered peanut butter with less liquid than the container calls for (good texture, but worst flavor from what we tested). You want to make sure that the filling is thick and not runny, or else the crackers will be a mess, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, since you'll probably eat them all in about 30 minutes.
• Bread flour: Our first test with bread flour went so well that we didn't try these with all-purpose flour, but we imagine it would work just fine.
• Non-dairy version: We didn't test a vegan version of this recipe, but we think these would probably work well with a vegan butter substitute.
• Gluten free version: We also didn't test a gluten free version, so we are not 100% sure how they would turn out.
• Cheesy filling: Cheese is another popular filling alternative for these, and they'd be a delicious with a cut piece of cheddar in the middle.

What to Serve with these Copycat Ritz Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches

These are perfect as part of a charcuterie board, and could be served alongside other crackers and or charcuterie staples like our quick pickles.

You can also opt to not fill the crackers with peanut butter, and serve them simply alongside a selection of cheeses and jams.

Equipment

If you want to create a cracker with the trademark ridges, you'll need a fluted/wavy edged pastry ring to cut the rings out. We used a 2" diameter ring from this $14 set.

Of course, you don't need the ridges and you can just use a regular pastry ring set, or a measuring cup or small glass to cut the cracker dough into rounds.

Storage

Stored in an airtight container, these should remain crisp for 3-5 days. Just note that if you use natural peanut butter and no powdered sugar, they will get a little messy in storage as the peanut butter will run out of the crackers a bit.

Tips and FAQ

More tips

• Chill the dough: Don't skip chilling your dough after you form it into a ball. We found that the longer we let it rest, the better the crackers turned out, and we let it chill for around 2 hours during testing. We would recommend letting it chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
• Cut the dough in half: We like cutting the dough in half because the sheet will be way too big when rolled out if it's not cut in half, and it will be hanging over the edges of your baking mat.
• Egg wash: The more vibrant your yolks, the more golden brown these crackers will get, since they don't really brown on their own, so don't be shocked if your crackers come out pretty pale. They still taste buttery and delicious.
• You will have some dough left over after cutting our your circles. You can re-roll this dough to cut out more crackers, but we have found that it usually behaves a little differently during baking (usually by rising more dramatically). It will taste the same, however.
• The crackers will shrink in diameter as they cook. We used a 2" diameter pastry ring to cut our crackers into rounds, and they lost a bit of size during baking.

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