Great for company or potlucks, this Strawberry Pretzel dessert is a delight worth sharing!
Last year, I was introduced to this Strawberry Pretzel dessert after having dinner at a friend’s house. It blew me away. A pretzel crust with a strawberry Jell-O topping? How does that go together, again? Well, it does — and beautifully! Ben was still talking about that Strawberry Pretzel Dessert for days after we left our friend’s house.
Finally, strawberry season is upon us again and I was busting at the seams to make this myself! Some Strawberry Pretzel Dessert recipes call for frozen strawberries, which is great! But, it’s fun to bake things seasonally, so I used fresh strawberries. With fresh strawberries, I don’t have to wait for them to thaw. We served this to my web developer, Ryan, and his family the other night. I think they were blown away, too. Ryan asked for seconds, although I wasn’t too surprised as he previously told me he is a human garbage disposal.
I did feel like the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert needed some more strawberries on top as the jello somewhat overpowered the layers. It was still great, but I know next time I want more fresh strawberries. My preference to this is reflected in the recipe below.
Another tip for making this Strawberry Pretzel Dessert: It may seem like this can be quickly thrown together, but it actually does take some time because of multiple waiting steps. You need to wait for the crust to cool, wait for the Jell-O to set, let the finished dessert set in the fridge for 3 hours, etc. But, it’s best served within 24 hours, so either make it in the morning to serve that night, or prepare it in the evening to serve the next day.
Strawberry Pretzel Dessert
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 2 cups finely crushed pretzels
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup butter , melted
For the filling:
- 12 ounces cream cheese , at room temperature
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 1/2 cups whipped cream (homemade or store bought, e.g., Cool Whip)
For the topping:
- 1 box (6 oz) strawberry gelatin (e.g., Jell-O brand)
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 1/2 cups cold water
- 5 cups sliced fresh strawberries
Instructions
For the crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Position the rack to the middle of the oven.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the pretzel crumbs, sugar and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
For the filling:
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese, sugar and milk until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream, then spread the filling evenly over the crust. Refrigerate while you make the topping.
For the topping:
- In a large bowl, stir together the boiling water and gelatin mix. Stir for 2 minutes, or until completely melted and the gelatin is completely dissolved. Immediately add the cold water and stir. Refrigerate for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until thickened. Stir in the sliced strawberries, then layer evenly over the filling in the pan.
- Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours before serving. Best served the same day, or within 24 hours, but is still good up to 2 days later.
I love this stuff! As they say, everything old is new again. I first had this dessert at a wedding shower. The hostess was nice enough to share the recipe. When? 1973 – 40 years ago! Back then Jello was a popular ingredient in soooo many things! I think I still have my Jello cookbook somewhere.
Oh, this reminds me of my childhood in Nebraska! This dessert made an appearance at every potluck and picnic in my small town — so good! 🙂
Can you believe I’ve never had this? It looks fabulous!!
Love this! The small college I went to used to serve this fairly often as the nightly dessert.
This is sooo good! But you are right about it getting soggy quickly, finally my mom just nixed the 9×13 pan, halved the recipe and used an 8×8 – that way we weren’t throwing half of it out a couple days later because the pretzels were too mushy.
Yay, glad you liked it!! We LOVE this stuff – it’s staple at every family event!
wow, this looks awesome! i think i had a version of this growing up – this totally reminds me of it and i can’t believe i never looked for the recipe!
What a great snack idea–these look delicious!
I am SUPER EXCITED that it’s strawberry season again! I can not wait to go buy a big flat of Louisiana strawberries and try out this recipe.
Easy, fast and tasty…sign me up, oh and pretzels are awesome in my life!
Jello is such a fun ingredient 🙂 and atop pretzels, how delicious!
O I love the pretzels crust idea, these are so delicious, and look very pretty!
This is one of my boy’s favorite desserts! So good!
This is totally a classic Southern dish. We always had it at church potlucks growing up!
This is one of my favorite desserts of all time!!! Love it!!! 🙂
for the filling it says to add sugar; however it doesn’t state how much in the measurements. Thanks!
Thank you, Danielle! I just fixed it.