Monday, August 30, 2010

Pretzel Jello

This is one of those quirky, quintessential Mormon salads/desserts (it's Jell-o for heaven's sake!), and I'm pretty sure the missionaries we had over last night ate half the pan.

2 1/4 cups pretzels, crushed*
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. butter, melted*
2/3 cup sugar
1 block cream cheese, softened
3 Tbs. sugar
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
1 tub Cool Whip
1 large package raspberry Jell-o
1 small package raspberry Jell-o*
3 cups boiling water*
1 bag frozen raspberries, thawed

Crush pretzels in a food processor or a Ziploc with a rolling pin until they are pea-sized crumbs.  Mix with melted butter and 2/3 cup sugar, then pat into a 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 400 for 5 minutes, then let it cool.

Dissolve Jell-o in boiling water, then stir in raspberries.  Refrigerate until thickened and syrupy.  In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese with 3 Tbs. sugar and pineapple.  Gently fold in Cool Whip.  Spread over cooled pretzel crust.  When raspberry mixture is this consistency of a thick syrup (but not set yet), spread it over the top. Refrigerate until fully set.

This keeps for a few days in the fridge before the crust gets soggy, but it never lasts that long at my house!

*The original recipe calls for 2 cups of pretzels, 3/4 cup butter, 1 lg. pkg. of Jell-o, and 2 cups water.  However, I like a slightly thicker crust and a slightly thicker Jell-o layer, so I modified it.  This definitely fills up a 9 x13 pan to the brim, too, so do with it what you will.  I also barely spray the bottom of my pan with Pam before baking the pretzels.  I never did before, until I saw a crust completely adhere to the bottom--weird with all the butter in there--so now I err on the side of caution.

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