Homemade Ritz Crackers (2025)

Published 9/23/2019, Last updated 2/26/2021 by Stef

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This recipe for homemade Ritz crackers is even better than the store-bought version – and it’s so easy to make!

I spent weeks developing the copycat recipe so that it would taste as close to the original as possible and would use natural ingredients. These are made without high fructose corn syrup and without partially hydrogenated oils.

Developing this recipe was a bit of a challenge. Take a look at what went into making these perfect:

Each column on this cutting board resulted from a slightly different recipe for the crackers (and the board doesn’t even show all of my trials).

I experimented with:

• using only butter, only vegetable oil, and a combination
• brushing with melted butter before baking, after baking, and partially through baking
• sprinkling salt on top, mixing salt into the butter, using kosher salt and regular table salt
• using different amount of baking powder

You get the idea.

I came pretty close to getting this recipe perfect. The real cracker [paid link] is slightly more fluffy, but the taste of mine is spot on. (Most of my tasters actually preferred my version’s flavor!)

Ingredients and Equipment

Though the recipe’s ingredients are standard baking staples, you will need some special equipment:

• Food processor (Using a food processor lets you fully combine the ingredients without over-mixing. If you make them in a stand mixer, you could easily over mix them and the crackers would end up less flaky.)
• Something to roll the dough with (A rolling pin is ideal, but you could also use a wine bottle in a pinch!)
• Cookie cutters (I use scallop-edged cutters to create the Ritz cracker look, but you can make them any shape you like.)

How to Make Ritz Crackers

Pulse flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a food processor.

Add butter a little bit at a time and pulse. The butter should be very cold – straight from the fridge. You want the dough to come together at the end, but ideally you’ll still see little specks of butter in it. It’s not totally smooth.

Add vegetable oil and pulse to combine.

Add water and pulse to combine until the dough forms a ball.

Roll out the dough as thinly as you can. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect. If you have a pasta maker, then you can push the dough through to make it all even and thin. The cracker recipe will be fine without it.

Use cookie cutters to cut the dough out.

Use a toothpick or a metal skewer to poke holes in each unbaked cracker. This makes it look more like the real deal, but the holes aren’t just for appearance; they help the crackers to bake more evenly.

Bake the crackers on a parchment- or silicone mat-lined cookie sheet until they just begin to brown.

Brush the crackers with salted butter while still hot.

Cool on a cooling rack before eating!

Store in an airtight container at room temperature, and add a piece of toasted bread to your container to keep the moisture level regulated.

Serving Ideas

Once you have baked your homemade Ritz crackers, try serving them with:

• cranberry jam
• cheese
• Keto cheese chips (You don’t need to be Keto to enjoy these.)
• Peanut butter
• ganache
• dulce de leche or cajeta
• caramel icing
• cream cheese
• deli meats

• Peanut butter crackers
• Homemade goldfish crackers
• Homemade oyster crackers
• Web Story: homemade Ritz crackers