Strawberry Pretzel Pie Recipe

A childhood favorite—grown up.

All of us have dishes from our childhood that we look once more on fondly—usually to the bafflement of those spherical us. For me, that dish is a Jell-O salad. For the uninitiated, Jell-O salads are an American conventional. Flavored gelatin is mixed with each little factor from canned fruit to frozen peas, whipped cream to cottage cheese, and toasted nuts to salty pretzels. The last word mix is poured into elaborate molds or layered into bars and served at family gatherings, trip occasions, and summer season picnics as a elementary, facet, or the truth is, dessert.

One Jell-O salad notably lingers in my memory: strawberry pretzel salad. Layers of salty pretzels, tangy cream cheese, and sweet strawberry Jell-O are blended into sliceable bars, that’s the dessert I sought out on the entire potluck tables.

For this pie, I needed to maintain up the spirit of the strawberry pretzel salad nonetheless swap out the bogus strawberry style with juicy spring strawberries. The last word outcome’s a buttery and salty pretzel crumb crust, filled with every cooked and modern strawberries and topped with an ethereal whipped cream cheese topping. Strawberry pretzel salad: all grown up.

A Celebration of Strawberries

Strawberries are a sort of fruits that I wait all yr for. With a quick rising window of late spring and early summer season, I plan most of my spring baking spherical celebrating this favorite fruit.

Because of modern spring strawberries are extraordinarily flavorful and juicy on their very personal, I want to have as many modern berries in my pie as doable. For the filling, a small amount of the berries get mashed and quickly cooked with a bit of little bit of cornstarch until merely thickened proper right into a jam which will preserve each little factor collectively, sooner than folding in heaps of sliced modern berries.

I want to let the flavour of the modern strawberries shine, so protect the seasonings straightforward: sugar, lemon, and a bit of little bit of orange zest. That being acknowledged, every batch of berries is a little bit of completely totally different, so I wish to suggest tasting and adjusting your jam as a result of it cooks to stability out the sweetness of your specific berries.

Whipped Cream Cheese Makes This Topping Specific

As a substitute of layering sweetened cream cheese into my pie (as is completed inside the distinctive salad inspiration), I select in order so as to add a lightweight and tangy whipped cream cheese topping.

The topping is simple to make and has the bonus of being further regular than conventional whipped cream.

Various points to remember when making your whipped topping:

• Use room temperature cream cheese: Similar to butter, cream cheese aerates increased when it’s softened at room temperature, resulting in a smoother and lighter topping.
• Use chilled cream: Conversely, cream aerates further merely when it’s chilly. Protect your heavy cream inside the fridge until you’re in a position to whip.
• Go sluggish: If you’ve added the heavy cream, make sure you flip your mixer tempo to sluggish and regulate what’s occurring. It’s easy to over whip when using {an electrical} mixer.

Know your peaks: We use the phrase “peaks” to clarify how thick a mixture is when it’s being whipped. For this topping I want to whip to a stiff peak—which implies it completely holds its kind as soon as I carry my whisk out of the bowl.

Storing Strawberry Pretzel Pie

This pie is best served immediately after assembling, though it might probably preserve lined inside the fridge for as a lot as 1 day—after that the crust will get a bit soggy.

If making ahead, I wish to suggest storing the whipped topping in a separate airtight container and together with it to the pie correct sooner than you serve.

Further Strawberry Desserts to Make this Spring

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