Creamy Strawberry Pie with Pretzel Crust

This summery pie recipe from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate features a sweet, creamy strawberry filling and a satisfying salty-sweet crust.


One of the most nostalgic desserts that I can think of from my childhood, aside from my Grandma Esther’s bunny cake at Easter and my Grandma Patsy’s Coca Cola cake, is the strawberry jello dessert with a pretzel crust. Also, can we just appreciate for a second that this dessert is widely known as Strawberry Pretzel Salad? You just have to love those desserts that are named “salad.“ Snickers Salad is another favorite of mine.


One look at all the photos of strawberry pretzel salad dessert through a Google search and I am immediately transported back in time to a summer picnic with burgers and hot dogs on the grill and a plethora of potato salad and chips.


I wanted to recreate this dessert as a creamy strawberry pie with a pretzel crust, and this is what I came up with. I thought about making the strawberry pretzel salad similar to the original, as a cream cheese layer topped with a strawberry gelatin layer, but putting it in a pie dish. However, I really wanted it to be a creamy strawberry filling. I also felt like the salad dessert has a lot of different steps between the crust and two different filling layers. I wanted to keep it simple!


The end result turned out so tasty and super easy. The pretzel crust is basically like a graham cracker crust but with pretzels. The filling is simply mixing a bunch of ingredients together, pouring it into the pie crust and popping it in the freezer. You do have to whip some heavy cream, but there’s no fussing with gelatin or worrying about things setting up.


While this recipe isn’t technically no-bake, since the pie crust does need to be baked for a few minutes, this still makes a great spring or summer dessert for when the warmer temps discourage us all from using our ovens.

SERVINGS

8

PREP TIME

30 min

COOK TIME

8 hr

Ingredients

  • 2
    cups crushed pretzels
  • 3
    tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3/4
    cup melted butter

For the pie filling:

  • 2
    cups heavy whipping cream
  • 2
    cups diced strawberries
  • 1
    8-ounce package cream cheese
  • 1
    can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2
    cup powdered sugar

Directions

  1. 1

    Heat oven to 350 F.

  2. 2

    Mix together crushed pretzels, brown sugar and melted butter in a medium bowl.

  3. 3

    Press into the bottom of a greased 10” pie dish.

  4. 4

    Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes, or just lightly browned. Let cool completely.

  5. 5

    Beat 1 cup whipping cream in a medium bowl with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

  6. 6

    Place strawberries in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

  7. 7

    In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk.

  8. 8

    Add strawberries and mix until well combined. Fold in whipped cream.

  9. 9

    Pour into pie crust and freeze at least 6 hours.

  10. 10

    Beat remaining heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form and spread over pie.

  11. 11

    Freeze another hour, if desired. You can also serve it with the whipped cream not frozen. Serve and enjoy!