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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Patty Merritt
I went to the store and forgot lemon juice?!? Can I make it without it??
Sam
Hi Patty! Yes it should still work without the lemon juice. 🙂
Rebecca Wood
As good as it looks!
Lorraine
Made this at many gatherings, and is always a favorite. Stay safe everyone
Kelly
Hi Sam,
This Strawberry Pie was a big hit at Thanksgiving this year. I think my family will now be asking for this at every family gathering. 🌻
Kelly
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that the pie was such a hit, Kelly. Thanks so much for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Dottie
Is there any way to reduce the calories in this?
Sam
Hi Dottie! Looks like the calories had calculated incorrectly. I’ve updated the nutrition information.
Ava Bodnar
Could I use canned strawberries??
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Ava! Canned Strawberries should be fine. I hope that you enjoy the Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie! 🙂
Becky Terrell
I need this tomorrow at 3pm. Should I make it today or in the morning?
I thought about making it all today, but not adding the strawberries & glaze till tomorrow.
What would you do?
Sam
Honestly either will be completely fine, so you can’t go wrong either way. I hope you love the pie, Becky!
Rustic Roots Renewed
Thank you for making something without artificial ingredients like condensed milk or Jell-O.
Sugar Spun Run
You’re very welcome, Rebecca! I hope that you enjoyed the Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie! 🙂
JRaynes
I’m going to try a flour, sugar, salt, & oil w some milk mixed in plus vanilla recipe for the crust. You mix it right in the pie pan and then shape it with your hands. I’ve had people ask me if it is a lard crust! I’ll let you know how it tastes with your yummy recipe on top of it!
Sam
Good luck! 🙂
Lorraine
Hi Sam, I used this recipe for a pizza instead of a pie.
Everyone loved it.
Thank you ❤👍
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Lorraine! 🙂
Sandy
Can I use cool whip or whipped evaporated milk
Sam
I suppose you could get away with substituting the heavy whipped cream/powdered sugar/vanilla with cool whip. You would need about 2 cups of Cool whip.
Ginette
Can part of this pie be frozen?
Sam
Hi Ginette! I have not tried it, but I think it should work. 🙂
Charlotte
Job i love his recipe so much thanks for sharing! I have a question though. Cld u use raspberries instead of strawberries..? Bc I have SO MANY raspberries lol. Thanks again!
Sam
Hi Charlotte! I think raspberries would work great here. 🙂
Alex
Could you use blueberries?
Sam
That shouldn’t be a problem 🙂
Amanda
Made this recipe last Independence day for a pie contest! It was a winner! Coming back again to make it for our celebrations this year. Thanks for such a delicious and relatively simple recipe. My ten year old was able to help with quite a bit of it, too!
Sam
I am so happy to hear that it was a winner for you, Amanda! Hopefully this years is just as much of a success. 🙂
Marc
Just made this for a bbq tomorrow. When I got to the step of mixing the cream cheese and folding in the whipped cream, they didn’t exactly mix well together. It looked like the cream cheese mix was too thick to incorporate into the whipped cream and was a little “chunky” looking as I spread it in the crust. Is this normal? The pie looks great, looking forward to trying it tomorrow. Thanks for posting!
Sam
Hi Marc! Make sure you have the cream cheese/powdered sugar/vanilla well beaten so that it’s smooth and creamy before incorporating the whipped cream, and if you need to use an electric mixer on low speed to get the cream cheese mixture & whipped cream to combine nicely that’s totally fine. I hope that helps!
Marc
It tasted delicious. Everyone loved it! Myself included. I think I was the only one who noticed a bit of the inconsistent cream cheese layer. I’m making it again today for a going away party tomorrow. Will take your suggestion. I’m also adding bananas under the strawberry layer.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear it! I love the sound of the banana addition, too! 🙂
Barbara
Delicious…My favorite strawberry pie recipe. I make this every year!
Sam
I’m so glad to hear this! Thanks for commenting, Barbara!
Athena
I’m making thos right now. Do you make the crust? Thank you for a fabulous sounding recipe!
Sam
Yup! I use this graham cracker crust recipe. Enjoy 🙂