2020 RITZ Crushed Crackers Recipe Contest Winner

Sponsored by Mondelēz Global

One way to make dessert even far more crave-worthy is to incorporate flavors. In its place of a easy chocolate ice cream pie, why not incorporate sweet and savory to offer a delicious take care of? That was the idea guiding the Fudgy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Truffle Ice Product Pie made with RITZ Crackers, the Grand Prize Winner of the 2020 RITZ Crushed Crackers Recipe Contest, Culinary Skilled.

“I had the notion for the pie in the again of my mind, but I had in no way made it,” says Eric Stein, chef, worldwide research and improvement for Church’s Rooster/Texas Hen in Atlanta. “When I saw the recipe contest, I just ran with it.”

As an R&D chef, Stein is normally looking for new recipe ideas. Just one day he found a recipe on the net for Texas Flood Pie, a variation of Mississippi Mud Pie that characteristics a creamy chocolate filling and a salty cracker crust in its place of a chocolate crust. Stein has often liked RITZ Crackers as a snack since they go nicely with savory ingredients these as meats and cheeses, and with sweet elements these kinds of as chocolate and ice product. He decided to include RITZ Crushed Crackers in a new iteration of the pie. “I modified that recipe and made it my possess,” he says.

He experienced supposed for the pie to feature a few layers: a crust made of RITZ Crushed Crackers, a center layer of RITZ Crushed Crackers Peanut Butter Fudge, and a topping of chocolate ice cream. In its place, he made the decision to rearrange the layers, so the RITZ Peanut Butter Fudge is on the base, followed by ice product and topped with a RITZ Crushed Crackers Crumble. The RITZ Peanut Butter Fudge layer is composed of only 4 components, and could stand on its possess as a bar, Stein claims.

For the ice product middle layer, Stein opts for Double Chocolate Truffle, but strawberry operates perfectly much too. “I consider the choices are unlimited,” he states. “As very long as you have sweet, salty and peanut butter you can use your favorite ice product.” The best crumble is identical to the base layer but consists of brown sugar alternatively of confectioners’ sugar. The blend has not just sweet and salty flavors but also crunchy and creamy textures.

Stein attained his bachelor’s diploma in Culinary Nutrition from Johnson & Wales College in Providence, Rhode Island, and a master’s diploma in diet education from Jap Illinois College in Charleston, Illinois. In advance of signing up for Church’s Rooster/Texas Hen past calendar year, he experienced worked for Buffalo Wild Wings, and prior to that made hen breading flavors for the components provider Freshly Weds Food items. In a earlier culinary level of competition, he gained the runner-up prize in a duck recipe contest. So though poultry looks to be in his DNA, he wished to make a decadent, enjoyable dessert for the RITZ Crushed Crackers Recipe contest.

The recipes had been judged on creativeness, methodology and use of RITZ Crushed Crackers as an component. The contest was sponsored by Nation’s Restaurant Information, Food Management, Cafe Hospitality and Mondelēz International Foodservice.