Who doesn’t love these buttery, crunchy, salty crackers? They’re classic and it turns out making your Ritz Crackers from scratch is a lot simpler than you might think and super fun to make!
You know that iconic red box wit the brown sleeves of buttery, crunchy cracker? Of course you do. So let me introduce you to one of our favorite crackers to make, these Ritz Crackers From Scratch!
Ingredients Needed
And the best part? I’m pretty sure you’ll have all of the ingredients you’ll need already in your pantry!
- Flour – all purpose flour is best for this recipe
- Sugar – white granulated
- Butter – Salted butter is the best!
- Vegetable Oil – if you don’t have vegetable oil, canola oil will work too.
Equipment Needed
- Food Processor – This is what will ensure that everything is well combined but not over mixed. By not over mixing, you keep the crackers nice and flaky. You could use a stand mixer, but you risk over mixing the dough. This is the one we love!
- Rolling Pin – Or anything else to roll the dough with. A rolling pin is easiest, but you can also grab a wine bottle too!
- Cutter – This is the one that we love because it has the scalloped-edged to give it that Ritz Cracker look! (It can also be used for raviolis!)
- Brush – To be able to brush with the egg wash. A good pastry brush is key in the kitchen – we love these!
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Pulse the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a food processor.
- Add butter a little at a time and then add oil and water.
- On a floured surface roll out dough as thin as you can (would like!)
- Cut out crackers
- Poke holes in cut outs to give those classic Ritz appearance and also help them bake evenly.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Bake crackers on parchment paper and then brush with butter right out of the oven.
Let them cool and you have a delightful, buttery, flaky copycat Ritz Cracker From Scratch!
Our Other Cracker Recipes
Sourdough Sesame Rye Crackers From Scratch
FAQs
You can also use a stand mixer, but the food processor helps it from not being over mixed. If the dough’s over mixed, then the crackers wont be as flaky. I haven’t tried this without either.
You can, but you just need to be extra careful that you slice it super thin. It will save you some time, but I personally think rolling them out is really the best way to make sure they get nice and thin.
No, they wouldn’t win in a blind taste test – the main difference being that they don’t have the same crisp crunch, but they’re really close!
Enjoy, friends! As always, please let me know if you make this recipe and what you think! I love to hear from you on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram!
Ritz Crackers From Scratch
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Rolling Pin
- Pastry Brush
- Pastry cutter
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp + another 1/2 tsp salt for topping
- 8 tbsp cold butter, divided
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 egg – beaten optional for egg wash
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1/2 tsp of salt to the food processor and give a quick pulse to combine.
- Add 6 tablespoons of cold butter a few small pats at a time, and pulse to combine then. Then slowly add vegetable oil slowly with the food processor running.
- While the food processor is pulsing, add water a little bit at a time until a dough starts to form into a ball.
- On a floured surface, roll dough out as thin as you can with a rolling pin. Add more flour if needed when it sticks.
- Use cutter to cut the dough out and add cut outs to baking sheets. Continue to roll out dough and cut out crackers until all the dough is used up and place them on parchment lined baking sheet.
- Poke holes in each of the crackers: 2, 3, and 2.
- Brush the cracker cut outs with the egg wash and sprinkle with a kosher salt
- Bake in oven for 10 minutes in the center rack.
- Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and then brush with melted butter while still hot.
- Cool and enjoy!
Looks a great replacement for the commercial version. Couple of oddities in the recipe though. No mention of the cookie cutter in the list of equipment. As a European I always use weight not volume they make for more accurate and repeatable results. Would be good to have grams measures in addition to tsp, tbsp, cup.
Thanks you for these notes, Trevor! Yes, I’m working on adapting the recipes to use volume, as well as you’re right, it is more accurate. Also, thanks for the equipment note – it’s added!
I need to work a bit with my technique. The flavor was very good. I tried the suggested roll, refrigerate and slice. I could not cut the dough thin enough. I think next time I will try cutting them with a cutter. They were pretty tasty with a slice of cheese. My husband thought they were delicious.
I made this dough.. and instead of rolling it out.. I made it into a couple of logs about the size of a ritz cracker.. those sat in the fridge for a day and then I thin sliced the roll , layed them on parchment paper and baked as per the recipe. I found slicing the roll easier. With a very sharp knife is slices nicely and I think the 24 hour refridgeration pumps up the ” Ritz” flavor a bit.
Ooooh genius, Bonnie!! I’m going to try that and maybe update the recipe!!!
These saved our holiday, I will do anything to avoid holiday crowds at the grocery store! Thanks!
This just made my day, Rachel!! SO good to hear, thank you for letting me know!!! 😀