Ritz Cracker Pie (Old Fashioned Mock Apple Pie)
Fresh but wonderfully old fashioned, this mock apple pie brings a quirky bit of American baking history right into your kitchen. Ritz Cracker Pie has been around for generations, surprising everyone with how close it comes to the flavor and texture of classic apple pie. It’s an easy, charming dessert that always gets people talking.
The flavor is warm, lightly spiced, and surprisingly familiar. The crumb topping is buttery and crumbly, and the filling tastes oddly and delightfully like apple pie even though there are no apples at all. The crackers soften and take on a sweet cinnamon flavor, giving the whole pie a cozy, nostalgic feel. Don’t want to make your own pie crust? No worries, you can use a store bought refrigerated OR frozen crust!
Why it tastes like apple pie when there are no apples
Nothing you recognize as apple pie is actually the apple. It is cinnamon, sugar, a bright sour note, and soft pieces that still have a little bite to them. Supply those things and your brain fills in the apple all by itself. It’s like you’ve got predictive text in your brain.
The sour note does a lot of the work. What gives a real apple its tang is malic acid, and this pie gets its tang from two teaspoons of cream of tartar and a tablespoon and a half of lemon juice instead. Neither one is malic acid, but they land in the same sour register, and once brown sugar and cinnamon are sitting on top of that your tongue stops asking questions.
Then there are the crackers, and this is why it has to be Ritz or a generic version of Ritz. Simmered in the sugar syrup they drink up the liquid and go soft, but the fat in them keeps them from collapsing into paste. They break into irregular soft pieces that hold just enough structure to feel like cooked apple slices. A tougher cracker would stay crunchy. A plain one would turn to mush. Ritz sits in exactly the right texture spot, which is less clever recipe and more happy accident in the original recipe.
What You Need To Make a Ritz Cracker Pie
Making a quick shopping list helps you stay organized and ensures you don’t miss key ingredients, especially when working with a vintage recipe like this. A few simple pantry items are all you need to pull this pie together.
- refrigerated pie crust OR make my fave all-butter crust
- water
- sugar
- cream of tartar
- ritz crackers
- lemon juice
- cinnamon
- brown sugar
- butter
For best results stick with buttery round crackers like Ritz. But any generic version that mimics Ritz should work just fine.
You can adjust the cinnamon to taste or add a pinch of nutmeg if you want a slightly warmer spice profile, but the classic version is charming on its own. Or use apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice, they’re both warm pie spice collections in one easy to use mixture.
How to store Ritz cracker pie
This one does not follow the rule the pecan pies on this site follow, and it is worth saying why. There are no eggs and no dairy anywhere in this filling. It is sugar, water, cream of tartar, lemon juice, and crackers, which puts it much closer to a fruit pie than to a custard, so it does not need to go straight into the refrigerator the way a pecan or a pumpkin pie does.
Cool it completely and then leave it alone. This pie is actually BETTER the next day, because the filling keeps setting as it sits and the crackers finish softening into that not-quite-apple texture that makes the whole thing work. Covered at room temperature, it is good for 24 hours, and after that move it to the refrigerator where it will keep about 4 days. Serve it cold.
Old-Fashioned Ritz Cracker Pie
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 refrigerated pie crust
- 2 cups water
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 tsps cream of tartar
- 35 Ritz Crackers plus a few extra for the center
- 1 1/2 tbsps lemon juice
- 2 tsps cinnamon
Topping
- 1 cup crushed Ritz Crackers
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Place the pie crust into a 9 inch pie pan
- In a large saucepan add water sugar and cream of tartar
- Bring to a boil over medium high heat
- Add the crackers then reduce heat and simmer on medium low for 5 minutes stirring gently once or twice
- Fill the pie crust with half the mixture then lay a few more crackers on top and add the remaining filling
- Sprinkle cinnamon and lemon juice over the top
- Make the topping by combining crushed crackers brown sugar cinnamon and melted butter
- Sprinkle the topping over the pie
- Bake for 10 minutes at 400°F
- Reduce oven to 350°F cover the edges of the crust with foil
- Bake for 20 more minutes
- Remove from oven and let the pie cool to set
- Serve
- Refrigerate leftovers for up to 4 days
