Are you sensing a theme in my eating life?
Since I picked 8 1/2 pounds of fresh, juicy, incredibly red, cutting board staining strawberries, our meals, desserts, and snacks kind of centered around strawberries for a week. As it should, because fresh berries are the key to happiness. But not the key to self-control.
This time around, the strawberries made it into a revamp of an old favorite recipe, with a cinnamon pretzel crust, homemade whipped cream (my new obsession), cream cheese, and berries for days. This is basically the perfect marriage of sweet and salty. And butter. Win, win, win.
Let’s give a big “hoorah!” for the fact that you’ll only need to use the oven for 10 minutes, which I think is allowed during this sweat inducing heat wave. Plus, baking a cinnamon, pretzel, butter-filled crust smells like a dream. And covering that crust with a layer of smooth cream cheese and whipped cream, topped with all the fresh summer berries is basically the best thing you can do today. I can’t even express how much I love this dessert. It might be tied with fruit pizza as my all-time happiest sweet treat. It’s just so salty and sweet and light and fruity. Everything good is happening here.
- For the crust:
- 3 cups crushed pretzels
- 1½ sticks (3/4 cup) butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- For the filling:
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 8 ounces (1/3 less fat) cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- For the topping:
- sliced berries
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Spread in an even layer in a pie dish. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool completely.
- While the crust bakes, pop your mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for 15 minutes. Once they have chilled, whisk the whipping cream at high speed for 5-7 minutes (until it looks like whipped cream). Set aside, and beat together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Stir the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
- Spread mixture over the cooled pretzel crust, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Top with sliced berries. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for about 2 days before the crust starts to get soft.
-Ally
Mary Lynn says
Since it is strawberry seson in Florida, We are ready to try a strawberry pie. This one sounds great!