Strawberry Pretzel Salad – Chelsea’s Messy Apron

Our favorite Strawberry Pretzel Salad comes complete with a buttery pretzel crust, creamy cheesecake-esque filling, and a strawberry-packed gelatin topping.

Love this dessert salad? It’s one of our favorites! We’ve created a similar Raspberry Jello Dessert with a graham cracker crust and raspberries to try next time!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad Recipe

I was raised with desserts passed off as salad, and this Strawberry Pretzel Salad is the cream of the crop!

These “salads” (which are actually desserts) pop up all over at potlucks, parties, funerals — you name it! In Utah, no holiday or summer party is complete without some variation on this recipe. And yes, it’s served alongside Funeral Potatoes, a Crockpot Roast, Dinner Rolls, and Roasted Green Beans– not with the desserts.

No wonder they’re so popular — desserts with dinner and then another dessert after that!

How To Make Strawberry Pretzel Salad

This salad starts with a thick and buttery pretzel crust which is loaded up with a sweet, creamy cheesecake-like filling. Fresh strawberries get mixed with strawberry gelatin, which is then added on top. Once the salad is thoroughly chilled, the salad can be cut into bars for serving.

Below I’ll break down each of the components of this salad, starting with the pretzel crust.

Pretzel Crust

Strawberry Pretzel Salad is famous for its crust. It’s sweet, salty, and ridiculously buttery! These tips below will help to ensure a perfect crust every single time!

• Let the melted butter cool. Once the butter is melted, it needs to cool back to room temperature. If the butter is hot, it will melt the sugar and pretzels, which will cause a greasy crust. 
• Crush the pretzels. There is a fine line here — we don’t want the pretzels to be fine crumbs, but we don’t want large pieces that make it difficult to cut and serve these bars. To ensure the correct texture, add pretzels to a large plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. If you blend pretzels, the crumbs will be too fine. If there are any large chunks of pretzels, return to the bag and crush again.
• Measure the crumbs. Since there are so many different brands and varieties of pretzels, there can be a good amount of variation in measuring out full pretzels. It’s best to measure the crumbs after the pretzels are crushed to be sure you have a full two cups of crumbs.

Cheesecake Filling

Although it is tempting to try and make a healthier Strawberry Pretzel Salad, this recipe simply does not work well with low-fat products (particularly lower fat cream cheese or whipped topping). Lower fat products won’t thicken up or set properly–which can cause a watery filling that allows the Jello* to seep through and cause the pretzel crust to become soggy. We need all the firmness in this layer!

*Jello is the trademarked name of a flavored gelatin dessert mix, and refers to any brand of gelatin mix product.

• Cream cheese: For best results, use full-fat brick-style cream cheese. I also recommend a good quality brand; We love Philadelphia Cream Cheese® best.
• Whipped topping: Be sure the whipped topping is fully thawed so it can fold in nicely with the other ingredients. If you’d like to make Strawberry Pretzel Salad with whipped cream, replace the Cool Whip® with 2 cups of whipped heavy cream.
• Sugar: This ensures a sweet filling reminiscent of cheesecake. We think the amount of sugar is perfect, but if you’d prefer a tarter filling, reduce the sugar a touch.
• Vanilla: This adds a nice complexity and “finishing touch” to this layer.

Strawberry Jello Topping

The last layer of this Strawberry Pretzel Salad has only three ingredients: 

• Strawberry Jello: Watch the size of the gelatin box to ensure you use the right size — we’re looking for the big box (a full 6 ounces). Avoid lower-sugar alternatives here.
• Boiling water. 
• Fresh strawberries: We don’t recommend frozen strawberries in this recipe — we’re didn’t love the texture/flavor as much. (Here are some great tips on purchasing and storing fresh strawberries.)

Strawberry Pretzel Salad Recipe Tips

• Don’t add hot Jello to the cream cheese layer. If the gelatin mixture is still hot, it will break up the cream cheese layer. Wait for it to cool to room temperature before adding on top.
• Briskly whisk the Jello. Once the boiling water gets added to the gelatin, work quickly to whisk the two together to avoid settling gelatin.
• Use a very sharp knife to make clean cuts when serving this dessert. If you’re having a hard time cutting it, run the knife under hot water, dry it, and make a cut. Repeat this process for every cut made.
• Leave yourself ample time to make these bars. While each layer of these bars are simple, this recipe takes a good amount of time in between waiting for the crust to cool down, the cream cheese layer to chill, and the gelatin to set up. 

More Strawberry Treats