I recently bought a bag of mini pretzel twists for a specific baking project (that I'll be posting about later), but since Tom and I don't really snack on pretzels, I needed to find a way to use up the rest of the bag. A quick search on epicurious.com for pretzel recipes turned up a Retro Strawberry Pretzel Tart. In the recipe headnote, Pretzel Making at Home author Andrea Slonecker reminisces about the retro foods her mother used to make while she was growing up in the 1980s in Nebraska.
I also grew up in Nebraska -- but my Taiwanese immigrant mother never made strawberry Jell-O salad with cream cheese and pretzels. Even though it wasn't a part of my childhood, I became a fan of this flavor combination a few years ago after making the Strawberry Jell-O Salad from Baked Explorations.
This recipe includes two chilling periods so you need to start a few hours in advance. The pretzel crust is a mixture of crushed pretzels, brown sugar, and melted butter that you press into the bottom of a pan and bake. The rich and buttery aroma of the crust mixture was incredible. After the crust is cooled, you spread on a mixture of cream cheese and sugar with sweetened vanilla whipped cream folded in. You chill the tart to set the cream cheese layer, and then arrange strawberries on top and pour over strawberry Jell-O that has been prepared a little thicker than usual. The tops of the strawberries poked through the top of the Jell-O. You chill the tart until the Jell-O is set and then it's ready to serve.
I took the chilled tart -- still in the pan -- over to a dinner hosted by our friends Jim and Colleen. I had used a cheesecake pan with a removable bottom, and after I ran I plastic spatula around the edges of the tart it was easy to push up the bottom of the pan to release it from the sides. The pretzel crust was a solid mass that required some force to cut though, and it was challenging to pry off a forkful when trying to eat a slice. But what a wonderful dessert. I didn't bother serving it with more whipped cream, and the dessert didn't need it.
On a warm summer evening, the tart was cool and refreshing, and offered a bit of everything -- fruity, sweet, creamy, tangy, buttery, salty, and crunchy. When I met Jim for lunch almost a full week later, he was still raving about how much he loved the tart. Jell-O salads are widely regarded as kitsch, but this retro food has staying power -- and for good reason!
Recipe: "Retro Strawberries-and-Cream Pretzel Tart" from Pretzel Making at Home by Andrea Slonecker, recipe available here at epicurious.com.
Previous Post: "Baked Sunday Mornings: Strawberry Jell-O Salad," June 3, 2012.
I also grew up in Nebraska -- but my Taiwanese immigrant mother never made strawberry Jell-O salad with cream cheese and pretzels. Even though it wasn't a part of my childhood, I became a fan of this flavor combination a few years ago after making the Strawberry Jell-O Salad from Baked Explorations.
This recipe includes two chilling periods so you need to start a few hours in advance. The pretzel crust is a mixture of crushed pretzels, brown sugar, and melted butter that you press into the bottom of a pan and bake. The rich and buttery aroma of the crust mixture was incredible. After the crust is cooled, you spread on a mixture of cream cheese and sugar with sweetened vanilla whipped cream folded in. You chill the tart to set the cream cheese layer, and then arrange strawberries on top and pour over strawberry Jell-O that has been prepared a little thicker than usual. The tops of the strawberries poked through the top of the Jell-O. You chill the tart until the Jell-O is set and then it's ready to serve.
On a warm summer evening, the tart was cool and refreshing, and offered a bit of everything -- fruity, sweet, creamy, tangy, buttery, salty, and crunchy. When I met Jim for lunch almost a full week later, he was still raving about how much he loved the tart. Jell-O salads are widely regarded as kitsch, but this retro food has staying power -- and for good reason!
Previous Post: "Baked Sunday Mornings: Strawberry Jell-O Salad," June 3, 2012.
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