I’m going to be right up front, there are no actual pretzels in this dessert, but keep reading to see how I get a grain-free salty crunch that won’t make you miss the pretzels at all. I have created a grain-free SCD Strawberry Pretzel Salad!
I have been wanting to make this dessert for so long. I thought it wouldn’t work because the traditional recipe uses a lot of non-Specific Carbohydrate Diet ingredients like cream cheese, whipped topping, Jell-O, and of course pretzels. After writing Don’t Skip Dessert Volume 2, I realized I had substitutions for everthing except the pretzels.
What is Strawberry Pretzel Salad (and why is it called “salad”)
Strawberry Pretzel Salad has been a mainstay for backyard barbeques and potlucks for a few decades now. The dessert consits of a pretzel crust layered with a sweet mixture of cream cheese and whipped topping – the kind you buy in a tub at the grocery store, and topped with strawberries in strawberry Jell-O. Back in 1962 a cookbook called The Joys of Jell-O became a huge hit among home cooks.
Cooking with Jell-O brought about some very interesting concoctions throughtout the ’60s, 70s, and ’80s. Some of them are truly terrifying, like “Meal in a Mold.” What were they thinking? But, we also got some very delicious recipes that are with us to this day. One of these is Strawberry Pretzel Salad. I can’t figure out quote why it’s called “salad,” but it seems that Jell-O was often served on a little side plate with a meal, rather than as dessert. These sides were referred to as salads. Remember when jellow and pudding used to always be in the salad bar at a restaurant?
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to call it a salad, but I want to go with the most common name so other people looking for a grain-free or SCD Strawberry Pretzel Salad can find it.
How Do You Subsitute the Pretzels?
What the pretzels provide is a light crunch and salt. What I did to substute that is dry roast some cashews and almond and then roughly chop them to mix into my crust. Roasting nuts makes them lighter and deepens their flavor. It was perfect! The crust came out with the light, salty crunch I was looking for.
How to Dry Roast Nuts
I use my air fryer. You can put them on the tray or basket, depending on what type of air fryer you have, and they will be rosted in about about two minutes. In the oven you can roast them at 350F for about 10 minutes. Check on them and stir them every three or four minutes.
How Do You Substitute the Cream Cheese and Whipped Topping?
For the cream cheese I made Labneh – yogurt that has been strained with some salt and lemon juice for 24 hours so it is very thick. You’ll need three cups of plain yogurt to get about 8 oz. of thick, strained yogurt.
For the whipped topping I make my 24-hour SCD yogurt using heavy cream (this is called “French Cream” in Breaking the Vicoius Cycle..
The heavy cream yogurt can be whipped up until it’s fluffy like whipped cream.
What Do You Need to Make SCD Strawberry Pretzel Salad?
You’ll need to make this in steps to get all the layers to set up right. First you’ll bake the crust and pepare the creamy layer. The crust will need to cool completely and then you’ll want to chill the creamy layer for about an hour while you pepare the gelatin layer and let that cool down. After that you’ll put the last layer on and chill until it’s completely set.
Ingredients and Equipment:
- 8×8-inch square baking pan
- Mixing bowls
- Mixing spoons
- Electic mixer or stand mixer
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Almond flour
- Cashews and almonds
- Salt
- Butter
- Honey
- Yogurt made with heavy cream (you can sub coconut cream if you like)
- Strained yogurt (Labneh)
- Fresh Strawberries
- Orange Juice (you can sub apple juice/cider, strawberry juice, or any other kind of juice that works for you and goes with strawberries)
- Unflavored gelatin
Like this recipe? Check out more of my SCD dessert recipes in my cookbook: Don’t Skip Dessert Volume 2!
Grain-Free SCD Strawberry “Pretzel” Salad
Equipment
- Knife for slicing strawberries
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup roasted almonds and cashews (roast raw nuts yourself in air fryer or oven)
- 1½ cups almond flour
- ¼ cup melted butter
- 1 tsp salt
Creamy Filling
- 1 cup heavy cream yogurt
- 1 cup Labneh (strained yogurt)
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
Strawberry Topping
- 1 lb fresh strawberries – hulled
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 350℉/180℃
- Lightly grease bottom and sides of pan with coconut oil or butter
- Do a rough chop your roasted almonds and cashews – use a knife or electric chopper – and leave some bigger pieces
- Add chopped nuts, almond flour, and salt to mixing bowl and combine
- Add melted butter and honey
- Stir until mixture is in crumbly pieces
- Press crust mixture evenly into bottom of pan
- Bake for 20 – 25 mintues until crust is golden brown and firm
- Set aside to cool complately before adding next layer
Creamy Filling
- Add heavy cream yogurt to mixing bowl
- Beat on high speed for a few minutes until it is fluffy
- Add Labneh to separate bowl
- Beat or whisk in honey and vanilla until smooth
- Stir Labneh mixture ijnto whipped yogurt until smooth
- Spread creamy mixture over cooled crust
- Place in freezer for 30 – 60 minutes while topping is prepared
Strawberry Topping
- Chop about half of the fresh strawberries to make one cup
- Slice the rest of the strawberries into thin slices
- Add the chopped strawberries and ½ cup orange juice to blender
- Blend until smooth
- Place the two tablespoons of orange juice in small bowl
- Sprinkle the unflavored gelatin over the orange juice and set aside to bloom for five minutes while you heat the srawberry mix
- Place strawberry orange juice mixture in a small saucepan and add the two tablespoons of honey
- Heat over medium-low heat until just bubbling
- Remove from heat and whisk in the gelatin mixture
- Pour mixture into a two cup measuring cup and cool to room temparture
- Once you are ready to assemble, spread the sliced strawberries over the creamy layer
- Pour the cooled gelatin mixture over the strawberries
- Cover pan and refrigerate for 2 – 4 hours until set
- Keep chilled and store in refrigertor for three to four days (it's best when it's fresh because the crust will get softier the longer it sits)Ø
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