One of my favorite holiday dishes is a salad that my great-grandmother used to prepare. Most people melt the cream cheese or dissolve it in the juice to make this creamy. The cheese is actually added in little pieces once the mixture has cooled. You now have a transparent gelatin that contains little white bits. Very excellent!
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
- 1 (15 ounce) can pitted Bing cherries in water
- 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, cut into pieces
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle cola-flavored carbonated beverage, or as needed.
- 1 (3 ounce) package cherry Jell-O®
Instructions
- Drain the pineapple juice and cherry water into a 2-cup measuring cup. Pour enough color to make 2 cups; discard the remaining soda. Pour the cola mixture into a saucepan.
- Bring the cola mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, then stir in the pineapple, cherries, cream cheese, and cherry gelatin until gelatin dissolves, about 5 minutes. Pour mixture into a mold or glass baking dish. Refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.
- There are several variations to this in my family. You can add pecans, you can add all of the pineapple instead of just half. You can add the whole can of soda. You can also let the mixture cool a bit before adding the cream cheese so that it doesn’t melt.
- My sister and I like to make a double batch so we have it to snack on for the next few days.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 132 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 26 g |
| Cholesterol | 9 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 67 mg |
| Sugars | 25 g |
| Fat | 3 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
4.27.17 Thought I’d followed the “recipe instructions” to the letter, and then today, when I was ready to upload the photo, I see that the description by the recipe author at the top contradicts how the recipe tells you to add the cream cheese. Top: “We actually add small chunks of the cheese after the mix has cooled.” Recipe instructions: “Bring the cola mixture to a boil….., remove from heat, THEN stir in pineapple, cherries, cream cheese…” It doesn’t say to “cool” the cola mixture before adding the cream cheese. So what happened was the cream cheese chunks started to melt, but not completely, and what you ended up with was a mixture that looked “curdled” for lack of a better explanation. And after more than 24 hours of refrigeration, this salad still had not jelled completely, had to scoop out of the dish with a spoon. IMO, I would think you’d want to put the warm cola-jello mixture into the fridge for about 90 minutes, or until it starts to thicken, and then add all of your ingredients. The cream cheese wouldn’t melt, and your fruits would be evenly dispersed throughout the jello salad. Sorry, this was a failure for me, so I’m just going to move on, won’t try again.
Very tasty and refreshing. Couldn’t find canned Bing Cherries, so substituted a can labeled “Sweet Cherries” which was very similar if not the same thing.
My gram used to make a similar recipe.It is GOOD!Thanks!
I have been looking for this recipe since my fathat er passed away in 1979. Thankyou so much for sharing, also my Dad added pecans for a little crunch and he used black cherry gelatin. Any of you who have not tried this recipe you don’t know what you are missing. Lorah you have made my day Thankyou again