Walking Strawberry Pretzel Cups
Sweet-salty layered dessert built inside the pretzel bag it came in.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 71
- protein
- 3 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- No cook
- Cooler only
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Mini pretzel snack bags | 10 bags | the single-serve size, eaten out of the bag |
|---|---|---|
| Prepared vanilla pudding | 1 lb box, made up at home | needs milk, so it lives in the cooler |
| Strawberry gelatin snack packs | 5 packs | half a pack per bag |
| Whipped topping | about 2 cups | thaw in the cooler, not in the sun |
| Fresh strawberries | 1 cup, diced | dice at home into a sealed container |
| Crushed pretzels | 1/4 cup | set aside from the bags |
Method
- Open each pretzel bag and roll the top edge down a couple of inches so it stands up like a cup.
- Press the bag from the outside to break the pretzels into rough pieces. Stop while there are still shards, not dust. Pull a small handful out for topping.
- Spoon two tablespoons of cold vanilla pudding into each bag, then half a gelatin cup on top of that.
- Add a spoonful of whipped topping, then the diced strawberries and the reserved pretzel pieces.
- Hand them out with spoons and eat right away. The pretzels soften from the moment the pudding goes in.
This is a layered pretzel-and-berry dessert with the pan removed. Nothing gets baked, nothing gets cut into squares, and the bag is both the mixing bowl and the dish. Ten of them assemble in the time it takes to cut one pan.
The order of the layers is the whole trick. Pudding goes in first so the gelatin sits above the pretzels instead of soaking straight through them, and the crushed pretzels on top stay dry until the last bite. Assemble one at a time as people ask for them. A tray built twenty minutes early comes apart into sweet mush.
This one needs a cooler. Pudding, whipped topping, and cut strawberries are all cold-chain items, so it is a car camping and basecamp dessert, not something to carry up a hill.
Packing
Pudding, gelatin cups, topping, and berries all go in the cooler in separate sealed containers. Assemble at the table, not in advance, or you are serving wet cardboard.
Variations
- Swap the fresh berries for freeze-dried strawberries and this holds up on a hot day with no cooler for the fruit.
- Chocolate pudding and a handful of chocolate chips instead of the gelatin makes a salty-sweet version that does not weep.
https://campfirefoodie.com/walking-strawberry-pretzel-dessert-recipe