I dearly love Ritz Crackers. Give me a box of Ritz and a jar of Jif Peanut Butter and I’m good to go. I also have a weakness for Caramel anything. When my sweet tooth starts acting up, I’ll often get a big bowl of vanilla ice cream, drizzle it with caramel syrup and love life.
So, when I saw this recipe for Caramel Ritz Icebox Dessert, it immediately found a way into my cookbook. This is one of those sweet and salty desserts that is both delicious and relatively easy to assemble, and there is no baking required.
Start with two 8-oz. packages of cream cheese, softened of course. Put the cheese in a small bowl and whip it up with a hand-held mixer until nice and fluffy. Add 1 C of sugar and mix until smooth. Add ¾ C of heavy cream, 1 t vanilla, a pinch of salt and beat until thick and fluffy and you’re practically dome.
Line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. Arrange 16 Ritz crackers on the bottom and spread 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture on top of the crackers and then drizzle 1/4 cup of caramel sauce on top.
Repeat with another layer of crackers, then cream cheese mixture and 1/4 cup caramel sauce, then repeat once more. Finally, add one last layer of crackers giving you 4 layers in all. Spread 2 C Cool Whip on top and refrigerate overnight, or at least 8 hours.
This is company-worthy goodness, for sure.
Caramel Ritz Icebox Dessert
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
64 Ritz crackers
3/4 cup salted caramel sauce, plus more for drizzling on top
2 cups Cool Whip or freshly whipped cream