5 Ingredients or Fewer

Salted Peanut Butter Pie With Ritz Cracker Crust

February 11, 2019
4
6 Ratings
Photo by Rocky Luten
  • Prep time 12 hours
  • Cook time 40 minutes
  • Makes one 9-inch pie
Author Notes

A five-ingredient pie that’s somewhere between peanut butter fudge and a gooey blondie. The best part? A big sprinkle of crunchy salt on top. —Emma Laperruque

Test Kitchen Notes

This is one of our Big Little Recipes. Read more here: This Salted Peanut Butter Pie Is All About the Fudgy 3-Ingredient Filling. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Salted Peanut Butter Pie With Ritz Cracker Crust
Ingredients
  • Ritz cracker crust
  • 3 sleeves Ritz crackers
  • 6 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
  • Salted peanut butter filling
  • 3/4 cup (159 grams) light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup (264 grams) creamy peanut butter
  • 1 pinch flaky salt, plus more for sprinkling
Directions
  1. Make the Ritz cracker crust. Add the crackers to a big bowl and crush with your hands. (I like to grab a handful and squeeze my fingers into a fist.) They should be finely crushed, but not like flour. Add the brown sugar and salt, and stir to combine. Add the butter and knead until the mixture is homogeneous.
  2. Dump the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan and use your hands to pat into a compact crust. Stick in the freezer until it’s completely frozen and firm, at least 20 minutes. (If you want to make the crust in advance, wait until it’s firm, wrap it well with foil, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.)
  3. While the crust is freezing, heat the oven to 350°F and make the peanut butter filling.
  4. Combine the brown sugar and egg in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter with a rubber spatula until totally smooth.
  5. Add the filling to the frozen crust. Use an offset spatula to spread it evenly, so it totally fills the pie. Sprinkle generously with flaky salt.
  6. Add the pie to a rimmed sheet pan (this makes rotating it halfway through way easier) and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the crust is golden brown, and the peanut butter filling is starting to brown. (Less time results in a fudgier filling. More time yields something closer to a blondie.)
  7. Let the pie cool at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours before serving. (You can cover it with foil after a few hours, or whenever it’s cool to the touch.)

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Simon Weinerschmidt
    Simon Weinerschmidt
  • SarahBunny
    SarahBunny
  • Emma Laperruque
    Emma Laperruque
  • may1girl
    may1girl
Emma was the food editor at Food52. She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.

13 Reviews

erin July 8, 2024
I have made this recipe oh at least 5 times. I have zero complaints. Honestly, it's all but 5 ingredients, super easy, & turns out great. I will literally eat the whole pie in under two days & I'm all but 4'10" & 80 lbs & I have friends that have asked me to please make that pie again.
 
Aditi May 13, 2022
It might be nice with a layer of ganache beneath the peanut butter layer. That could also balance the thick crust...
 
Margaret L. October 1, 2020
Who in the world would create a recipe with '3sleeves' of something! I live in a different country and our recipes are measured in cups! Ridiculous! Hoping the pie will be worth the effort!
 
Twana February 21, 2019
I agree the crust ratio is way off. I ended up making a double batch of filling to use up the rest of the crust and still had leftover crust
 
SarahBunny February 22, 2020
I'm in the middle of making this and having the same problem. Figure I'll just save one crust and make another batch of filling in a week or two (I used the TJ Ritz knock-off, and the three sleeves weigh 340g -- not enough to make a huge difference from authentic Ritz).
 
Simon W. February 17, 2019
Made this, it was really good. My only problem was there was waaaay too much crust. I even switched to a 9.5" dish, and it was still 1/2" or more. The other issue was there is barely enough filling for a 9" dish. The crust isn't super hard or crunchy, but I just felt the crust to filling ratio was way off.

It says "3 sleeves", however Ritz sells a couple of variations now - the long (12"?) sleeves, and a new box where the sleeves are about half that size. Any chance I used the wrong amount?

Next time I'll cut the crust down by at least 1/3rd.
 
Emma L. February 18, 2019
Hey Simon, I'm sorry to hear that! The crust-to-filling ratio is a bit untraditional here—during my recipe tests, I found that if the crust was thinner or the filling, thicker, it baked up problematically. (I also just like getting to eat an extra-thick crumb crust, sort of like a cookie!) The three sleeves of Ritz weighs about 300 grams, if that's helpful—and you have to press it in pretty tightly.
 
AW February 15, 2019
I made this gluten free by using gf Oreos in place of the ritz crackers but honestly the recipe was super disappointing. The flavor was delicious but my “pie” was burned after 30 minutes and the consistency was neither fudgy nor blonde like. I definitely would not call this a pie as it was just a giant burned, dried out cookie. I’m still eating it though:/
 
jcucchi February 14, 2019
Annoying question: Is there any gluten free cracker you can think of that might make a serviceable substitute for the Ritz?
 
Janey February 15, 2019
You might be ok just skipping the crust and baking a little longer since it says the filling will end up more like a blondie!
 
may1girl June 20, 2019
I was just contemplating that for myself. So far I’m thinking either GF graham crackers or GF ginger snaps or a combination of both.
 
Cheffzilla December 16, 2020
Saltines!
 
Cheffzilla December 16, 2020
Or vanilla wafer cookies.
Anyone tried adding chocolate chips?