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.
Laura Flowers
Crossing my fingers that you win! What a great idea!
Laura
Charles
Thanks for the support Laura!
Christina
How exciting! Good luck with the contest! These cookies look and sound delicious! 🙂
Caitlin
I am a BIG fan of these cookies — love the play on peanut butter crackers!
Charles
Glad they held up well in transit! And now I know to have treats waiting when you arrive.
Laura MacDougall
WOW! I hope you win! What will you do with the money?
Charles
I don’t know! Probably spoil Caitlin!
Caitlin
I like the sounds of that! Although you already spoil me quite a bit, so perhaps we should put it in the maserati fund. Only $100,000 to go!
Kerry
What a creative combination of flavors! These sound amazing. I hope you win!
Rachel
salty and sweet sounds like a winning combo to me! good luck!
Jane
I love cookies eating and baking so I will be trying this recipe this week. Did the recipe win????
Charles
Alas, the recipe did not win. But please do try the recipe!
brenda
made these this past weekend…hubby loved the salty buttery flavor…it’s a hopped up peanutbutter cookie!