Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

YUM.

This is a layered strawberry dessert over pretzels and creamy goodness!

My Grandma Bobo has been making this recipe for years. It will forever remind me of her! Keith had a 'hankerin' for something similar to a strawberry pie, so I gave her a call on Sunday to get this recipe.

It's one of those classic, old-fashioned layered jell-o desserts. I'm sure you've had something like this if you live in the South!

Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

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Ingredients:

3 cups pretzel sticks

2 sticks of butter

1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

1 reg. size container of cool whip, thawed

1 cup sugar

2 boxes of strawberry jell-o

1 large can of crushed pineapple

1 16 oz bag of whole frozen strawberries

The first layer is made of pretzels and butter- mmm!

Preheat the oven to 325

Take your 3 cups of pretzel sticks....

And break them into small pieces (thirds)

I admit, this is the painstaking and annoying part. Do this while watching TV or turn on some music!

Place them in the bottom of a 9x13 dish

Take your butter and zap it in the microwave to melt

Pour over the pretzels and put in the oven for 15 minutes...

This has to cool completely before you can add the next layer....but while you wait you can let the cream cheese soften in a bowl and the cool whip can thaw.

When it's time, you're going to combine all three:

1 cup sugar to 8 oz softened cream cheese

And one regular-sized carton of cool whip. Stir this all together.

Time to spread the cream mixture over the buttery pretzels!

Yum! 

Ok, put this in the fridge while you work on the last layer.

Drain the crushed pineapple over a small sauce pan. It should yield about 1 cup of juice.
Bring this to a boil over medium-high heat.

Once it's hot, remove from heat and add the two packages of strawberry jell-o

Stir together, then add in 1 cup of cold water

In a bowl, combine crushed pineapple with the frozen strawberries. I did not thaw the strawberries beforehand, and this helped to keep the whole dish cool. I was able to cut up the strawberries into halves or quarters while they were frozen.

Add the jell-o mixture and stir this up. I put this in the freezer for 5-7 minutes so that it would start to congeal. You can tell when the mixture has started to thicken.

Grab your dish out of the fridge and spread on the strawberry layer!

Yum! Easy!

Because I wanted this to be ready quickly, I stuck in the freezer for 30 minutes and then moved to the fridge until we were ready for dessert.

This is fantastic!! Really, don't underestimate how outstanding this is. Yeah, yeah I know it's not healthy... but, it's delish!