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 and baked (click on link)
Strawberry topping
- 5-6 cups (840 g) quartered strawberries, stems removed divided
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
Cream Cheese Layer
- 8 oz (225 g) cream cheese softened
- ½ cup (65 g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (235 ml) heavy cream
Instructions
- In small saucepan, combine 2 cups (280g) strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice over medium-low heat.½ cup (100 g) sugar, 2 Tbsp cornstarch, 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 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.8 oz (225 g) cream cheese, ½ cup (65 g) powdered sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, clean bowl, beat 1 cup heavy cream to stiff peaks1 cup (235 ml) heavy cream
- 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.1 9-10" graham cracker crust
- Once strawberry mixture has cooled completely, add the 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
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Bethany
Going to make this today and so excited! Quick Q- do you need to bake the graham cracker crust? I know the rest of the pie is no bake but didn’t see where the crust was or not?
-Beth
Sam
Hi Beth! No need to bake (though you can bake and then cool completely if you’d like). The crust will firm up in the fridge. Enjoy! 🙂
Bethani
I made this pie just last night!!! I came across your strawberry cream cheese pie when I asked Google what to do with the ridiculous amount of strawberries🍓 I ended up with after a day of “pickin” LOL and this recipe had me at No Bake!! (I live in AZ and the summer heat makes it awful just thinking about having to turn on the oven!) I must say, it turned out better than expected! Except, the strawberry sauce topping didn’t turn out. And I have No idea why… ☹ I’ll try it again soon b/c I definitely have enough strawberries lol. But, maybe you can give me some advice on the sauce or another recipe?? Even without the strawberries this was still an amazing pie! Everyone who tried it loved it too! Thank you so much!!!! You have so many recipes I cant wait to try out!!
Sam
Haha, I am so glad to hear Google sent you my way! What didn’t quite turn out with the topping, maybe I can help troubleshoot with that?
Beth
Hi! I love this recipe, can’t wait to make it! Could I make the pie ahead of time, and freeze pie for another day?
Sam
Hi Beth! Honestly I’ve never frozen this pie, but I think it would work. Enjoy!
Gloria Mitchell
Can you use strawberry pie filling in place of fresh strawberries in the strawberry cream cheese pie?
Sam
Yup! That would be fine. Enjoy, Gloria!
Brittney
Can I do a layer of crust on top as well & put in oven or is this a bad idea
Sam
Hmm, I’d be worried about the cream cheese layer being baked, I don’t think I’d recommend it unfortunately.
Thomas Blasko
I want to make a sweet gel that you mix the strawberries into to put into the crust
Lynn
Hi making this for my son’s bday. But he doesn’t like Graham cracker can I prepare a regular pie crust?
Sam
Hi Lynn! Yes, that will be fine, here is my favorite pie crust recipe if you want to try that one. Enjoy!
JoAnn
I make a frozen blueberry pie. Same except substitute strawberries for blueberries. I mix cream and cream cheese together and then fold in cooled strawberries. Pour into pie shell and freeze. No berries on top.
Sam
I bet it’s awesome with blueberries too! 🙂
Kimmy
About how long does the strawberry mixture take to cool to top the pie? Just curious how long it will take me to make the pie altogether. Thanks!
Sam
Hi Kimmy! I would plan on about an hour for it to cool. 🙂
Grace Hanners
I sat the pot in a bowl of ice water. It was cool in less than 10 minutes.
Stephanie Thompson
I have made this pie twice & everyone loves it!! It is called the Crack Strawberry pie!!! Used a store bought graham cracker crust, but will make one myself next time. This ones a keeper!!
Sam
I like the name! I am so glad everyone is enjoying the pie, Stephanie! 🙂
Barbara Reed
Love it being so simple to make.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Barbara!
Lawanda DANGERFIELD
I have a question. It called for 5 to 6 cups of strawberries but it says to mash 2 cups to make the liquid do you mix the other 3 in the jelly mixture?
Sam
Hi Lawanda, see step 10 🙂
Cindy Koessler
First of all this is wonderful. I have 2 questions: first mine looked so bad but tasted great. I’m wondering if blending mixture instead of mashing and adding more strawberries at the end would work and make it prettier? Also I would like to try a lower sugar version, have you tried using Splenda or another sweetener instead of the sugars? Thanks so much for this great recipe.
Sam
Hi Cindy! I am not sure what happened and I’m sorry it wasn’t as pretty as you’d like. You could blend the entire mixture, but it would be a lot runnier that way. I have not tried a sweetener substitution in this recipe. If you try it again, I’d love to know how it turns out. 🙂
Edie
Made this pie for “pi day” contest at work yesterday and won!
Sam
That’s awesome, Edie! I am so glad everyone enjoyed it! 🙂
Annette
When making this no bake cheesecake can I add coconut flakes to the cheesecake batter and then top it with the strwaberry topping. The reason why I ask this is because I love love coconut and I love love strawberries so I figure I could probably do a coconut strawberry no bake cheese cake.
Sam
I think that would be delicious! Just stir them in after you’ve folded together your heavy cream/cream cheese mixture (after step 8) and you should be good to go! Enjoy! 🙂
Lorraine cheng
how long ahead can I make this pie? does it stay okay for a couple days?
Sam
A couple of days in the refrigerator would be just fine. ☺️
Debbie
Im thinking the same as Cindy and not mashing just cut up in small pieces then fill in with rest of strawberries to make it prettier. I think i will try that. Thank you