A simple homemade strawberry cream cheese pie made with an easy graham cracker crust, a sweet cream cheese layer, and topped with fresh strawberries. This pie uses no Jello, gelatin, or artificial add-ins, and a quick strawberry sauce serves as a sweet glaze for the berries.
When it comes to sweets, it’s pretty well-known in my household that I have a complete and utter lack of restraint. Cookies, cakes, and pies (particularly strawberry cream cheese pies) need to be removed from the premises posthaste, or else it’s just a matter of time before I no longer fit through our doorways. Zach must take care to monitor the ice cream in our freezer closely, otherwise I’ll whittle it down to nothing, one sneaking spoonful at a time (he’s actually really bad at this, there’s a carton of ice cream in our freezer with a single spoonful of chocolate ice cream left because I’ve eaten nearly all of it).
But my inability to control myself is possibly most evident during strawberry picking season.
Because when it comes to strawberry picking, I just cannot stop myself. I will pick, and pick, and pick (and maybe sample a few, for, you know, quality control) until my arms are aching from the weight of my berries. Zach and I brought home more berries than two people can be realistically expected to eat in a year, but within a week we’d worked our way through all of them — mostly courtesy of this Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie.
Strawberry picking is a tradition with Zach’s family that I’m grateful to have been absorbed into, and each year for the past three years I’ve shared a strawberry dessert with you. First it was my Strawberries & cream daiquiris (I know, the photos could use a re-shoot), my homemade strawberry pop-tarts last year, and now this strawberry cream cheese pie.
Originally this year’s recipe was going to just be a plain Strawberry Pie, but when Zach’s mom mentioned that she’d had one before with a layer of cream cheese, I made the quick decision to re-route, and a fluffy layer of whipped cream cheese filling was the first thing to go into my homemade graham cracker crust.
It’s just four ingredients, and actually served as the inspiration for my no-bake cheesecake, which I shared with you last week.
We are using no Jello or gelatin in this strawberry cream cheese pie — no artificial flavors, just the pure juicy taste of fresh berries. However, that means that we have to get to work making a simple strawberry sauce, and while this pie is no-bake, you will have to whip out a saucepan for that — don’t worry, it will only take a few minutes.
We’re going to cook the berries with some sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch (a thickener), releasing the fresh juice of the berries and reducing the amount of liquid for a strawberry sauce that we will toss even more fresh strawberries into. Allow it to cool completely (once it’s finished cooking I usually pour the jam into a new heatproof container, that seems to speed up the process a bit since you don’t have to wait for the pan to come back down to temperature) and then stir in your berries.
And that’s it!
Super simple, isn’t it?
Enjoy!
I used some of these strawberries to make a strawberry icebox cheesecake, that I shared over on TheSpruce.com, make sure you check that out, too! 🙂
Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
Ingredients
- 1 9-10" graham cracker crust prepared (click on link)
Strawberry topping
- 5-6 cups quartered strawberries, stems removed divided (840g)
- ½ cup sugar (100g)
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
Cream Cheese Layer
- 8 oz cream cheese softened (225g
- ½ cup powdered sugar (65g)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup heavy cream (235ml)
Instructions
- In small saucepan, combine 2 cups strawberries (280g), sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice over medium-low heat.
- Stir frequently until strawberries release their juices.
- Use a potato masher to crush the strawberries until mostly liquid (it's fine if small pieces are remaining).
- Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- Boil (still stirring constantly) for 1 minutes and remove from heat, place in new heat proof container to cool faster. Set aside while you prepare your cream cheese layer
- In a medium-sized bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until combined.
- In a separate, clean bowl, beat 1 cup heavy cream to stiff peaks
- Fold into cream cheese mixture -- the resulting mixture will be thick and fluffy.
- Spread evenly into prepared graham cracker crust and place in refrigerator while your strawberry mixture continues to cool.
- Once strawberry mixture has cooled completely, add remaining srawberries and stir well.
- Pour over cream cheese layer, piling/mounding strawberries towards the center.
- Return to refrigerator and allow to set at least 4 hours (preferably overnight) before slicing and serving.
Nutrition
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Megan
Do you need to bake the crust before filling?
Sam
Hi Megan! You do not need to bake the crust here. 🙂
Nic V
Five stars for this rich strawberry dessert. Recipe definitely worth keeping, sharing and making again!
Prep was somewhat tedious with the seperate topping and filling recipes and took me a good hour from start to end, but well worth it.
I ended up using only three cups of strawberries total instead of the five to six cups the recipe called for; I used two cups to mash and cook and one cup for the quartered pieces that were stirred into the cooked mash, and that was plenty for me as I had bought a pre-made Graham cracker crust that was only 8″, so not as much surface area to cover, which worked out perfectly for me.
All in all, definitely worth making again.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Nic! 🙂
Verley Howard
So easy and delicious
Laura Braunstein
My whole family loved this. Absolutely delicious!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Laura! 🙂
Theresa L Jones
Amazing pie I made it lasy year and everyone loved it. I just made two the other day and one is already demolished.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone has enjoyed it so much, Theresa! 🙂
Karen
So good! And much easier than “real” cheesecake. Brown sugar in the crust was a great idea. Thanks.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Karen! 🙂
Leslie
This pie is so good that it’s only two weeks later and I’m making more!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Leslie! 🙂
Maggie
Fantastic! This was easy to make and tastes exactly like my favourite store-bought cheesecakes! Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Maggie! 🙂
Miriam Rose Blanar
This pie was a hit! I made it for church potluck and it was literally gone in less than 10 mins!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Miriam! 🙂
Rachel
This was a hit with everyone in our family! Thanks for another winning recipe!!
Shazia Isemann
My kids all time favorite. There is always a fight over the last piece 😊 too good .
Eva
This is the only recipe I have bookmarked on my browser and have used it for years. It’s simply delightful to serve and easy to make. I often mix up the strawberries with other berries I have on hand (raspberries and blackberries are great!) and have even used this as a base for a peach only cream cheese pie. Thanks for a clear, concise, and delicious recipe!
Sam
I am so honored, Eva! I’m so glad you have enjoyed it so much! I love the sound of using blackberries and raspberries. 🙂
Carrie
I’m readying to make this tomorrow for guests arriving on Friday. I love a cream cheese and berry pie. Thank you for this recipe! I am making the graham cracker crust from scratch. Does it require baking? I couldn’t find the answer in the recipe.
Thank you!
Sam
Hi Carrie! Baking is not necessary here. I would just place the crust in the refrigerator while you make the filling to give it a little time to firm up. 🙂
Kim
Wow. This pie is beyond good. I used a store bought Graham cracker crust because I already had it and it tasted great. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Kim! 🙂
AJ
For a little added calories I made a whipped cream topping and piped it around the edges of the pie, the second one I made I piped it over the whole pie and the third one I did the edges and in the center. No one cared how the topping was piped on so whatever you do will be fine. Easy to make and everyone loved and today I’m making my fourth one. After the first one I also used two packages of cream cheese since my pie dish is 2 inches deep filled it up much better.
Sam
I love the sound of the extra whipped cream on top! I’m so glad everyone has enjoyed it so much! 🙂
susan glatfelter
Can I use half and half instead of heavy whipping cream? If so, how much would yousuggest?
Sam
Hi Susan! Unfortunately I don’t think it will work here. You need to whip it to stiff peaks and the half and half won’t whip quite the same. 🙁
Sue
Recipe was awesome. I know half-and-half will not become Stiff
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂