Lightened-Up Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Strawberry pretzel salad is a layered dessert made up of crushed up pretzels for the crust, cool whip, and cream cheese for the middle layer, and it gets topped up with jello strawberries. You don’t have to wait until a special event or Holiday to make it. Just make it now cause it is delicious!

This recipe can be tough to get right on the first try because of all the different layers involved. Here are some tips that have helped me to make this recipe. I’ll let you all in on a little secret. It took me a couple times to get this right. 

Tips for Strawberry Pretzel Salad

• The jello layer with the strawberries takes the longest to make because it needs to set. Make that portion first. 
• Let the jello layer completely cool before pouring it over the cream cheese and cool whip layer. If it is warm the jello will start seeping through. 
• Spread the 2nd layer (cream cheese and cool whip) completely over the pretzels to help the jello. 
• There is a lot of different kind of jello flavors out there. Change it up to your favorite. Raspberries or mandarin oranges would be good.

Ingredients: 

• Crushed Pretzels – sub crushed graham crackers or Wafer cookies 
• Melted butter – sub lightened up butter or margarine 
• Cream Cheese  – Let the cream cheese sit out for a while on your countertop to become room temperature.  
• Frozen whipped topping –  Use Heavy Whipping instead of Cool Whip but that will be more WW points. 
• White sugar – Can use sugar substitutes if you wish. Look up the conversations for your favorite online. FYI – I don’t like them cause they upset my stomach.
• Strawberry Gelatin – sugar-free jello can be used 
• Boiling Water – has to be boiling to dissolve the jello 
• Strawberries – fresh strawberries or frozen strawberries 

How to make Strawberry Pretzel Salad

For the full recipe, please see the recipe card below.

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

Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter, and 2 tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of an 8×8 inch baking dish.

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

In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When the mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

Other  Recipes to Try 

Starbucks Salted Caramel Cold Brew Copy Cat 

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars 

96 Calorie Mini Mint Cheesecake Bars 

Blueberry Cheesecake 

If you’ve tried this Strawberry Pretzel Salad or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. Snap a picture and upload it to share on Pinterest

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