Strawberry pretzel salad is a summer staple. It has layers of salty pretzel crust, a creamy cheesecake like center and yummy strawberry topping. It is perfect for BBQs and family reunions.
Stir together pretzels and sugar in a 9x13-inch pan. Drizzle butter over mixture, stirring to coat. Press into bottom of the pan to form a crust.
Bake 15 minutes, then set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, dissolve jello in boiling water.
When the powder is dissolved, stir in the sliced strawberries. Set aside to cool.
When the pan with the pretzel crust is cooled to room temperature, beat cream cheese and sugar together until the mixture is smooth.
Fold in the whipped topping.
Spread cream cheese mixture over the pretzel crust, make sure the filling touches the edge of the pan everywhere. Put in the refrigerator to chill until the jello mixture is completely cooled and is starting to thicken up a bit.
Gently pour cooled jello mixture over the filling. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until set.
Serve cold and refrigerate leftovers.
Notes
For the strawberries in this recipe you can use pretty much anything you'd like. It works well with frozen unsweetened strawberries, frozen sweetened strawberries, sliced fresh strawberries or even a can of strawberry pie filling. If you would rather use fresh whipped cream instead of Cool Whip, that works too. Use about a cup of heavy cream, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a couple of Tablespoons of sugar. Mix it into the cream cheese mixture and then beat on high until the mixture is fluffy.