We love making this delicious orange pretzel salad during the hot summer months, but it also shows up at family parties in the winter as well. It’s so easy to make and feeds a crowd. You can customize this recipe by swapping out the jello for another flavor or using a different fruit.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our mandarin orange pretzel salad, you will need the following ingredients:
- Pretzel sticks
- Butter
- Sugar
- Cream cheese
- Cool Whip
- Sugar
- Orange jello
- Boiling water
- Mandarin oranges
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Our Mandarin Orange Pretzel Salad
- Pre-heat oven to 350℉.
- For the first layer, combine broken pretzels, melted butter and sugar. Stir together until well blended. Press in 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool completely.
- For the second layer, beat sugar and cream cheese together until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip.
- Spread cream mixture over pretzel layer (be sure to seal the cream cheese layer against the sides of the pan so that the jello mixture will not be able to leak through when added).
- For the Jell-o layer, mix orange Jell-o and boiling water together until Jello is completely dissolved. Add mandarin oranges and let cool until slightly set.
- Pour Jell-o over cream cheese layer and refrigerate until firm.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Recipe Notes
You can make this pretzel salad a day before or the night before. Make sure to cover it well, and keep it stored in the refrigerator. We have eaten the leftovers (if there are any) for an extra day, and it is delicious. After a few days, the pretzel crust becomes soggy.
Enjoy More Delicious Fruit Salads
Want to add more fruits to your meals? Browse our comprehensive list of salad recipes.
- 5-Minute Pistachio Salad
- Ambrosia Salad
- Caramel Apple Jello Salad
- Creamy Grape Salad
- Honey Lime Fresh Fruit Salad
- Mandarin Orange Cookie Dessert Salad
- Mom’s Frog Eye Salad
- Orange Fluff Jello Salad
- Peach Jello Fluff Salad
- Pina Colada Fruit Salad
- Snickers Apple Pudding Salad
- Weight Watchers Jello Pudding Fluff
Mandarin Orange Pretzel Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups pretzels sticks, (broken into fourths)
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 3 Tablespoon sugar
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 8 ounces Cool-Whip, (non-dairy whipped topping)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 (6 ounce) box orange jello
- 2 cups boiling water
- 2 (11 ounce) cans mandarin oranges, (drained)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350℉.
- For the first layer, combine broken pretzels, melted butter and sugar. Stir together until well blended. Press in 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool completely.
- For the second layer, beat sugar and cream cheese together until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip.
- Spread cream mixture over pretzel layer (be sure to seal the cream cheese layer against the sides of the pan so that the jello mixture will not be able to leak through when added).
- For the Jell-o layer, mix orange Jell-o and boiling water together until Jello is completely dissolved. Add mandarin oranges and let cool until slightly set.
- Pour Jell-o over cream cheese layer and refrigerate until firm.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I have made this salad with the frozen strawberries, thanks for the mandarin orange idea!!! Whats the recipe for raspberries? Love the website!!
OMG!!!! I’ve always LOVED “normal” pretzel salad, but while I like strawberries, mandarin oranges are my absolute FAVE fruit!!! This is just SO AWESOME!!!!
Yummy!
This looks delicious! One question, do you drain the oranges? Thanks for the recipe!
Yes, drain the oranges.
i was so exicited to make this! followed the directions sealed the cream cheese and then when i went to pour the jello on top it seperated and one little section bubbled and it soaked to the bottom now:( i put it in the fridge hoping it will still be ediable ? will it??
It should still be edible. Not sure what went wrong. We let the jello cool slightly before pouring it over the cream cheese layer. Sometimes it cools to the point that it starts to thicken just slightly. Hope this helps for a future attempt. 🙂
Add Sprite for 1/2 of the water (or even all of it!) and you will be amazed! My grandmother made this without the pretzels and it was incredible, I can’t imagine how delicious they make it!
I make a Blueberry dessert that is very similar but uses powdered sugar instead of regular sugar. for me it makes it a little creamier! I love these kinds of recipes because there is no end to the choice of fruits and jello combinations you can use! (-:
Hi! I’ve had this since I was a little kid. Unfortunately my son and I both have health concerns. Both of us don’t eat gluten and I don’t eat lactose. I’m taking a big risk because I miss this desert so much. I changed the cream cheese to 8ozs. of goat cheese and whipped topping to coconut cream topping and I used Quntino gluten free pretzels. So far both of those steps/layers has set up beautifully! Yay! When I got to the last step and it didn’t say ‘Add.. 2 cups cold water’ does this mean it will be a firmer set, like jigglers? I’m so excited to see if my risk has paid off. Altering foods is challenging but better than being sick. Thanks for sharing the recipe.?
You add two cups boiling water to the jello, stir until dissolved. When it is completely set up it’s not as firm as jigglers, but it is more like jello.
Thank you so much for asking that question! I was sitting here wondering the same thing myself.
Do I make the jello as directed or do I leave off the one cup of cold water and just use one cup of boiling water? Thanks, this is my favorite!!!
You just add the jello to the 2 cups boiling water just as directed in the recipe.
Can I use cuties in place of canned mandarin oranges?
You could try it! It may change the texture a little, but it would still set up!