Ritz Cracker Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

I’m a sucker for a good recipe contest.  Cooking, for me, is already a fun and creative hobby.  So the thought of prize money is just icing on top.

One day in the supermarket, I passed a giant display of Ritz Crackers, complete with football goal posts, inflated balloons, and a nearly life-size cutout of Guy Fieri.  Drawing closer, I saw that Kraft was running a recipe contest for its Ritz Crackers.  With a grand prize of $20,000, I decided to grab a box or two, and see what I could do.

My first thought was toward a cookie.  I had really enjoyed Caitlin’s salted oat cookies, and thought the natural saltiness of the crackers would be a great component of a cookie.  I also had some experience in the cookie-crushing category, and was confident that a crushed bag of crackers was not a recipe for disaster.

After playing with the ratios for several batches, I finally settled on my flour to cracker ratio.  Too much flour, I realized, would make the cookies puffy and uncooked in the middle, almost biscuit-like.  Too little flour, and the cookies resembled lace cookies.  By the third batch I had it right.  From there, I decided on a sweetener.  In an ode to the classic peanut butter and Ritz Cracker combination, I jammed a full cup of peanut butter chips into the dough to finish off my cookies.

My submission for the recipe contest was complete:

Ritz cracker cookies with peanut butter chips

Recipe prepared for the Ritz Crackers Contest.

PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOK TIME: 13 minutes
YIELD: 24 Cookies

WHAT TO GRAB:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
14 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 cup less 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups crushed Ritz Crackers (about 50 crackers)
1 cup peanut butter chips

HOW YOU DO IT:

1.  Empty about 50 crackers (around a package and a half) into a plastic bag.  Using a rolling pin or the bottom of a jar, break up the Ritz Crackers into very small pieces.

2.  In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars.  Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well.

3.  In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Working in batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, until well-mixed.  Mix in the crushed Ritz Crackers, then the peanut butter chips.

4.  Form the dough into 1-inch balls and place the rounds onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 13 minutes, or until just beginning to brown at the edges.

5.  Briefly cool the cookies on a wire rack, then serve warm!

*The cookies will harden overnight.  To soften the cookies, wrap a few cookies in foil, and heat them in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes.