Raspberry Pretzel Salad

Yum, yum, yum, YUM! I LOVE this dessert! I've had strawberry pretzel salad several times, but when I saw this recipe for a raspberry version I knew I had to try it. I love raspberries and this was seriously so good.

Gather Ingredients:
bottom:
2 cups crushed pretzels
1 stick of butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar (I forgot to add this, and it still tastes amazing. Less sugar, right?! ;))


middle:
1 (8oz) package cream cheese – softened
1 (8oz) package Cool Whip – thawed
1 cup sugar

top:
6 oz package raspberry Jell-O
2 cups boiling water
1 bag frozen raspberries – thawed in refrigerator (I just used fresh raspberries. It was more expensive, but I couldn't find any frozen ones.)



Commence Cooking:
While my water boiled, I crushed the pretzels, added them to the melted butter, then spread them on the bottom of my dish.

 I added the Jell-O to the boiling water and set it aside to cool.

I then beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar.

Then I stirred in the cool whip until in was semi-well combined. (It was supposed to be well combined, but I got bored and decided it was good enough.)

Then I globbed it on the cooled pretzel crust. (I learned the word "globbed" from my grandma. :)) After that I spread it evenly on top of the pretzels. Make sure to glob it on there first, otherwise you get into a mess with your pretzels mixing with the cream cheese mixture.

THEN, I added the fresh raspberries. The recipe says to use whole berries, but our family isn't a big fan of fruit chunks in our desserts, so I smashed them up a little with my knife before I got smart and used the chopper. (Don't chop them too much, just enough to make them less chunky.)

Using the same technique as before, I globbed,  then spread those on top of the cream cheese mixture. (I used my finger - for my family members reading this, my fanger.)

At this point I'm thinking, "Oh, this is gonna be good."

By this time the Jello-O was cool, so I poured it on top of the whole shebang.

I put it in the refrigerator and cleaned up my mess.

Enjoy:
It took about 3.5 hours in the fridge for the Jell-O to set. Mama was shocked, because it takes her strawberry pretzel salad about two weeks to set. ;) I don't know if it was the type of Jell-O, or if I just let it cool longer. Either way, about 3 hours later and I got to cut into it and eat it.

I've converted. Though both are delicious and I'll never turn either one down, I now like raspberry pretzel salad more than strawberry.

Please let me know if you try it and what you think!! :)