Strawberry Pretzel Cottage Cheese Pie

This easy Strawberry Pretzel Cottage Cheese Pie is everything you want in your favorite potluck dessert: An irresistibly crunchy and slightly salty crust topped with a creamy and slightly tangy vanilla custard with a nod to the classic French Tart aux fraises, topped by sweet in-season strawberries. Yet, all of that with a fraction of the calories and a good hit of protein. Frankly, it’s so nutritious, you might even find yourself enjoying a slice of this guilt free dessert for breakfast! Ready to try a healthier take on a beloved classic?

 

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• Why You’ll Love This
• The Ingredients
• Substitutions
• Equipment Used
• How to Make this
• How To Store
• FAQ
• Other Recipes You Might Enjoy

Why You’ll Love This 

TL;DR

• Ever wished for a healthier version of the classic sweet and salty Strawberry Pretzel Pie? This is it! With no added sugar, no Jell-O or Cool Whip, and about half the butter of the original, it slashes the calories significantly (around 280 kcal vs. 1000+ kcal per slice!). Plus, you still get a fantastic 10g of protein per slice.
• Irresistible Flavor & Texture: Experience the perfect balance of a crunchy, salty pretzel crust, a creamy, tangy vanilla custard, and the natural sweetness of fresh, in-season strawberries. All the addictive flavor, none of the guilt!
• Versatile & Adaptable: While perfect with strawberries, this pie is easily adapted with other seasonal fruits.

Better for you

Have you ever eaten the classic Strawberry Pretzel Pie from the NYT or a Pretzel “Salad” at a potluck and wished there would be a slightly healthier version?
Then this one is for you.

It has no added sugar, uses neither Jell-O nor cool whip, has about half the butter content of the NYT times version and a fraction of the calories. 280 compared to the over 1000 per slice from the original. Yet it still comes up to 10g protein per slice and has all the flavor components that make the original so addictive: It’s sweet from fruits and protein powder, salty from the pretzels with a gentle tang from cottage cheese. Well…minus the Jell-o. But you can simply add it if you are a fan. I’m just not.

What makes this Strawberry Pretzel Cottage Cheese Pie a favorite at any potluck?
Let’s take apart the layers and have a look.

The Crust

Let’s start with the pretzel crust. There is just something about the crunch and saltiness of snack pretzels that goes incredibly well with sweet strawberries and a creamy filling. They get processed to make a crust, but unlike the classic, where a smooth crust is kneaded, they get to keep some structure, leading to an irresistible crunch.

Usually butter is used and I did that in some versions, but I found olive oil adds even more flavor and goes fabulous with the strawberry flavor. If you ever had mozzarella with strawberries, balsamic vinegar and a touch of olive oil, you’ll know what I mean. If you didn’t, go make it right now! You were missing out!
There, that’s the bonus recipe of the day. 😉

For a gentle sweetness in the crust you can use both xylitol, which makes it suitable for diabetics or maple syrup, a more natural sweetener option. Both bake well, though I found the xylitol version a little crumblier.

All in all this is a very low sugar dessert, as most of the sweet flavor is contributed by the sugar free protein powder and fresh strawberries.

Note:
In my trials, I encountered some unexpected behavior with tart pan * sizes. While I used small tart tins for the photos (they just look prettier!), my brand-new, non-stick carbon steel ones stuck more than my old, well-used large loose-bottom tart pan * – a surprising observation that held true through multiple trial runs.
As a consequence, I’d advise lining your tart tin bottoms with baking parchment, just to be safe. A little crumbling won’t impact the flavor, of course!

The larger version slices pretty nicely and seems to hold its shape ok when (carefully) slid onto a cake platter. But keep in mind it’s made from pretzel crumbs, so it’s not a particularly sturdy base.

If you’d like one that is much easier to handle, use the almond base from my Strawberry Protein Mousse Pie. It’s very adaptable and if you add a bit of Maldon salt to it, you’ll have a very similar flavor contrast to the pretzel crust.

Cottage Cheese Vanilla Custard

The creamy cottage cheese custard filling makes this nutritious pie a cross between your classic French strawberry tart (Tart aux fraises), which uses a shortcrust pastry or Pâte Sucrée (a sweet pie crust) and pastry cream made with real vanilla bean and eggs.

I wanted to keep the classic custard creaminess and luxurious mouthfeel but add a bit of the tartness you’d have in said Pretzel pie. It usually stems from using cream cheese, which is fairly heavy, so it gets mixed with either cream or cool whip, adding even more calories.

Using blended cottage cheese not only adds a nice amount of protein, but also significantly lowers the calories, while keeping the creamy, luscious texture.

Let’s compare the two in an easy side by side chart. The calories/protein g given are per 100g:

	Full-Fat Cream Cheese	Cottage Cheese
Calories	325 kcal	90 kcal
Protein	7.5 g	12 g
Protein (%)	7.5% (by weight)	12% (by weight)

To get to the amount of filling we need and have some liquid to dissolve xylitol and vanilla seeds well, I added a bit of plant milk (obviously you can use any milk you like. I just happen to have only plant milk at home).

Oh, yes: Vanilla! I love using real vanilla here, the seeds from half a pod, to give my custard the classic French feel and complexity. Plus the tiny vanilla flecks just make it feel really special.

Egg yolks and corn starch help to thicken the custard and lead to it setting in the fridge. Now, mind you, if you are looking for picture perfect slices, this is not the right pie! The filling is still very creamy and, if left to it’s own devices for a while, will try to escape the confines of the pie a little bit. Just means you have to eat more of it, which certainly is no hardship! 😉

Adding Protein Powder

As in so many of my recipes, I’m using whey protein powder (vanilla flavor in this case) to add nutrition. But also for even creamier texture in the filling and to eliminate the need for more sweetener, as the protein powder is already very sweet.

I’ve served this to friends and a group of people at a natural horsemanship clinic and not one of them suspected it might be in any way, shape, or form “healthy”. They all just loved the flavor of it.

The powder gets each slice up to about 10g protein, which is marvellous for a dessert.

Why Do I Add Protein?

You mean apart from the well known physical benefits of protein for the body like helping you to build muscle, keeping your bones strong and increasing satiation, meaning you stay fuller for longer and with that can maintain your weight easier?

Lesser known is, that it also effects the brain by helping it to effectively transport information through neuropathways using the amino acods found in Protein.
This even has been shown to help protect from age related dementia.

If you’d like to read more about how and why I use protein, I wrote a blog post about it.

And another one about my weight loss journey, shedding 70lb within 1 year. Protein played a big part in that too!

Strawberry Topping

While the crust and filling would go fantastic with nearly any fruit (Try cherries and peaches in summer! Or a wild tumble of raspberries and blackberries toward autumn) we just have Wexford Strawberry season here in Ireland and I just can not resist a good strawberry pie. Plus, let’s be honest, adding fresh fruit to pie absolutely makes this 1 of your 5-a-day. A reasonably balanced meal too, with fibre, protein and carbs.

I love brushing them with some apricot or strawberry jam for the glossy finish, though you by no means have to.

Kid Friendly

With it’s classic sweet and creamy flavor of vanilla custard, this homemade strawberry pie is also very kid friendly, making it the perfect potluck dessert for this summer.

The Ingredients

As usual just a few notes on the main ingredients. A full list with amounts is in the recipe card.

Crunchy Pretzel Crust

• Pretzels – Any crunchy, salted snack pretzel from a bag will do. Just make sure you don’t accidentally grab sour cream-onion flavor!
• Butter or olive oil – Which fat source you use is mostly up to you. Even coconut oil will work nicely. Butter has to be melted first, olive oil can just be poured in, which makes it a very practical choice.
• Xylitol, sugar or maple syrup – The sweetener in the crust gives it a bit of stickiness to hold it together. The source only matters if you are a diabetic, watching your calories or are a trying to use mostly wholefoods.
  If you’d rather use all wholefoods in the crust, consider making the almond crust from one of my other pies like the Banoffee Protein Mousse Pie and adding a little Maldon salt to it, imitating the Pretzel flavor.

Creamy Vanilla Cottage Cheese- Protein Custard

• Cottage cheese – I’ve made this with different brands and fat percentages and all worked very well. Use a full fat version if you can, as it leads to the creamiest results while still being fairly low fat overall.
• Vanilla – While I’m using the seeds from half a vanilla pod, either extract or powder would work fine
• Protein Powder – I found whey concentrate, particularly the MyProtein brand (neither sponsored nor affiliated), works fantastic in all of my recipes, just like in this high protein pie. You can use any brand you enjoy. Just be mindful when it comes to the flavor of it. If you don’t like it in a shake, you won’t enjoy it in a pie.
• Corn Starch – This is the main thickening agent for the custard.
• Egg yolks – Work together with the cornstarch to transform the cottage cheese into a creamy custard filling and give incredible richness

Strawberry Topping

Strawberries – Make sure you get the freshest and most flavorful strawberries you can find. This healthy strawberry pie is really all about the fruit flavor, with nowhere to hide. So if strawberries are not in season, use any other fruit (except fresh pineapple and kiwi, which have a habit of reacting with milk products like cottage cheese, turning them bitter) that looks good and is in season.

substitutions

Pie Crust

• Pretzels – If you’d like a gluten free crust, make sure to buy gluten free pretzels. They are fairly easy to find, as crunchy pretzels don’t rely on soft and bouncy gluten structure.
• Alternatively make the gluten free crust from my Cranberry Meringue Pie, swapping the pecans for almonds
• Butter – As mentioned in the ingredient notes, you can use olive or coconut oil. Though because the custard is based on cottage cheese, you still won’t have a vegan pie I’m afraid.
• Sweetener – You can use any sweetener that can be baked and has a bit of “sticking power”. I found the crust with xylitol delicious if a bit crumbly. But it still works.

Vanilla Cottage Cheese Custard

• Cottage cheese – You could use Greek yoghurt instead of the cottage cheese. And as extension of that probably vegan Greek yoghurt. But mind you: I have not tried it, so proceed with caution. And if you do try it, I’d love to hear how it turned out
• Protein Powder – While I have said in the past I deeply dislike vegan protein powders of any kind, I just found one I really enjoy: The MyProtein Plant Protein Superblend (neither affiliated nor sponsored). It’s made from upcycled barley and rice, giving it a lovely malty note.
  However, they have no vanilla flavor and the powder is fairly dark in colour. I tried their caramel version, finding it blends just as smooth as their whey protein and adore it. It is very sweet, but used in desserts, that works in its favor.
• If I were to use any vegan powder in this pie, this would probably be it. Even if I’m ever so slightly sceptical about the caramel flavor in the vanilla custard.
• Corn starch – Tapioca would work very similar.
• Egg yolks – To make this egg free, you could up the cornstarch by 2-3 tbsp and would get a similar result in firmness when set. But you’d lose some of the richness the eggs provide and maybe a bit too much chalky cornstarch mouthfeel. So personally, in this case I’d advise against it.

Fruit Topping

Strawberries – As mentioned above any ripe fruit with lots of sweetness will work fabulously in this healthy pie. Use a combination of berries. Maybe add blueberries if making this for Juneteenth. Fresh sweet cherries with peach would be stunning. So would apricots. You might even go down the banana route and top it with some chocolate shavings.

Variation

Make this into Strawberry Salad

I’m sure you came across the popular potluck dessert called “Strawberry Salad”. Which is based on the same principle described above and called “salad” due to the layers and Jell-O that the strawberries are stirred into and then poured on top of the cream cheese.

Why “Salad”?

At least that’s what I was wondering when reading the recipes.
Apparently anything layered and with Jell-O was at some point named salad, even more so when it was served alongside other potluck dishes.

So, if you’d like to make yours in that style, feel free to just stir the strawberries into some dissolved red Jell-O before tumbling them onto the tart. It will still be healthier than the original.

Equipment Used

• Food Processor * – Or a freezer bag and rolling pin *, to crush the pretzels. If you use a freezer bag, be sure to push out any air before closing or you’ll have an exploded bag and shower of crumbs in your kitchen. Yup, been there, did that!
• Loose bottom tart tin – Or about 10 small ones. Alternatively use a pie dish *, if you don’t want to serve the cake on a platter
• Blender – I used the Nutribullet *, to blend the cottage cheese until super creamy
• Saucepan * and whisk * – To make the custard filling
• A pastry brush if you’d like to glaze the strawberries with jam

food processor

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Mini Tart Pans

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Nutribullet

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Saucepan

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whisk

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*

How to Make this

Start by making the Pretzel Crust

• Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C
• Grease either a large loose bottom tart pan or 10-12 smaller tart pans. This works best using melted butter and a pastry brush. Alternatively line them with baking parchment, making it much easier to get them out in one piece later.

• Crush the pretzels in a food processor * or in a bag using a rolling pin *. If using a bag, be sure to press out the air first, so it doesn’t explode, dusting your kitchen with pretzel pieces.
• Process or smash until they are mostly fine with a few larger pieces for crunch.

• Add melted butter and xylitol. Mix thoroughly.

• Press the crust mix into the tart pans, using the flat bottom of a measuring cup or glass, pushing it up the sides.
• Bake for about 10 minutes or until looking slightly darker and smelling wonderful.
• Remove and leave to cool for at least 30 minutes while you make the cottage cheese pastry cream.

Cottage Cheese Vanilla cream with Protein

• Blend the cottage cheese until creamy and no curds are left
• Whisk * 1/3 of the blended cottage cheese with the 3 tbsp cornstarch until smooth

• Separate the eggs, keeping the egg whites for another recipe.
• Add the egg yolks to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer * or a bowl using a hand mixer * and whisk to light and fluffy ribbon stage.

• Slice the vanilla bean open lengthwise
• Pressing one half of the bean flat onto your chopping board *, scrape out the seeds with your knife *.
• Add them to the almond milk and mix well

• Transfer remaining xylitol and vanilla milk into a medium saucepan *. Heat gently while stirring to dissolve the sugar, bringing it gently to a boil.
• Lower the heat to medium
• Add the remaining 2/3 of the blended cottage cheese to the milk and keep whisking vigorously, while scraping the bottom, making sure nothing sticks, until you see the first signs of a boil

• Pour your cold cottage cheese- cornstarch mix into the whipped egg yolks and mix well.

• Remove the hot mixture from the heat. Gradually whisk about half of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk-cottage cheese mixture (this tempers the yolks and prevents them from scrambling when you heat the custard).
• Pour the tempered egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk mixture.
• Return the saucepan to low heat and whisk constantly for about 2 minutes until the custard visibly thickens and the cornstarch taste is gone. Bring it gently to a boil while whisking.

• Take off the heat and whisk in the protein powder until no lumps remain
• If you had any bits sticking to the bottom of the pan or couldn’t get the protein powder perfectly smooth, you can either blend it once more in a large blender like the Vitamix * (don’t use a Nutribullet * with hot liquid as it can explode) or push it through a fine mesh strainer *.

• Pour your creamy and custardy cottage cheese-protein mix into the pretzel base (I used a cookie scoop * to portion it intro the small tart pans) and let it set in the fridge for at least an hour. 2-3 is better.

Strawberry Topping

• Slice your strawberries in half or even small slices, if you have very large ones like I did, or leave small ones whole

• Arrange them all over the tart/tartlets, either in a wild tumble or neatly in circles, whichever you prefer

• Combine 2 tbsp of the jam of your choice with 1 tbsp of water in a small microwave safe bowl
• Microwave for 10 seconds or until the jam is melted and smooth.
• If yours has fruit pieces, you can quickly push it through a fine mesh strainer * to get it totally smooth.
• Using a pastry brush, spread the jam over the top of your strawberries to give them a lovely shine
• Chill until ready to serve

Enjoy alone and guilt free or take this summer dessert to your next picnic, potluck or birthday party, where it’s sure to vanish super quickly.

Watch The Video:

https://youtu.be/9FDI65nfqCM

Tips and tricks

Lining a round tart Pan with baking parchment

Have you ever struggled to line a round tart tin with baking parchment to get the perfect homemade pie crust?
Yup, me too! Until I found this video, showing a really great trick of folding the parchment before neatly fitting it into the pan.

Don’t be tempted to add the protein powder too early

I’ve learned this one the hard way: When making a protein custard and adding the protein powder while still heating it, the custard will coagulate and stick to the bottom of the saucepan while you wait for the cottage cheese-milk mix to boil, leading to lumps and burning.

So only ever whisk it in once you are done cooking and the saucepan is off the heat.

How To Store

This pie is best eaten on the day it’s made due to the fresh strawberries. The crust gets a little softer on day 2, but we still had the leftovers happily.
Store it covered in the fridge, to keep the custard firm and the strawberries fresh.

FAQ

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.

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