Strawberry pretzel salad is a very non-salad sweet treat easily spotted with its colorful red and white appearance.
The only thing salad-like about it is that it’s served cold. Otherwise, the salty and sweet dessert has a spot in many Western Pennsylvanians’ hearts — and stomachs.
Amy Stivason considers the fruity pretzel treat heaven sent.
Stivason grew up in Leechburg with memories of her aunt making and bringing the salad to every family picnic.
“The buttery, salty crust that mixed wonderfully with the sweet strawberry Jell-O and whipped topping is a match made in heaven,” Stivason said. “It’s my son Zander’s favorite dessert as well.”
Strawberry pretzel salad went mainstream in America during the 1960s when it was featured in a series of “The Joys of Jell-O” cookbooks.
Find Jell-O’s strawberry pretzel dessert squares recipe online here.
One of the earliest Pennsylvania pretzel salad recipes hailed from Brentwood in the South Hills with a recipe appearing in the “Brentwood Civic Club Cookbook” in 1960. The United Steel Workers Local Union 530 recommends using locally-made Pyrex dishes for serving the classic salad. Additionally, the Senator John Heinz History Center has a 1960 cookbook containing the recipe.
Although the exact origins are unknown, the dessert is most known in Pennsylvania, the Midwest and portions of the South.
The staple ingredients include strawberry Jell-O, butter, sugar, pretzels, cream cheese, frozen whipped topping and sliced strawberries.
But now there are plenty of pretzel salad recipes online to be found online.
QED COOKS personality and host Chris Fennimore recalled a “What Pittsburgh Eats” program and noted he and his co-host received about 12 different strawberry pretzel Jell-O salad recipes from viewers.
“What I love about this dish is that families seemed captivated by the opportunity to modify one or two techniques and make it their recipe,” Fennimore said.
The submitted recipes ran the preparation gamut.
“They were all just a little bit different — amounts of pretzels, amounts of butter, size of pan (and therefore depth of dish) and most called for Cool-Whip, but some for real cream,” Fennimore said.
Fennimore said his favorite difference was the shape of the pretzels.
“One person insisted on using the little pretzel squares without crushing,” Fennimore said. “They were mixed with the butter and sugar and then laid in the bottom of the pan in neat rows — three layers’ worth. Either they had a lot of time on their hands or they had a lot of children volunteers who needed something to keep them busy.”
TribLive visited some area restaurants and bakeries to explore what makes their strawberry pretzel salad-themed desserts special.
Dessert darling
“I grew up eating it,” said Dolly’s Diner co-owner Toni Stefanik of her childhood strawberry pretzel salad memories. “It was always at our family reunions.”
The salad treat is popular at just about every potluck, church dinner, summer picnic and family reunion around the region and can be found at many restaurants, albeit in varying culinary offerings.
At Dolly’s Diner, customers often ask for strawberry pretzel salad, and Stefanik and co-owner Dolly McCoy are quick to oblige, working together to bake specialty desserts offered as specials.
Dolly’s pretzel salad desserts sell out fast.
“Check our social media because they’re made in small batches,” Stefanik said.
She ditches the usual frozen whipped topping for real whipping cream: “It makes it richer and fluffier,” she said.
And how does Dolly’s keep those pretzels from getting stale and soggy?
“They’re baked, and that does seal them up a bit, but they will get soggy after a day or two,” Stefanik said.
Vandergrift native Tommy Scanga grew up noshing on plenty of “salad” and continues to enjoy making strawberry pretzel salad for friends and family at his retirement home in South Carolina.
“It was definitely a staple in our house,” said Scanga, a retired restaurant/business owner and chef. “The family recipe was carried down for years. I recently made it for a dinner party, and a retired Air Force pilot that’s been out of the country for years had some — he hadn’t had it since he was a kid.”
Scanga insists on using top-notch ingredients.
“Like every recipe I make, I think the most important thing and everything you cook nowadays is the quality of your ingredients and that it’s not full of preservatives,” he said.
Scanga said since retiring to the Myrtle Beach area, his strawberry pretzel salad dining options are sparse.
“You don’t see it around here unless somebody’s from up North,” he said.
Strawberry stack attack
Strawberry pretzel salad goes international with a French-toast inspired version served at G&G Restaurant in Vandergrift.
“This is an incredibly popular special and truly signature to Pittsburgh,” said co-owner Chris Kakias of the strawberry pretzel salad French toast stack offered on select weekends at his family-owned diner.
Offered as a weekend special, typically during the warmer months, G&G makes its strawberry-themed stack with Mancini’s bread with a strawberry pretzel salad filling.
“I think it’s so popular (we sell out) because it’s a Pittsburgh thing and people sort of take pride in that,” Kakias said.
Gluten-free, fancy option
At Ritual House in Downtown Pittsburgh, diners can enjoy a contemporary twist on the Pittsburgh sweet treat with “Not Your Grandma’s Strawberry Pretzel Salad.”
It’s offered as a gluten-free dessert made with strawberry mousse, vanilla anglaise, strawberry jam and pretzel crunch.
Ritual House general manager Amanda Smith loves to see the reactions on patrons’ faces when it arrives to the table.
“Being a Pittsburgh classic makes it nostalgic for many people, but the presentation makes it feel special and a little whimsical,” Smith said. “We love having it on the menu because it captures what Ritual House is about: taking something classic and reimagining it in a way that feels memorable and a bit unexpected.”
Served in two large pieces ($14) it’s more than enough for sharing with fellow dining guests.
Take the cake
Cosmic Crumbs in Greensburg offers strawberry pretzel salad in a cake or cookie version.
Owner Courtney Stouffer grew up eating plenty of of the sweet salad, and so did most of her customers.
“I sell a lot of these items because there are many local customers that have grown up eating strawberry pretzel salad in this area,” Stouffer said. “I thought I could create a fun twist on this classic dish.”
The strawberry pretzel cake ($35-$110, depending on the size) is a fluffy, white cake layered with sweet strawberry filling, smooth cream cheese icing and coated in crushed pretzels.
The strawberry thumbprints ($10 per dozen) are handcrafted, buttery cookies rolled in crushed salty pretzels and layered with a strawberry filling and topped with smooth cream cheese.
“The cookies often become a top seller during Christmas and early spring and summer for people who love a strawberry pretzel salad,” Stouffer said.
Oakmont Bakery offers plenty of strawberry pretzel salad options in the form of cakes, dolces (smaller, 3-inch cakes), cookies, parfaits and cupcakes.
The popular parfait ($6.50) is made with a layer of broken pretzels, brown sugar and melted butter, another layer of cream cheese filling and the last layer has a sliced strawberry filling and it’s topped with whipped cream and more pretzels.
Co-owner Marc Serrao said demand for strawberry pretzel salad desserts has held steady for the past six years.
“We make them year-round, and they are more popular during the warmer weather,” Serrao said. “The authentic version is made with Jell-O, but I don’t like Jell-O.”
Bakery co-owner Lisa Schwachter Stoff added strawberry pretzel dessert options after a customer called asking for it.
Stoff co-owns DosA Cupcakes and More with her husband, Doug Fox.
Returning to Pittsburgh after living away for 30 years, Stoff noted how popular strawberry pretzel salad remains in the region.
“I figured out how to do it, and it’s one of our best-selling cupcakes. It’s a really good one,” Lisa said.
The cupcake ($5 each) has a strawberry filling inside and is topped with a pretzel.
