Peanut Butter Ritz Trees
November, 29th 2022 By Recipes by Sugar
Recipe Credit: My sister-in-law Kim
Peanut Butter Ritz Trees are another fun Christmas cookie to make with kids. They can add the sprinkles to the trees, or for older kids they can do it all! You can actually just add the peanut butter and dip in chocolate for peanut butter Ritz cracker cookies. The trees are an added bonus for Christmas. I have actually never heard of these or knew they existed until Kim, my sister in law gifted us some for a cookie tray around Christmas. I was amazed at how simple but addicting these were. Every year I make them around Christmas as they are my husband’s favorite cookie.
Ingredients for Peanut Butter Ritz Trees
- Ritz crackers
- Peanut butter
- White chocolate and chocolate almond bark
- Green candy melts
- Sprinkles
- Yellow star sprinkles
Utensils Needed
- Cookie sheet
- Microwave safe bowls
- Butter knife
- Fork
- Spatula
- Parchment paper or tin foil
- Smaller Ziploc bag, I use snack size
Directions for Peanut Butter Ritz Trees
Prep Time: 20 minutes – 1 hour
- Line your cookie sheet or baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil.
- Take one Ritz cracker and frost with peanut butter.
- Top with another Ritz cracker to make a peanut butter sandwich. Place on cookie sheet.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make as many as you want. (What I love about this recipe!)
- Place the chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Place in the microwave for 1 minute. Take out and stir with spatula. Place back in microwave for 30 seconds at a time. Take out and stir. Repeat until completely smooth.
- Once chocolate is prepared, using a fork, dip Ritz into chocolate then tap off excess chocolate. Place back onto cookie sheet to dry.
- Make sure they are completely dry before moving to next step.
- Place the white chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Place in the microwave for 1 minute. Take out and stir with spatula. Place back in microwave for 30 seconds at a time. Take out and stir. Repeat until completely smooth. (You can also melt chocolate in a Ziploc bag and drizzle onto the Ritz cracker rather than dipping).
- Dip 1/3 of the Ritz into the white chocolate to give the Ritz cracker a snowy ground. Repeat to all Ritz crackers.
- Next, place a small handful of the green candy melts into a Ziploc bag. Microwave for 10 seconds at a time until melted.
- While the chocolate melts, have all your sprinkles ready to go. I found it easiest to have them dumped into small bowls.
- Push all the chocolate in the bag to one tip. Cut off the smallest amount of the corner of the bag, does not take much. You now have a piping bag for your trees.
- Start in the white chocolate portion of the Ritz cracker, zig-zag back and forth slowly making shorter lines as you work your way to the top of the Ritz cracker. This shoulw form a tree.
- Next, top the tree with some sprinkles, add one sprinkle at the bottom for the stump of the tree, and the star at the top.
- Now, repeat to the rest of the Ritz crackers. I found you could only do about 2 – 3 trees at a time. The chocolate hardens to fast and the sprinkles will not stick.
- Let Ritz crackers completely dry and enjoy!
Variations
- You can stop at step 6. These are considered Peanut Butter Ritz Cracker Cookies. The added trees are for Christmas.
- Where I live, almond bark only comes in one size of package. I started with four squares each melted of white chocolate and chocolate.
- My colored candy melts also only come in one size. I melted a little less than half of the bag to do the trees.
- You can skip the white chocolate part for snow.