At our house, if everyone could choose just one cookie for Christmas, it would be a huge plate of Ritz crackers with chocolate. This easy no-bake tidbit covers it all: sweet, salty, crunchy, and chocolatey. For us, peanut butter and chocolate are the holy grail of Christmas deliciousness.
I did not want to wait months to enjoy this amazing treat. So, I developed a plot twist to get some in my hands as soon as possible!
Peanut butter and chocolate are some of the most well-loved flavor combinations of them all. A cookie or treat containing chocolate and peanut butter is at the top of the favorites list for almost everyone. It’s a fantastic combination; who can deny it? Do you ever wonder why?
Our busy little tastebuds love it when we eat foods with contrasting flavors and textures. These yummy Ritz crackers with chocolate make our tastebuds sing and dance with that classic sweet/salty, crisp, and crunchy combination and the added creaminess of the thick coating of chocolate!
I’ve always been curious about fluffernutter, so I thought I’d try it! What if these fantastic Ritz crackers with chocolate got a new twist and look?
In a (pea)nutshell, fluffernutter happens when peanut butter is combined with marshmallow cream, and fluffernutter goes back a long time. I can’t resist giving you a short history lesson about the origin of fluffernutter.
We have to start with peanut butter. Peanut butter was invented by a man named John Harvey Kellogg in 1895. It was developed for older people who needed protein but couldn’t chew meat.
Somehow, I’m glad I didn’t know that the first 10,000 times I ate peanut butter. Peanut butter made its very first appearance publicly sold in 1904 at the St. Louis World Fair.
The first commercial marshmallow spread arrived on the scene much later. It was called Snowflake Marshmallow Creme and was created by siblings Amory and Emma Curtis, the great-great-great-grandchildren of American revolutionary Paul Revere, around 1913.
But when entrepreneur Archibald Query created his unique brand, Marshmallow Fluff, and sold it door-to-door in about 1917, the sweet sticky product began taking the world by storm.
So when did the two get together? The earliest example of the fluffernutter sandwich was created by Emma Curtis in 1918 during World War I. She is the genius who thought of spreading one slice of bread with marshmallow fluff and another with peanut butter. Voila! The fluffernutter sandwich was born!
I wanted the fluffernutter filling to be close to the consistency of peanut butter, not too soft to stand up on the cracker. I looked through countless recipes and felt a lot like Goldilocks. Too soft, too sweet, until I came up with my own combination, and I think it’s “just right.”
I used a ratio of approximately two to one peanut butter to marshmallow cream with maple syrup and a small amount of maple flavoring. Add peanut butter or marshmallow cream if the consistency doesn’t suit you. You may want it softer if you use it for a dip.
It’s not too maple-y, just a hint. I made enough to spread on the Ritz crackers with chocolate and still have a jar for my toast! Not a fan of maple flavoring? Try using some vanilla!
Then began the assembly line! I bought a “party pack” of Ritz crackers. There are eight sleeves inside and about 30 crackers in each stack. I used two sleeves of crackers for this batch. Make as many as you have time to make!
Begin by covering a large, rimmed baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper. If you have trouble laying the paper flat, spritz a little non-stick spray on the baking pan and pat the paper in place. Lay out Ritz crackers with the flat side up in rows.
Spread some fluffernutter on each one, but try to keep it from going off the edges as I did on some of them. Put another cracker on top until you have made as many as you want.
For dipping, you can use chocolate chips, candy melts, or almond bark. I found a handy product at Walmart that included a disposable microwavable tray for melting the chocolate almond bark. It worked well, and I just tossed it in the trash when I was done.
You can also use a double boiler to melt the chocolate and keep it warm while dipping. I do not have a double boiler, so another time, I put an oven-proof glass bowl on top of a saucepan with some water in it. It must be an oven-proof bowl, and the water shouldn’t boil but simmer.
There does not need to be enough water in the pot to touch the bottom of the bowl. As the water simmers, it generates enough gentle heat to melt the chocolate. A little shortening will help the chips achieve a perfectly melty consistency if you use chocolate chips.
I used a fork to plop each cookie into the melted chocolate, give it a roll, and set it on my parchment-covered cookie sheet to harden. I’m sure wax paper would work well on your pan, too. As you can clearly see, I am not a pro!
Before the chocolate hardened, I added some autumn sprinkles for a festive touch. You might try sprinkling flaky salt on the cookies to enhance the sweet/salty flavor. I tried to use white almond bark and tint it orange for a little detail.
After I chilled the cookies in the freezer for a couple of hours, my chocolate-covered Ritz popped right off the parchment, and I packaged them up for my grandaughter’s friends directly after I took some fun pictures.
They are so festive and pretty! Ritz crackers with chocolate are wonderful for every season, and you can vary them to match any holiday theme, like Christmas, Valentine's Day, and the Fourth of July!
They are so fun, and I love the fluffernutter filling, too! I hope you try making some fluffernutter! It’s great on waffles, biscuits, apple wedges, or on a spoon right out of the jar!
Here is a twist on the classic, ever-popular no-bake treat made with fluffernutter instead of peanut butter inside Ritz crackers, then dipped in chocolate almond bark with optional holiday sprinkles.
* The Fluffernutter recipe is on a separate card.
A wonderful creamy spread made of peanut butter and marshmallow cream. Great on apple wedges, toast, biscuits, waffles, or on a spoon right from the jar!
Whisk all the ingredients together until well blended and store in a sealed container. If it is too thick, you can thin it with a small amount of hot water at a time.
Who can resist some chocolatey treats? Not us! I think you'll love the Triple Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake and Chocolate Chex Caramel Crunch recipes!
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Love, GB (Betty Streff)
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