Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

This makes a lovely dessert for Valentine's Day because it is incredibly easy, but looks and tastes totally delicious and it also makes an interesting conversation dessert as no one will be able to guess that the crust is made from pretzels.

• 2 cups crushed pretzels (about 8 ounces) Regular --not mustard flavored
• 3 Tablespoons of sugar
• ¾ cup melted butter
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 ounces Cool Whip
• 1 large package of strawberry jell-o
• 16 ounces of frozen strawberries
• 1 small can crushed pineapple

To make the crust:

• Crush the pretzels and put them in a medium sized bowl.
• In a small pan on the stove melt the butter, stir in 3 Tablespoons of sugar.
• Pour the melted butter/sugar mix over the crushed pretzels and stir to distribute the butter.
• Press the pretzel mix into the bottom of a greased 9’ by 13-inch pan. (you could also choose to use a 11” by 13-inch cake pan, but I prefer the 9” by 13-inch cake pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for 7 minutes.

Cool for one hour.

• In a large bowl, using a spatula or hand mixer, mix the cream cheese with the cup of sugar. Then, using a wooden spoon or spatula, fold in the Cool Whip.
  
• Spread this concoction over the crust.
• Dissolve jell-o into 2 cups of boiling water.
  
• Add the strawberries and the undrained pineapple.
  
• Chill and then place on top of the cream cheese layer.
  

Continue to chill.

This yummy dessert will feed 15 regular appetite people… fewer if this is their favorite recipe.

This recipe is also good- or better if you substitute raspberry jell-o and raspberries instead of using strawberry jell-o and frozen strawberries.

Of course, this causes me to think of what other flavors you could try.

How would it turn out if you used orange jell-o and mandarin oranges? Or peach jell-o and peaches? Or strawberry-banana jell-o and added some bananas to the strawberry jell-o mixture? Obviously, I will need to try a few more version of the pretzel dessert recipe.