Ritz Crackers From Scratch
Originally posted December 2015 and reposted May 2020.
Who doesn’t love these classic buttery, crunchy, salty crackers? Making your own homemade Ritz Crackers from scratch is a lot simpler than you might think and are super fun to make!
You know that iconic red box with the brown sleeves of buttery, crunchy crackers? Of course you do! So let me introduce you to one of our favorite crackers to make with our homemade Ritz cracker recipe! These Ritz Crackers From Scratch are surprisingly easy to make and have everything you love from the classic. They’re crunchy. They’re buttery. And they are the perfect vessel for any of your favorite Ritz cracker recipes – or to just snack on their own!
Recipe Video
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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 is what works best.
- Butter – You can use either salted or unsalted butter for this recipe. We use salted butter, but see the recipe notes for using unsalted.
- Vegetable Oil -If you don’t have vegetable oil, another neutral-flavored oil like canola will work, too.
- Baking Powder – Just enough for a little leavening.
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 overmixing 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 ravioli!)
- 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 the dough as thin as you can (would like!)
- Cut out crackers
- Poke holes in cutouts to give that 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
Copycat Chicken in a Biskit Crackers
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 won’t 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.
Be sure to spoon and level out the flour and then add the 2/3 cup of water a little at a time. You may not need all of it, just add it slowly until a ball begins to form.
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
If you want to see more, be sure to sign up for my 5 Easy Ways to Start Cooking From Scratch!
Ritz Crackers From Scratch
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 255 g
- 3 tsp baking powder 14 g
- 1 tbsp sugar 14 g
- 1 tsp kosher salt divided
- 8 tbsp cold butter, divided
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 oz
- 1/3 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. You may not need to full 1/3 of a cup, do not add it all at once.
- 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!
I am so happy I came across this post! I go through so much Ritz crackers for snacking, cooking, and even baking!
Whoooo! I hope you enjoy them, Ann!
Thanks for this recipe. Homemade crackers are so much more tasty than any store bought and I loved knowing exactly what ingredients were in them. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Enjoy Amy!
Who knew these would be so easy to make? They turned out fantastic. I am going to make batches of these to go with my pimento cheese and hand them out for homemade gifts at Christmas.
Enjoy, Katie!
I love the idea of making your own and knowing exactly what is in them. I cannot wait to give these a go. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, I never knew how easy and quick making homemade crackers were! This is great, because now I can make crackers that are pre-packaged and processed. This is going to be a great recipe I will keep coming back to.
Oh my goodness these crackers truly do taste like ritz crackers, but so much better than store bought!
I have never tried making crackers at home. What a fun and delicious idea. Perfect for party trays.
Hi! I only have tonnes of double-action baking powder at the moment. Is it possible to use this? If so, how much should I put in? I made this recipe and it turned to sludge at first so I rolled it, froze it, rolled it, and froze it again and again. And to cut things short, it was edible but I think the melted butter + salt made it a tad bit salty. Anyway, the second attempt was better but the crackers were not puffy or layered. The ones I rolled super thin were crispy but not layered like the original Ritz. I’m wondering since double-action baking powder works once with water and the second time with heat, would it help? Can I add more butter? Since pie pastry uses butter to increase flakiness? By flaky here, I mean crispy not the hard kind of crispy but the fluffy crumbly type of crispy. There was a recipe that only had egg white, butter, flour, and salt! (Err I don’t think that will work. Another with egg, flour, butter, oil, salt, and sugar). HELP!! And thanks in advance!!
Hi Graess! Hmm I’ve never used double-action baking powder before, but it should be alright to use? I haven’t tested this recipe with it though. Now that you talk about the layers, what might help create that is if you roll 2-3 pieces of dough as thin as possible, and then layer them before cutting them out.
Hi, could you please give measurements in grams?
Thanks.
I made this to great success with some accidental modification.
I purposely replaced the vegetable oil with lard as I avoid seed oils in my diet, but then I also misread the recipe and put all 8 tbsp of butter in. This made the dough probably wetter than intended, needing around a half cup extra to firm it up. They turned out wonderful, even having the last 2 tbsp of butter already mixed in. The flavor isn’t exactly the same as ritz, maybe a cross between them and a graham cracker? But the crunch is exactly the same, I’ll be sure to make them again soon, overall far more enjoyable than storebought!
half cup extra flour*