Strawberry Pretzel Salad

I love this Strawberry Pretzel Salad recipe. The salty pretzel layer combined with the sweet cream cheese layer and sweet fruit layer make for a delicious dish!

One of my relatives frequently brought this delicious Strawberry Pretzel Salad recipe to family gatherings. I love it and hadn't had it since going gluten-free. I adapted the original recipe to be gluten-free and made a few other modifications, and it still tastes as good as I remember it tasting (and, of course, As Good As Gluten). I was on a baking/cooking spree this weekend; I cut the recipe in fourths and made a small dish for Mike and I to share.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Ingredients:

·2½ cups crushed gluten-free pretzels (I used Glutino's GF Pretzels)

·1 cup plus 3 TBS sugar, divided

·¾ cup butter, melted

·1 - 8oz. package Neufchâtel cream cheese, softened

·1 - 8oz. tub light whipped topping, thawed

·1 large-size package Strawberry Jello

·2½ cups boiling water

·1½ cups fresh strawberries, sliced (The original recipe calls for 1 - 16oz. bag of sliced frozen strawberries with juice. I used fresh strawberries that I sliced and let sit overnight. If you sprinkle the sliced fresh strawberries with a little bit of sugar and let sit overnight, there will be some natural juices the next day you can use in this recipe.)

·1 cup crushed canned pineapple, drained (Optional) (I tried substituting fresh pineapple and learned the hard way that fresh pineapple (unlike canned pineapple) will prevent the Jello from setting up completely.)

Directions:                               

Preheat oven to 350˚. In a small bowl, mix crushed pretzels, 3 TBS sugar, and melted butter. Spread mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool.

Cream remaining 1 cup sugar and cream cheese; add whipped topping and mix well. Spread mixture over cooled pretzel layer. Make sure cream cheese mixture is touching all sides of the pan. Refrigerate.

Dissolve jello in boiling water and stir well. When jello has partially set, add the strawberries with juice, and if desired, the pineapple. Stir well. Pour this mixture over the cream cheese layer. Chill until set.

I've also shared this recipe on: Seasonal Sunday's