Pleasantly refreshing! What else is there to say when fresh lemon, mango, and kiwi are combined with light, chilled cream cheese and placed on top of a delicious pretzel crust that is both salty and sweet? It always leaves with a flash of speed. Ideal for barbecues, special occasions, group projects, or simply a nice treat with a hot cup of tea. Enjoy!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9×13-inch baking dish |
Ingredients
- 2 cups crushed pretzels
- ¾ cup butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 ½ lemons, zested, or more to taste
- 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip®), thawed
- 1 ½ cups boiling water
- 2 (3 ounce) packages lemon-flavored gelatin mix (such as Jell-O®)
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice, strained
- 1 mango, peeled and chopped
- 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Mix crushed pretzels, butter, and brown sugar together in a bowl; press into a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes; set aside to cool completely. Crust will be soft when taken out of the oven and will harden as it cools.
- Mix white sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla extract together in a large bowl until smooth. Stir juice from 1/2 lemon and lemon zest into cream cheese mixture and mix well; fold in whipped topping. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over cooled crust; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
- Mix boiling water and lemon-flavored gelatin mix together in a bowl until dissolved. Add 1/2 cup strained lemon juice and mix well. Refrigerate gelatin mixture until slightly thickened, about 1 hour.
- Ladle enough gelatin mixture over cream cheese layer to cover, setting remaining gelatin mixture aside. Arrange mango and kiwi onto gelatin mixture layer and pour remaining gelatin mixture over fruit layer. Refrigerate until completely chilled and set, about 2 hours.
- This can also be made in a 9-inch springform pan.
- The amount of lemon is easily adjusted depending on your preferred level of tartness. Simply taste the cream cheese mixture and increase or decrease lemon juice and zest based on your liking.
- I sometimes substitute the kiwi with raspberries, which is also really good. Just make sure your raspberries are dry or they could discolor the Jell-O(R).
- Kiwi, along with fresh pineapple, papaya, figs, and guava, contain an enzyme that prevents gelatin from setting. Quickly blanch and chill the fruit before using.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 423 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 52 g |
| Cholesterol | 51 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 16 g |
| Sodium | 461 mg |
| Sugars | 39 g |
| Fat | 23 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Really good! I followed the recipe exactly, but I would make a few adjustments. First of all, 3/4 cup butter is waaaay too much! I would cut down to about 1/4 cup; do 1/2 water & 1/2 lemon juice in the Jell-o; omit kiwi and add more mango (Kiwi reacts funny in Jell-o and it was a little runny); and I think it would be good even with a pineapple Jell-o and maybe some coconut in the crust even!
Still one of my favorite recipes to make. In high demand in my household, regardless of the season. I still can’t get the kiwi right, but that’s me, not the recipe
Weirdly good. It was a lot of work for a novelty salad, but everyone enjoyed it, I had no leftovers, and several folks asked for the recipe. Maybe it just seemed like a lot of work, after all. The flavors were nice and balanced; I’ll make this one again. Thank you for submitting the recipe.
I really enjoyed this! It was a lot of work, though. I used a springform pan, so I cut the amounts slightly. I ground pretzels in the food processor (about 1 3/4 c. total). I used 2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp brown sugar, and only 6 Tbsp butter (but probably could’ve used a full half cup). While the crust baked, I rinsed out the food processor and used it to blend the cream cheese and sugar, then lemon juice and vanilla. Transferred to a bowl and stirred in the lemon zest. I’m not a fan of Cool-Whip, so I whipped 6 oz of heavy cream and folded it into the cream cheese. Delicious! It was just the right sweetness (even with unsweetened whipped cream), with a great lemon flavor. [I only used 3/4 c cream because I wanted to be sure the filling was firm enough to slice.] While the filling chilled, I BLANCHED THE KIWI. The gelatin won’t set otherwise. I peeled and sliced the kiwi, placed slices in a strainer, and lowered it into boiling water. Blanched it for about 45 seconds, transferred the strainer to an ice water bath, and then set kiwi slices aside with the mango. For the gelatin, I used the ice water bath from blanching the kiwi to chill the gelatin mixture until it was ready to pour on the fruit. My verdict? I thought the lemon Jell-O detracted from the rest of the dessert. Next time, I’d play with using fruit juice (mango, or passionfruit) and use 1 pack unsweetened gelatin. Just enough to make a shiny, fruity glaze—not so much for a floating gelatin layer. But I will try this again!