Frozen Strawberry Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust
Frozen Strawberry Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust is the perfect spring or summer dessert to bring to a potluck! It has a crust made with pretzels, brown sugar, and butter, and the filling is made with heavy whipping cream, fresh strawberries, cream cheese, condensed milk, and powdered sugar.
One of the most nostalgic desserts that I can think of from my childhood, aside from my grandma Esther’s bunny cake (which I made this weekend for 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. Is this just a Midwestern thing? Fill me in.
One look at all of the photos of strawberry pretzel salad dessert through a Google search and I immediately go back in time to a summer picnic with burgers and hot dogs on the grill and a plethora of potato salad and chips. Thinking about these memories made me curious to make a Strawberry Cream Pie with a Pretzel Crust. Surely it would be delicious, and it WAS!
Frozen Strawberry Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust
I wanted to recreate this dessert as a creamy strawberry pie with a pretzel crust and this is what I came up with. So I thought about basically 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 of this Frozen Strawberry Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust turned out so tasty and super simple. The pretzel crust is basically like a graham cracker crust but with pretzels. And 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.
I think it's safe to say we all loved this pie. p.s. I couldn't help but include this photo of Lars' chubby little toddler hand trying to steal a lick 😉
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Creamy Strawberry Pie with Pretzel Crust
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 2 cups crushed pretzels
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ¾ cup butter melted
For the pie filling:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups diced strawberries
- 1 8 ounce package cream cheese
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix together crushed pretzels, brown sugar, and melted butter in a medium bowl.
- Press into the bottom of a greased 10” pie dish.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or just lightly browned.
- Let cool completely.
- To make the pie:
- Beat 1 cup whipping cream in a medium bowl with electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
- Set aside.
- Place strawberries in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
- In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk.
- Add strawberries and mix until well combined.
- Fold in whipped cream.
- Pour into pie crust and freeze at least 6 hours.
- Beat remaining heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form and spread over pie.
- Freeze another hour, if desired. You can also serve it with the whipped cream not frozen.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Looking for other strawberry desserts? Check these out:
- Strawberry Crumble Bars from greens & chocolate
- Strawberry Shortcake Trifles in Mason Jars from greens & chocolate
- Strawberry Layer Cake from Home Cooking Adventure
- Strawberry Cheesecake Bars from Spoonful of Flavor
- Strawberry Rhubarb Yogurt Pops from Flavor the Moments
This pie was amazing. So delicious and refreshing!