Pretzel Cherry Dessert Cups

Cherry Pretzel Dessert Cups

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Makes 10 (5.9 ounce cups) or 9 x 13 baking dish for Cherry Pretzel Dessert Bars

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Pretzel Crust and Topping

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*3 cups Pretzels, chopped

*3/4 cup Brown Sugar, packed

*1/2 cup Butter, melted

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Note: Save about 1 cup of this mixture for the topping

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In gallon sized Ziploc bag add pretzels and use a rolling-pin to smash pretzels into small pieces.

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Then in a sauce pan on medium-low heat, melt together the butter and brown sugar stir until sugar dissolves.
In a large bowl, combine the pretzel pieces and sugar mixture. Stir and scoop 2-3 tablespoons pretzel mixture to the bottom of each glass cup (for the pretzel cups you will probably only use half this pretzel crust recipe, but you will need all pretzel recipe if using 9 x 13 baking dish. You need to bake the pretzel crust in the 9 x 13 pan for 7-9 minutes at 350*F. (Allow for cooling before adding filling) but there is no need to bake the pretzel cookie cups.

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Cream Cheese Filling

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*8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened

*1 1/4 cups Confectioners’ Sugar

*2 tablespoons Maraschino Juice

*1/8 teaspoon Cherry Extract

*1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

*1 container 8 ounce frozen Whipped Topping

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Cream together: Cream cheese, sugar, maraschino cherry juice, cherry extract, almond extract and then fold in the frozen mixed topping. (No need to adjust this filling amount.)

Cherry Pie a Filling Layer

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1-2 cans 21 ounce Cherry Pie Filling

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I used 1 can cherry pie filling for the cookie cups and 2 cans for the 9 x 13 baking dish.

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Remove the cherries from the pie filling so that you have a cup of the cherries and a cup of the clear red pie filling sauce, cut up the cherries into small pieces or use an emulsion blender, blending slightly into chunks of cherries.

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Chocolate Dipped Maraschino Cherry

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*10 Maraschino Cherries for cups, with stems, more for cherry pretzel bars

*1/2-1 cup Dark Chocolate Melting Wafer, like Ghirardelli

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Rinse and dry with paper towels the maraschino cherries. Then let the cherries air-dry on a paper towel for about 20 minutes, dry off again with paper towel before dipping in melted chocolate.

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Melt chocolate wafers in a double boiler on medium-low heat.

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Dip cherries in melted chocolate and allow them to dry on a piece of wax paper.

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Top each cherry pretzel cup with dipped cherry or each cut cherry pretzel bar

*Layering the Cherry Pretzel Cups or Dessert

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*Pretzel Mixture, 2-3 tablespoons each cup or press into the bottom of 9 x 13 baking dish saving about 1 cup for the topping.

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*Cream Cheese Filling, spread or pipe 3 tablespoons per cup or spread 1/2 the mixture over the cooled pretzel for Cherry Pretzel Dessert Salad

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*Chopped Cherries, about 2 tablespoons per cup or spread over cream cheese filling layer for the Cherry Pretzel Dessert Salad

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*Cream Cheese Filling, piped onto chopped cherry layer or pipe onto the Cherry Pretzel Dessert Salad

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*Cherry Pie Filling Sauce, spoon on top the cream cheese layer or spread on the Cherry Pretzel Dessert Salad

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Refrigerate cherry pretzel cups until ready to serve, the same with the Cherry Pretzel Dessert Salad

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*Chopped Pretzel Topping

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*Chocolate Dipped Cherry, for each serving