Jello Pretzel Salad
Jello Pretzel Salad is a family favorite for bbqs and potlucks. A buttery pretzel crust topped with a cream cheese and jello layer. You can make this dessert with strawberries or raspberries. Either way, it’s delicious.
JELLO PRETZEL SALAD
Confession #1: John usually makes the Jello portion of this. For some reason simple things like making Jello are a challenge for me.
Confession #2: John and I finished half of this by ourselves last night.
Let’s face it. There’s nothing about this dessert that is a salad. I don’t know why it’s called that but it is.
Imagine buttery brown sugar pretzels that form a crust topped with a cream cheese layer and strawberry Jello on top!
HOW TO MAKE JELLO PRETZEL SALAD
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 pan.
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Combine pretzels, brown sugar, and melted butter and press into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
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Dissolve the Jello in the boiling water, stirring for 2 minutes or until Jello is completely dissolved and then stir in the strawberries and chill. Refrigerate until partially set. *If it is not set enough it will leak through your cream cheese layer and make your pretzels soggy.
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Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in cool whip or fresh whipped cream. Spread over cooled crust make sure you spread completely to the edges to create a seal so your jello doesn’t leak through. Pour jello over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until serving.
You can even make a patriotic version. Someone, ahem (my husband), cut out a piece so I filled it with blueberries.
Thanks to my old roomie Lisa for another winner. It sounds weird but the combination of the salty pretzels with the sweet Jello and cream cheese is so good!
OTHER VARIATIONS:
Classic strawberry pretzel salad is my favorite but you could definitely use one of the following:
- raspberry
- blueberry
- lemon
OTHER SALAD RECIPES
- Grape Walnut Salad
- Frito Corn Salad
- Watermelon, Blueberry, and Feta Salad
- Strawberry Spinach Salad
- Broccoli Salad
- Crunchy Pea Salad
- Caprese Steak Salad
Jello Pretzel Salad
Jello Pretzel Salad is a family favorite for bbqs and potlucks. A buttery pretzel crust topped with a cream cheese and jello layer. You can make this Jello Pretzel Salad with strawberries or raspberries. Either way, it's delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 cups pretzels (crushed fine)
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 (6 oz pkg) strawberry jello
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 (16 oz) pkg. frozen strawberries, slightly thawed and sliced in half.
- 1 (8 oz pkg) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 8 ounces cool whip (thawed) or 2 cups fresh whipped cream
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.
-
Combine pretzels, brown sugar, and melted butter and press into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
-
Dissolve the Jello in the boiling water, stirring for 2 minutes or until Jello is completely dissolved and then stir in the strawberries and chill. Refrigerate until partially set. *If it is not set enough it will leak through your cream cheese layer and make your pretzels soggy.
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Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in cool whip or whipped cream. Spread over cooled crust make sure you spread completely to the edges to create a seal so your jello doesn't leak through. Pour jello over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until serving.
Recipe Notes
Source: Lisa Poulsen
I have made this several times. Always a hit!
I make it sugar feee….use Splenda in place of sugar and sugar free jello.
Great idea!
The recipe doesn’t say to bake the pretzel layer. It says to press it into a pan for 10 minutes
and bake for 10 minutes. Sorry the recipe card had a bug.
I was reading the recipe and I’m guessing that you bake the pretzel crust for 10 minutes? If so, maybe step 2 should say: 2. Combine pretzels, brown sugar, and melted butter and press into prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks I will check it out.
I would like to know the status of this order! Placed order 5/30/29!
Sorry. This isn’t a store and you can’t order recipes. You’ll have to make it yourself.
I would also like to put an order in for some of this.
Note sure what partially set meant, time wise? The box of Jello said chill for 4 hours till firm. So I did 2 hours and it worked. This may help some folks that may have had the same question?
Tallahassee, Fl.
I’ve been experimenting with variations of this recipe ~ my son loves it made with orange jello, mandarin oranges and pineapple. I want to add coconut to the cream cheese layer of that one next time. Just recently I made this with lemon jello, to which I added pineapple and some shredded cabbage and carrot coleslaw mix ~ reminded me of that retro sunshine salad. Bright and delish 🙂 It is always hard to get out of the pan, I think because the sugar crystallizes?, but so worth the effort!
I haven’t tried this recipe but would it be possible to line the pan with parchment or wax paper to keep it from sticking? I bake frequently and use that to keep my desserts from sticking. Happy New Year everyone!!
Yes, I agree!
This strawberry pretzel salad is absolutely delish. I did double the cream cheese and the cool whip. This made is more delish than ever.
This is the same recipe I have used a million times….but I sprayed the pan this time (never have before) per this recipe and it ruined the dessert!! The cream layer didn’t seal to the sides and it allowed the jello to seep below the pretzel layer! I have literally made it dozens upon dozens of times and this is the only step I changed!! I advise you to NOT spray the pan!
I have loved this salad since I was a small girl and one of my aunt’s brought it to a family gathering. I make it now and again and thought I’d just tell the world my variations…
I don’t like to use cool-whip (not trying to be a snob, just prefer REAL whipped cream), so I whip up from a cup of whipping cream then fold that into the cream cheese. It’s an extra step so if you like quicker and easier…just skip that.
I also LOVE blueberries, so instead of strawberries, I have made it with frozen blueberries. I DON’T love blueberry Jell-O, which is really hard to find anyway. However, black cherry flavored Jell-O is amazing and it’s really good with the blueberries… so if you want to change things up… it’s really good.
I’m preparing to make this delicious looking creation but I have one question.do I need 2 1/2 cups of crushed or uncrushed pretzels? TIA!
Start with 2 cups crushed. Hope that helps.
I sub a can of crushed pineapple for the jello and strawberries, it’s good that way too.
Sounds yummy.
I bet if you added som choppe pecans into the crushed pretzel mixture it would be even a little bit better!
I agree. That would be a great addition.
my family has been fighting over this dessert for over 20 years since my aunt first made it. OMG its delicious and we still can’t get enough of it. Just a few tips, use unsalted pretzels and regular sugar for the crust and make sure that the cream cheese and cool whip are mixed very smoothly other wise it can get lumpy, which has happened to my cousin before.
I love this recipe, but it is toooooo much for one person. I would love for someone to cut the recipe to fit a 8×8 pan. I think I could handle that.
This dessert has been a family favorite for many years! It tastes like strawberry cheesecake on a pecan crust – seriously, you can’t get much better than this!!!