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Cherry pretzel salad combines the salty-sweet crust of your favorite Midwest pretzel salad with the flavors of a cherry cheesecake. With just 30 minutes of hands-on time, this easy dessert deserves a special place at all of your holiday gatherings, game-day parties, and summer cookouts.
There are two desserts you can often find at my family’s holiday get-togethers that I can’t say no to: the classic strawberry pretzel salad and my nana’s easy cheesecake.
I recently found myself wondering what would happen if I took the two recipes and turned them into one. I mean, I had to try it, right?
The result was this cherry pretzel salad recipe, and I gotta say I’m pretty much in love. It’s got the super easy no-bake cheesecake filling from my nana’s recipe, but paired with the salty-sweet pretzel crust that we love in recipes like raspberry pretzel salad and easy pineapple pretzel salad.
The cherry pie filling and Cool Whip are the cherry on top (see what I did there?).
This is what I call a “low-bake” recipe—just bake the crust for 10 minutes, and the rest is made without the oven in just 30 minutes of hands-on time. Let it chill for 4 hours, slice, and let the compliments roll in!
Jamie’s testing notes and tips
- Don’t over-crush the pretzels. The crust is best when you have some varying sizes in the pretzel pieces. I like to crush them in a zip-top bag with a rolling pin. You can pulse them in a food processor, but you don’t want to turn them all into crumbs to be careful if you go that route!
- Add almond extract for a cherry-almond flavor. If you love the combination of almonds and cherries like in my whipped cherry butter recipe and easy cherry cobbler recipe, add 1 1/4 teaspoons of almond extract to the filling along with the vanilla.
- Pop it into the freezer for a few minutes for super clean slices. Place the pan in the freezer for 20-30 minutes—enough to make it super cold, but not enough to actually freeze the dessert. Then run a large, sharp knife under very hot water, wipe it dry, then use that to make your cuts. Run the knife back under hot water and dry it again as needed, as often as after each cut, for perfect slices every time.
Cherry pretzel salad ingredients
⬇️ For the full recipe, including ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below!
- Pretzels: I like using the tiny pretzel twists when I make this crust. As I mentioned above, make sure you crush them so you have varying sizes, not just a bunch of crumbs!
- Sugar: We’ll use granulated sugar for the crust and powdered sugar for the filling. If you’re out of powdered sugar, learn how to make powdered sugar at home in minutes.
- Unsalted butter: Melted, for the crust.
- Cream cheese: Softened to room temperature for the smoothest, creamiest filling. If you forget to set it out ahead of time, check out my tips on softening cream cheese quickly.
- Vanilla: Extract or vanilla bean paste.
- Cherry pie filling: Use your favorite canned brand or homemade cherry pie filling if you have some on hand. When buying the canned stuff, I like to look for ones with “extra fruit” or “more fruit” on the label. If you don’t like cherries, any fruit pie filling will work—blueberry, apple, and peach are all great options.
- Whipped topping: Such as Cool Whip or TruWhip, thawed. This is optional; feel free to skip it! You can also just top each slice with a dollop of homemade whipped cream if you prefer, or top the whole thing with stabilized whipped cream.
Dietary swaps
If you’ve got gluten-free friends and family to feed, you can easily use your favorite gluten-free pretzels in the crust. Just make sure that you confirm that any pie filling you use is certified gluten-free as well!
For a dairy-free version, use a dairy-free cream cheese alternative and a dairy-free whipped topping such as CocoWhip. Make sure you also use a plant-based butter alternative in the crust.
Make-ahead and storage
This cherry cheesecake pretzel salad needs to chill for at least 4 hours before serving so that the filling can set up and become sliceable. You can easily make the dessert the day before you plan to serve it, though!
If you plan to serve the dessert with regular whipped cream instead of whipped topping, leave that off until just before serving, since whipped cream is more likely to weep.
Store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Because of the cream cheese in the filling and the likelihood of it splitting after thawing, I do not recommend freezing this recipe.
Cherry Cheesecake Pretzel Salad
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 3 cups tiny pretzel twists
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
For the filling:
- 24 ounces cream cheese (3 packages) room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
For the topping:
- 2 (21-ounce) cans cherry pie filling or other flavor of choice
- 8 ounces whipped topping thawed according to package directions, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray the bottom of a 9×13-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the pretzels into a gallon size zip-top bag and crush the pretzels into coarse crumbs using a rolling pin. You can also pulse the pretzels in a food processor, just be careful not over-process them as you want there to be varying textures.3 cups tiny pretzel twists
- Place the pretzels into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar and melted butter. Transfer the pretzel mixture into the prepared baking dish and gently press the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish to form an even crust layer. Bake crust for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and to a wire rack to cool completely.¼ cup granulated sugar, 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Once the crust has cooled, add the cream cheese to the bowl of a stand mixer bowl and beat at medium speed for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Spread filling onto cooled crust. Top with pie filling, followed with whipped topping (if using). Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.24 ounces cream cheese, 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract, 2 (21-ounce) cans cherry pie filling , 8 ounces whipped topping
Notes
Ingredients
- If you are not a fan of cherry pie filling, blueberry, apple, or peach also work well.
- You can add 1 ¼ teaspoons of almond extract to the filling for a delicious cherry almond combination. Add this at the same time as the vanilla.
Storage
- Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Do not freeze.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More cherry cheesecake dessert recipes
If you love the flavors classic cherry cheesecake as much as I do, you’re in luck!
My cherry cheesecake cookies and decadent cherry cheesecake cupcake recipe are big favorites around here.
My layered cherry cheesecake dessert has similar vibes as this cherry pretzel salad recipe, but with more of a sugar cookie crust.
And when it comes to quick and easy, you can’t beat my cherry cheesecake dip recipe or my easy cherry cheesecake cake!
