Strawberry Pretzel Special

Hello y’all! Boy oh boy has been a hot couple of days!! It is almost sinful how warm it is out there. Unless you’re sitting poolside with a margarita, it is not my cup of tea! However, I am very grateful to live in a home with air conditioning and work in a building that is cool (usually cold!) every day. With the weather advisories and warnings out there on this heat, it would be just wrong to light the oven so I’ve got a sweet, satisfying, summer treat to share with you! It only requires one small amount of bake time and I did this first thing in the morning so that the house would more than cool off by the time we got home! Danny and I love this little dessert and could probably eat an entire pan of it on our own in one weekend. But, we’re having a couple of friends over for a barbeque this evening and I thought sharing it among 4 will be much better than making a whole batch for just us! The first time I had this was in college from the dorm cafeteria (I know that sounds gross but the dorm food really wasn’t bad!) I had never even heard of strawberry pretzel salad but since the name had ‘salad’ in it, and I’m a health nut, I thought I’d give it a try. Boy was I ever wrong about this being healthy!! Who came up with the name salad for this?! I don’t think there is even one part of it that can be considered salad, except maybe the Jell-O but I don’t know who made that rule either. Salad is green, crunchy, leafy…not made with whipped cream and sugar! Regardless, it is amazing and I can’t get enough on this hot, humid days.  So without further ado, I’ll share my twist on this summertime sweet!

STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SPECIAL  (doesn’t that sound so much cooler anyway?!)

What you’ll need for the Special:

Crust:

-2 cups crushed pretzels

-3/4 cup butter, melted

-3 tablespoons white sugar

Cream Layer:

-1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

-1 cup white sugar

-1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Strawberry Layer:

-2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin

-2 cups boiling water

-2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries or 2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries

To make the Special:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2. Crush your pretzels; if you measure out 2 cups whole you will probably end up with more crushed but you can just take out what you need at the end. I crushed them in a Ziploc bag with a mallet. Be careful not to turn it into crumbs… you want the pieces be like little beads so they are still crunchy when you get a bite! (I have some pictures that I'll post later!)

3. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar in a bowl; mix well and then press the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. I sprayed the baking dish with Pam just to be safe.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.

5. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. 6. Fold in the whipped topping and continue mixing.

7. Spread the cream mixture onto cooled crust. Be sure to spread it to the edges to seal off the crust. I’d pop this in the fridge while you start your strawberry part.

8. Next, dissolve the gelatin in 2 cups boiling water; be sure you use a big bowl since the strawberries need to fit in there! Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow for it to set briefly. 

9. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Then put it back into the refrigerator for a few more hours until it’s set up!

I have a couple of pictures that I'll post when I have some more time!

ENJOY

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