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It's sweet. It's salty. It's oh so good. Strawberry Pretzel Salad is one of my favorite fruit salads or desserts. Many people will think strawberry pretzel salad is a dessert with its pretzel crust, cream cheese middle layer, and strawberry jello topping.

What is in Pretzel Strawberry Dessert?

This is an old-fashioned recipe that our moms and grandmas made. Simple ingredients make this recipe work by seamlessly pulling three layers together. Here is what ingredients you need to make this strawberry pretzel salad.

Strawberry Pretzel salad can be a dessert or side made with a sweet and salty pretzel crust, cream cheese center, and strawberry and jello topping.

Pretzels
Butter
Sugar
Cream Cheese
Cool Whip
Powdered Sugar
Strawberry Jello
Strawberries

How to Make Pretzel Strawberry Salad?

The process to make this salad or dessert is to have the patience to make the three layers. To start though, I will tell you that if you don't have a food processor, look into getting one. I use my KitchenAid food processor or Ninja Foodi Blender for the crust and the filling. Made it so quick and easy.

Make the crust by dumping 2 cups of pretzels, a tablespoon of sugar, and ¾ cup of melted butter into the KitchenAid food processor and pulsating for a few seconds. Then dumped the mixture into a 9 x 13 pan.

Pretzel crust made with crushed pretzels, sugar, and butter

Bake on 350 for about 8 minutes and then let the crust cool. Wash out that food processor bowl and blade a get ready for the filling.

Put an 8-ounce block of cream cheese that is at room temperature and a thawed cool whip in the food processor with a cup of sugar. A hand mixer can also mix this together smoothly. Mix until smooth and form small peeks.

cream cheese center made with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip

Pour over top of the cooled pretzel crust and get your strawberry topping ready. Place the pan in the fridge to start firming up the cream cheese again.

Mix 2 cups of boiling water with two packages of strawberry jello. Then pour 20 ounces of sliced frozen strawberries into the mixture. I didn't have mine completely thawed. This actually helped the jello set up a little. If the strawberries are thawed then pop them in the freezer for a few minutes to set up a bit.

Pour over the top of the filling and refrigerate the strawberry pretzel dessert until you are ready to serve. The 13X9 pan can be cut into large pieces for 12 servings or smaller versions with as many 24 servings for smaller pieces if you are offering it as a side dish. Either way, people will want a second helping.

Trust me, everyone will love this no-bake cheesecake like dessert! It's a classic!

Variations to the Pretzel Salad

While this version of pretzel salad is strawberry, you can change up the salad with the following combinations:

Peach Jello and sliced peaches
Cherry PIe Filling
Raspberry Jello and raspberries
Blueberry Pie Filling

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📖 Recipe

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Strawberry pretzel salad is a side dish and dessert all in one pan with the combination of a salty crust, cream cheese middle, and jello strawberry top.

5 from 1 vote

Print Rate

Course: Dessert, Salad

Keyword: cream cheese, Jello

Prep Time: 20

Chill Time: 4

Total Time: 4 20

Servings: servings

Calories: 302kcal

Author: Leah @ Beyer Beware

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups pretzels
1 Tbsp. sugar
¾ cup melted butter

Topping

8 oz. cream cheese
1 container of thawed cool whip
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
2 small packages strawberry jello
20 oz. strawberries Frozen sliced

Instructions

Place pretzels, 1 T. of sugar and melted butter in food processor and pulse until incorporated.
Press mixture into a 9 x 13 glass pan and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.
Mix cream cheese, cool whip and sugar until incorporated.
Pour over the baked pretzel crust.
Mix 2 cups of boiling water with the strawberry jello.
Mix in the frozen strawberries.
Pour strawberry mixture over the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until set.

Nutrition

Gooseberry Patch gave Simple Shortcut Recipes to me to review and giveaway. Opinions of recipes are all mine. Associate links were also used.

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Leah

A working mom of two very active teenagers. My husband and I gave up running the 80-cow dairy farm that also included a couple of hundred acres of corn and soybeans to both work to support the agricultural industry. We still have about 20 head of dairy heifers and cows to help my kids appreciate the effort it takes to raise livestock. I consider myself a foodie as I love cooking and experimenting with recipes. My family just wishes I would make the same thing twice. Find my other blog, FarmWifeDrinks.com for all things cocktails.