Strawberry Pretzel Salad
350°F
10 minutes
-1 cup crushed pretzel sticks
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 12oz cool whip
- 8oz cream cheese
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3oz package strawberry Jell-O
- 1-1/4 cup hot water
- 1 pint frozen strawberries
- 1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1- Mix melted butter with sugar and pretzel crumbs
2- Pour into 9”x13” pan and bake at 350F for 10 minutes
3- Combine cool whip, softened cream cheese, and powdered sugar
4- Spread cool whip mixture over cooled pretzel crust
5- Prepare Jell-O with water
6- When cooled, add thawed strawberries and drained pineapple to liquid Jell-O
7- Pour strawberry mix over cooled whip layer
8- Refrigerate to set
This is another recipe that we all have fond memories of from my childhood. Grandma always made this for Easter, and while it is sort of similar to the Christmas Ribbon Salad in my pervious post, they are both equally delicious.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the best picture of this. The pretzel crust does make this a little harder to scoop out of the dish, and by the time I thought to grab a picture, my family had already eaten almost all of it!
As per usual, here is everything you’ll need. I spent way too long crushing up the 1 cup of pretzels before I realized I hadn’t even taken any pictures yet.
While the crust was baking, I began working on the rest of the filling ingredients, starting with the cream cheese, cool whip, and powdered sugar mixture. This recipe calls for 12oz of cool whip, but the containers at the store were 8oz or 16oz. I did not end up measuring the cool whip because I was worried I would have too much of the middle layer of filling for my dish. Instead I eyeballed about 3/4 of the container and stopped before I felt like I was going overboard. I realize how unhelpful that is, so sorry.
I left my 1 pound bag of frozen strawberries sit out all morning while I was baking, by the time I got to the part of the recipe where I needed them, I was worried they were still a little too frozen. I dumped them into a metal bowl, and then sat that metal bowl in a bigger bowl filled with hot water to help thaw them. When they felt fully thawed, I drained off as much water as I could and sliced them. After slicing, I put them in a sieve, and set it over a bowl to continue draining. I also dumped the crushed pineapple into another sieve and let them drain. If you only have one sieve, you can dump both the strawberries and pineapple in there together, since they get mixed anyway. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that before.
By this point all of my filling ingredients were ready and my crust was almost cool. I started to get nervous that I started the Jell-O too early and it would be set by the time the pretzel crust was fully cooled down. But as soon as the pretzel crust was cool enough for me to handle with my bare hands, I spread on the cool whip layer.
Mixing the Jell-O layer was easy, just dumping the strawberries and pineapple into the Jell-O while it was still liquid and giving it a good stir. Then carefully pouring it on top of the cool whip layer. I covered this with foil and let it sit in the fridge for about 5 hours before serving.
And that’s it! I feel like this dish is an easy enough desert that really gives cheesecake vibes, but is somehow easier. The saltiness of the pretzel counters the sweetness of the Jell-O, and the tangy cream cheese ties it all together. Truthfully, one of my favorite deserts that my grandma made. This recipe is my brother-in-laws and my dad’s favorite between this and the Christmas Ribbon Salad. My brother and I love both equally, and my mom likes this one but prefers the Ribbon Salad.
I hope you and your family had a happy Easter.
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