Easy Dessert Recipe

It’s the perfect dessert to satisfy your salty-sweet cravings and take advantage of in-season strawberries.

This is far from your typical salad. In fact it’s not a salad at all. Strawberry Pretzel Salad is along the lines of Watergate Salad. A dessert that’s called a salad. It tastes similar to a no-bake cheesecake.

Slice of Strawberry Pretzel Salad with fresh strawberries around it.

How To Make

(More detailed instructions in recipe card below.)

Make the crust. In a bowl stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and sugar. Press into the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan. Bake for 8 minutes.
Make cream cheese layer. Beat cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip. Spread on top of crust. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
Make strawberry layer. Whisk strawberry Jell-O and boiling water until Jell-O is dissolved. Mix in strawberries. Refrigerate 5 minutes and then pour on top of cream cheese layer. refrigerate until set.

Tips For Making Strawberry Pretzel Salad

You can use frozen strawberries instead of fresh.

Be sure to spread the cream cheese layer all the way to the edges so that the jello layer doesn’t seep down and make the pretzels soggy.

If you like a little saltiness in your sweets, you will find this layer dessert to be positively addictive. Each of the 3 layers is delicious on its own, but put them all together and you have amazing flavor and texture contrasts.

Different versions of this recipe can easily be made. Try a Pineapple Pretzel Salador using peaches or raspberries.