Nana’s Strawberry Pretzel Salad Recipe
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One year at Christmas, Nana Gaunt said she was making something new for dinner! She had a great recipe for Strawberry Salad. Our holiday dinners are normally at my sister’s house and everyone brings something, appetizers, salads, sides, desserts and my sister makes the meat and some of the sides with help from out of town guests (my daughter and me). Nana made the Strawberry Pretzel Salad Recipe and to say it was a HUGE hit would be an understatement!
We have this now probably twenty years later at every holiday. Christmas, Easter, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, you name the holiday, Strawberry Pretzel salad is on the table! I call it a salad because Nana did, but it could easily be a dessert as well!
This is so delicious! A salty crunchy crust, a cream cheese almost cheese cake layer and then the strawberries and jello. The strawberries are where my sister and I disagree, she likes to use frozen strawberries and like fresh, other than that our salads are identical.
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- Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 squares 1x
Description
A delicious salad/dessert with a pretzel crust, a cream cheese layer and strawberries!
Ingredients
3 Cups pretzels – stick or mini-pretzels work best
1 stick – 8 Tablespoons Butter – melted
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 – 8 ounce package cream cheese – softened
1 Cup Sugar
1 – 8 ounce tub frozen whipped topping – some call it the whip that is cool
16 ounce container strawberries or 1 bag frozen strawberries – sliced
1 – 6 ounce package of instant strawberry jello
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350
Crush the pretzels, I have a big marble rolling pin I use, my sister uses a food processor, I have to say we have even put them in gallon food storage bags and had the kids stomp on them (we won’t do that again)
Combine the crushed pretzels with the melted butter and press into a 9 x 13 pan.
Sprinkle the 2 Tablespoons of sugar over the top
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes
Let cool completely! This is really important! I stick it in the refrigerator, my sister the freezer
While the crust is cooling, using a hand mixer beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until fluffy.
Fold in the whipped topping, a rubber spatula works best
I put this in the refrigerator while I make the strawberry layer
Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil
Mix the box of jello with the boiling water until all dissolved.
Add 1 cup of ice and stir continuously until the it begins to gel
Add the sliced strawberries
Chill for an hour until it is soft set
Get the chilled crust
Spread the cream cheese mixture onto the pretzel crust
Top the cream cheese with the strawberry mixture
Refrigerate until ready to serve
We lost Nana a few years ago. I know that she would be happy to know that we still make her Strawberry Pretzel Salad every holiday and enjoy it just like the first time!
2 Comments
Jeanette Hildreth · September 3, 2021 at 6:08 pm
Google put a wonderful ad right in the middle of your recipe and it never says what to do with the one cup of sugar so I added it to the cream cheese. Hope I was right. We shall see. Love this Desert
cwisdom@scandalsandsweets.com · September 4, 2021 at 3:52 am
Wow!!! I pulled it up and I had 3 ADS in the recipe! They aren’t supposed to do that! I’m so sorry! Yes mix the sugar with the cream cheese and coolwhip.
Thanks for letting me know!