Ritz Cookies (Crackers in Your Cookies?)
Cracker for crackers like me? I love crackers, the perfect vehicle for dips, spreads, and cheese…it is the ultimate edible utensil. Taking its place as the number one cracker in my book is Ritz Crackers. Buttery, golden, flaky rounds that go with everything.
When I find a recipe that uses crackers…I’m all there, Babee. I know it’s gonna be good, especially if it calls for Ritz Crackers. One of my favorite desserts is the Atlantic Beach Pie, a delicious, easy, Lemon Pie with a whipped cream top instead of meringue and a Ritz Cracker crust, a play on salty and sweet.
On the main dish front, I love Eric Kim’s Ritzy Cheddar Chicken Breasts, chicken breasts coated in a sour cream-mustard mixture, and rolled in crushed Ritz Crackers and cheddar cheese, think Shake and Bake but WAY better.
DUH
So, when I came across a recipe from Christina Tosi of Milk Bar fame, for a Ritz Cookie, little alarms went off in my head. GOTTA MAKE THESE ASAP. Tosi is known for her delicious, quirky desserts like Crack Pie, Compost Cookies, and my personal favorite, Corn Cookies. I immediately headed to the kitchen to make a batch.
These cookies are pretty darn easy to make. It calls for butter, granulated sugar, flour, egg, milk powder, and Ritz Crackers. The recipe is on Christina Tosi’s website and as such is pretty casually written, I’ve added some details to hopefully clarify some of the steps. Let’s get started.
Puttin In the Ritz
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Break up Ritz Crackers into pieces, not too small.
Though the type of butter is not specified, I used unsalted butter which worked fine. If you want a pronounced sweet-salty vibe, start with salted butter instead, or sprinkle Fleur de Sel or your choice of finishing salt on the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. Beat butter and sugar until combined and smooth not fluffy.
Add the egg (I might add a touch of vanilla next time too-1 tsp), and beat well. Add dry mix and blend on low speed just until combined. Once the flour is added, don’t beat too much. You don’t want tough cookies.
Add the Ritz Crackers! Note how big the pieces are.
On low speed, stir until the crackers are mixed into the dough. This breaks the larger pieces into smaller ones which is what you want. You don’t want cracker dust. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes, this helps a bit with excessive spread.
Using a 2-tablespoon scoop, form dough balls, and place on a parchment-lined sheet. Word of caution, they spread quite a bit so space at 2-3 inches apart. I also tried a 3-tablespoon scoop, interestingly enough it didn’t spread that much more than the 2-tablespoon scoop and formed a thicker cookie.
To create round cookies, as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, quickly shape each cookie with a spatula or cover each with a glass cup and swirl the cookie around. Voila’ round cookie. Cookies on the left were made with a 3-tablespoon scoop while the ones on the right were with a 2-tablespoon scoop. Thinner cookies were a bit chewier.
Bake Time
The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup or 4-tablespoon scoop, 10-12 minutes. These still took about 11 minutes despite less dough. The bottoms were definitely a toasty brown, the edges crispy, and the center chewy and sturdy. Start checking early, as they color quickly. Remove when there is still a hint of sheen on the top of the cookie. The cookies will continue to cook out of the oven.
Enjoy!
Ritz Cracker Cookie by Christina Tosi
Ingredients
Creamed Mixture
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup) at room temperature
- 1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
Dry Ingredients
- 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup nonfat milk powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
The Star
- 2-1/2 cups or 1 sleeve + 5 Ritz crackers Break crackers into big pieces, once added to batter they will breakdown a bit more. Do not crush.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Combine flour, milk powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl, on medium speed, mixing until smooth about 1 -2 minutes. Add the egg, beat again until well combined.
- Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just until it is blended. Do not overbeat.
- Add the crackers and mix until fully incorporated. You want your crackers to break down into smaller pieces as you mix, but not to cracker dust stage. There should be small pieces of crackers in the dough.
- Scoop dough on a greased baking sheet (or use parchment paper) 2 to 3 inches apart. The recipe calls for a 1/4 inch scoop which makes HUGE cookies and about 18 cookies. Use a 2-tablespoon or 4-tablespoon scoop which yields 24-36 cookies. You should have twice the number of cookies.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are a deep golden brown and the center a paler golden brown. The dough spreads quite a bit. Chilling the dough helps a bit, but my quick fix to rounding the cookies-as soon as the cookies come out of the oven. Use a spatula to push the edges to shape the cookies into circles. Conversely, use a glass slightly larger than the cookie, place over the cookie and swirl the cookie to round out the shape.
- Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool. Enjoy!