Pretzel Jello Salad

My husband comes from a family that seriously knows how to make Jello. My mother in law has several great Jello salad type dishes that are great! This one is my favorite and my brothers LOVE it when I contribute this to Sunday dinner. In my book, that makes it a winner.

The salt in the pretzel crust balances the yummy sweet goodness of the other two layers.

First crush up the pretzels with a rolling pin. I don't use a food processor because it makes it too powdery, and then the crust turns into one solid mass.You can do this in a bag, or just right on the counter!

 Add the pretzels to 3/4 c. melted butter and 3 T sugar. Try not to eat this all with a spoon because it is really tasty!

 Press the crust into a 9X13 and bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.

 While the crust is cooling, mix together all the white stuff. white sugar. white cool whip. white cream cheese.

This is also delicious. Try not to eat it all.

 Once the pretzels have cooled, poor on the yummy white stuff!

 Spread yummy white stuff!

 Layer 2 done.

 Layer three is raspberry jello dissolved in 2 cups HOT orange or pineapple juice. You can totally use water, I just think the flavor is much better with juice! Then 2 packages frozen raspberries. Let it set up for a few minutes in the fridge, then spoon it onto the cream layer.

 Three delicious layers.

 And it's pretty!

warning: sometimes the first couple pieces can be hard to get out of the pan, ya gotta be a little rough with the pretzel crust!

Pretzel Jello Salad
recipe by Carol Sandgren, slightly modified
Crust:
2 heaping c. coarsely chopped Pretzels
1 c. Butter, melted
3 T. Sugar
Filling:
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 c. Sugar
1 small container Cool Whip, thawed
Top:
6 oz. Raspberry Jello
2 c. Hot Pineapple Juice or Orange Juice
2 10 oz. Bag Raspberries (or 1 if you like less berries)

Crush pretzels and mix crust. Press into a 9X13 pan. Bake @ 400 for 8 minutes. Mix filling and spread over cooled pretzel. Dissolve Jello in hot water and add frozen raspberries. Put in fridge for 5-10 minutes to set up slightly. Spoon onto cream filling. Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Note: I often use 1/3 less fat cream cheese and lite cool whip. Works great.