This year I decided to try a new treat. I wanted it to look good but be super easy and fast to make. What could be quicker than a three ingredient recipe, right? Wrong! For as much as I thought these little treats would be a breeze to crank out, they turned out to be unexpectedly vexing.
First of all, you can't get the caramel too hot/cooked or it will be hard and awful. This means careful monitoring of the melting process. Then, when the caramel is just right, getting it onto the cracker isn't quite as quick and easy as one might imagine. The goo is sticky and wants to do it's own thing which apparently does NOT involve staying neatly within the confines of a Ritz cracker.
Picture this Christmas scene - me wrangling with the caramel and wanting to curse at how outright tricky it is to spread the goo before the mixture hardens again or overcooks. All the while, I'm thinking these little bites are just not worth the trouble of making them and I should quit while I'm ahead and go sulk in the corner while eating an entire box of twixless Ritz crackers. Now, don't you wanna just run right out and make some of these for yourself?
Well, you should. I finally got a rhythm going with my caramel placement. This involved twisting the knife in just the right way to corral my goo before slapping on the top cracker. Truthfully, it reminded me of putting eyes on gingerbread boys. How do the two relate? With both, once you figure out how to use just the right hand movement, it gets pretty easy to make eyes that don't have blue lasers shooting out or caramel that runs over the side of the cracker and onto the parchment below.
When all the crackers had been Twix'ed I decided I couldn't wait for the chocolate to set so I placed the first batch in the refrigerator. Big mistake! In gaining a few minutes on setting time for the chocolate, I also wound up with a tooth-crackingly hard caramel center. No, I didn't actually damage any of my teeth but it sure felt like I could. Take back the few minutes saved and add a whole lot more time for the caramel to come back to room temperature! Lesson learned.
My neighbors had lots of compliments for these little fake Twix cookies but the true test came when Brian tried them. My ultra honest critic also loved them - so much so, that he even told his sister about them. Now that's an opinion I can trust! And a reason why you should make these.
RITZ TWIX
Ingredients:
2-3 ounces Melting Milk Chocolate or Milk Chocolate Almond Bark, melted
1 Sleeve Ritz Crackers
1 Cup Caramels, melted
Instructions:
Line the crackers up on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Add a spoonful of caramel to every other cracker and top with the other cracker.
Next, using a fork dip each cracker in the bowl of melted milk chocolate on each side, then lift it out, gently shaking the fork to allow excess chocolate to drip off of the crackers.
Place on parchment and allow to set. Store in tupper ware.
