Strawberry Pretzel Salad
on Jul 10, 2024
Strawberry Pretzel Salad is an easy dessert salad that will be perfect for your next party. Our strawberry layered dessert recipe is a perfect combination of sweet, tart and salty. Everyone will devour it and be requesting the recipe!
We love to make jello recipes for most parties we host or attend. This Strawberry Jello Salad is always great for a holiday or summer BBQ potluck. Other Jell-O dessert recipes that we like to make are Strawberry Poke Cake and Retro 7UP Jello Salad.
Why is this called a “Pretzel Salad” you might ask. I am not quite sure but, that is what my grandmother called it. Pretzel Jello Salad can be considered both a salad and a dessert, right?
Old-Fashioned recipes are some of my favorite. And, this Jello Pretzel Salad comes very close to the top of my favorites. list. It’s an easy salad dessert that can be made so quickly. I quite often will swamp out the fruit and jello flavor for a different dessert.
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Dessert Salads like my Cream Cheese Jello Salad or also my Old- Fashioned Cranberry Salad are great old-school dessert salads. But, this Strawberry Pretzel Salad includes the saltiness from the Pretzels. I think that is what makes it most unique.
Ingredients for Pretzel Salad
All the ingredients for this Strawberry Pretzel Salad are simple to find at most any grocery. We use a few pantry staples, a couple of fridge staples, a bag of salty pretzels, and some fresh fruit- nothing too crazy. Double-check the ingredients list below and see if you need to run to the grocery to get any of these:
- Salted Pretzels – I’m referring to those mini pretzels you can find in the snack aisle at your local grocery. You can use those or some mini pretzel sticks. It’s not too important, since we are going to turn these into crushed pretzels. The smaller the pretzel, the easier to measure.
- Butter
- Sugar – White granulated sugar is what we use in our recipe.
- Strawberry Jell-O – Any sort of strawberry gelatin powder will be fine, even store-brand to save a bit of money.
- Fresh Strawberries – Make sure your strawberries are hulled and sliced before using them in this recipe. I have not tried using frozen strawberries in this salad.
- Cream Cheese – Let your cream cheese soften before use.
- Vanilla Extract – This will add just a little extra touch of that vanilla flavor into the sort of cream cheese frosting that we’ll be preparing.
- Frozen Whipped Topping – Cool Whip or whatever your store brand will work. I have not made this recipe with Fresh Whipped Cream.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Jello Strawberry Pretzel Salad
This Strawberry Pretzel Salad should be real easy for you to whip up- it’s a real simple and easy dessert salad recipe. Baking the pretzel crust is real easy, a hand or stand mixer with help beat the cream cheese filling quick, and the strawberry topping is so simple! Here’s all you need to do:
- We’re going to start with the pretzel crust. Measure out your mini pretzels and put them in a ziploc bag. Use a rolling pin to crush pretzels into smaller pieces– you don’t need to crush them too fine!
- Melt butter in something like a measuring cup or medium to large sized bowl and mix with sugar. Add in the crushed pretzels and mix well to combine.
- Spread and press your pretzel mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 or equivalent baking dish. Transfer to an awaiting 350 degree oven and let bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature while you continue recipe.
- In a large mixing bowl, prepare your strawberry Jello mix by mixing it with boiling water. You’ll want a bigger bowl than you think- we’re going to be adding our strawberries next.
- Once the prepared Jell-O has cooled off enough (but before it begins to “set”, mix in your hulled and sliced strawberries. Set aside while you prepare the cream cheese filling.
- We’ll start our cream cheese filling sort of like a cream cheese frosting. To a large bowl, add your cream cheese, vanilla extract, and remaining sugar. Using an electric stand or hand mixer, beat together on medium to high speed until fluffy and combined.
- Next, add your Cool Whip to the bowl. Fold it in with something like a rubber spatula until fully blended.
- Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over cooled pretzel crust. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before spreading strawberry Jello topping over the cream cheese mixture. Return to the fridge and let refrigerate until Jello fully sets before serving.
Storage / Freezing
Storage: Your Strawberry Pretzel Salad should hold up pretty well in the fridge. They should be good for 5-7 days if kept in the fridge- maybe with some plastic wrap on top. After that point, the sliced strawberries will start to weep their a moisture and the dessert will soggy and watery.
Freezing: You can try to freeze this Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad- we wouldn’t recommend it. There’s too many ingredients here that can be a bit spotty when it comes to freezing them- the Jell-O and the cream cheese especially. If you can handle weird texture changes, you could probably keep this Pretzel Salad frozen for up to 2 months.
Tips for the BEST Strawberry Pretzel Salad
DO NOT FOLLOW JELLO PACKAGE INSTRUCTIONS! Instead follow along with my recipe for preparing the Jell-O filling.
Make sure you spread the cream cheese filling along the sides of your baking dish. This will help seal off the pretzel crust from the strawberry Jell-O topping and keep your Strawberry Pretzel Salad from becoming a mushy mess.
Other Strawberry Recipes
Looking for other Strawberry recipes? Try these:
Other Dessert Salad Recipes
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Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup Pretzels, measure before crushing
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 8 tbsp Butter
- 6 oz Strawberry Jello, 2 boxes
- 2 cup boiling Water
- 1 lb Strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
- 8 oz Cool Whip, thawed
Garnish (optional)
- 4 oz Cool Whip
- 12 Strawberry slices
- 12 Pretzels
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Place pretzels in a zippered bag and crush with a rolling pin.
- Melt butter in microwave by cooking for 30-45 seconds.
- Stir in 1/4 cup sugar until dissolved.
- Add in pretzels and mix.
- Press pretzel mixture into the bottom of 13×9″ glass baking dish.
- Bake for 10 min and then set aside to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, combine strawberry gelatin and boiling water and stir until dissolved.
- Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Add sliced strawberries to the gelatin and stir to mix. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla extract and softened cream cheese.
- Beat until fluffy.
- Fold in Cool Whip until uniform.
- Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over pretzel crust.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Pour/spread strawberry Jello mixture evenly over your cooled cream cheese layer and refrigerate until set (about 2 hours).
- Cut into 12 pieces and optional garnish each with a dollop of Cool Whip, a strawberry slice and a pretzel.
Notes
Make sure you spread the cream cheese filling along the sides of your baking dish. This will help seal off the pretzel crust from the strawberry Jell-O topping and keep your Strawberry Pretzel Salad from becoming a mushy mess.
Nutrition
