This is truly the most perfect and easy no-bake cheesecake. By following this no-bake cheesecake recipe, you’ll be gifted with a smooth and creamy dessert that sets up beautifully in the refrigerator. Unlike regular cheesecake, no-bake cheesecake isn’t overly heavy. It’s lightly sweet and perfectly refreshing!
I never tasted no-bake cheesecake until last year because I had my doubts.
- What’s the point of cheesecake if you aren’t baking it?
- Doesn’t it just taste like cream cheese?
- How is it firm enough?
- And, most importantly, does it taste like goo?
These are very serious questions you might consider before making it, especially the goo one. But after making real no-bake cheesecake and tasting the final results, I’m here to declare that no-bake cheesecake should be everyone’s dessert obsession. My husband, who “doesn’t like cheesecake,” went back for seconds. This stuff is GOOD.
The Kitchn ranked this recipe first place in its no-bake cheesecake recipe showdown, with a score of 10/10! They said: “The thing that sets this recipe apart is its rich, full-on cheesecake flavor. It’s not too sweet and full of cream cheese goodness. … Slices of this cheesecake are tall, gorgeous, and very impressive, and the flavor lives up to the appearance. It’s a dessert you’d be proud to serve your friends and family.”
Let’s Rewind. What Is No-Bake Cheesecake?
No-bake cheesecake is exactly what the name suggests. The graham cracker crust and cheesecake filling never see the inside of the oven, so it’s a fantastic dessert when the weather’s warm or when your oven is crowded. Or when you don’t feel like baking. 😉
No-bake cheesecake is a lot easier than baked cheesecake. Without eggs and baking, there is virtually ZERO room for error. Traditional cheesecake runs the risk of over-beating the eggs, over-baking, under-baking, and cheesecake cracking. And if you’re using a cheesecake water bath, which I always recommend, your springform pan could leak. With no-bake cheesecake, we’re essentially cutting every single complicated step!
What it lacks in oven time, it makes up for in taste and texture:
- Thick, buttery, and crunchy graham cracker crust
- Smooth, creamy, and velvet-rich cheesecake filling
It’s totally worth mentioning that the filling tastes like cheesecake mousse!
4 Minute Video Tutorial:
Thick & Sturdy Graham Cracker Crust
This is a no-bake graham cracker crust. It’s thick, crunchy, and sets up beautifully… even without baking! There are only 3 ingredients required: graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and brown sugar. I usually use granulated sugar in graham cracker crust, but prefer brown sugar in this recipe. The moisture in brown sugar helps solidify the crust. Pack it into a 9-inch springform pan, then place in the freezer while you prepare the filling.
How to Make Perfect No-Bake Cheesecake
Like I mention above, this no-bake cheesecake recipe is very easy. The process is similar to how we make strawberry cream cheese pie. Beat the filling ingredients together, then spread into your graham cracker crust and refrigerate until set. That’s it! The cheesecake filling is made in 2 bowls. In the 1st bowl, beat heavy cream into stiff peaks. In the 2nd bowl, beat the remaining ingredients. Fold everything together. Here are the cheesecake filling ingredients. Each has a job to perform!
- Heavy Cream: Beating heavy cream into stiff peaks most important step in this entire recipe and *the secret* to a thick no-bake cheesecake filling.
- Cream Cheese: Make sure you use bricks of real cream cheese, not cream cheese spread. I tested with varying amounts and 24 ounces (three 8 ounce bricks) produced a thick, yet creamy cheesecake filling. Make sure it’s room temperature.
- Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar breaks down the cream cheese. It’s easy to go overboard on sugar, but keep it light. Less sugar helps the tangy cream cheese and vanilla flavors stand out.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: A smidge of confectioners’ sugar thickens the filling, while also keeping it light. I tested with flour and cornstarch and both left a chalky aftertaste. I recommend sticking with confectioners’ sugar.
- Sour Cream: Add a little sour cream for that trademark tangy cheesecake flavor.
- Vanilla Extract & Lemon Juice: A splash of both flavors add a little something special.
How to Thicken No-Bake Cheesecake
These 2 important steps guarantee a thick no-bake cheesecake filling. Without 1 or 2, you’ll be eating cheesecake soup. (It’s not pretty.)
- As mentioned, the most important step is to beat cold heavy cream into peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the cheesecake filling gently so you don’t deflate the air. The air creates a delicious mousse-like consistency and solidifies the filling in the refrigerator.
- Refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 6-8 hours, but overnight is better. For a sturdy no-bake cheesecake with beautifully neat slices, refrigerate for at least 12 hours. This makes for a great make-ahead dessert! Do not freeze the cheesecake to set it. The filling won’t slice and you’ll lose the velvet texture!
Speaking of beautiful slices, make sure you smooth the filling into the crust. I like using a large or small offset spatula to make the job easier. After refrigerating, decorate with whipped cream, lemon curd, strawberry sauce, raspberry sauce, blueberry sauce, fresh berries, and/or salted caramel. But if you’re a cheesecake purist, all you need is a fork. 🙂
Can I Make Mini No-Bake Cheesecakes?
Yes! See my mini no bake cheesecakes, which are made in a standard muffin pan.
Let’s Talk About Freezing No-Bake Cheesecake
I don’t recommend freezing no-bake cheesecake to set it—you really need to use the refrigerator for that step. And trust me, it’s worth the wait.
However, you can freeze the cheesecake to enjoy at a later time. After it sets in the refrigerator, wrap the whole pan (you can remove the sides if desired) in 1 layer of plastic wrap, then 1 layer of aluminum foil. No-bake cheesecake freezes wonderfully for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, then slice and serve.
With the make-ahead components of this recipe (whether waiting for it to set or freezing ahead of time), it’s great choice for your menu of Easter dessert recipes or any time you have company. Take care of all the hard work ahead of time, then sit back, relax, and enjoy a slice (or two) of cheesecake with your family and friends!
When it’s time to serve, I’m always shocked that the crust and filling don’t fall apart. Follow this recipe for success. Would LOVE to know if you try it!
More Cheesecake Desserts
- Classic Cheesecake
- Mini Cheesecakes
- Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake
- How to Prevent Cracks in Cheesecake
- White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
- Snickers Cheesecake
- Cheesecake Pie
- Lemon Cheesecake
I have an entire cheesecake recipes category, too!
Print
No-Bake Cheesecake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 8 hours, 20 minutes
- Yield: serves 10-12
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Whipping
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is truly the most perfect and easy no-bake cheesecake. By following this no-bake cheesecake recipe, you’ll be gifted with a smooth, light, and creamy dessert that sets up beautifully in the refrigerator. The most important steps are whipping the heavy cream into stiff peaks before folding into the filling, and refrigerating the cheesecake overnight.
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 2 cups (240g) graham cracker crumbs (about 16 full sheet graham crackers)
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, melted
Cheesecake
- 1 and 1/4 cups (300ml) heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
- 24 ounces (678g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (15g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the crust: Stir the graham cracker crust ingredients together. Pour into a 9-inch springform pan or 10-inch springform pan and pack in very tightly. The tighter it’s packed, the less likely it will fall apart when cutting the cheesecake. I recommend using the bottom of a measuring cup to pack it into the bottom and up the sides. You can watch me do this in the video above. Freeze for 10–20 minutes as you prepare the filling.
- Make the filling: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cold heavy cream into stiff peaks on medium-high speed, about 4–5 minutes. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar together on medium speed until perfectly smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the confectioners’ sugar, sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Beat for 2–3 minutes on medium-high speed until smooth and combined. Make sure there are no large lumps of cream cheese. If there are lumps, keep beating until smooth.
- Using your mixer on low speed or a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the cheesecake filling until combined. This takes several turns of your rubber spatula. Combine slowly as you don’t want to deflate all the air in the whipped cream.
- Remove crust from the freezer and spread filling into crust. Use an offset spatula to smooth down the top.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 6–8 hours and up to 2 days. For best results, 12 hours is best. I chill mine overnight. The longer refrigerated, the nicer the no-bake cheesecake will set up.
- Use a knife to loosen the chilled cheesecake from the rim of the springform pan, then remove the rim. Using a clean sharp knife, cut into slices for serving. For neat slices, wipe the knife clean between each slice.
- Serve cheesecake with desired toppings (see Note). Cover and store leftover cheesecake in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: This cheesecake can be made 1–2 days in advance. It can be refrigerated in step 6 for up to 2 days before serving. You can also make the crust 1–2 days ahead of time. Freeze for up to 1 hour in step 1, then cover tightly and refrigerate for 1–2 days before adding the filling. Another way to make this cheesecake ahead of time is to freeze it. Cheesecake can be frozen up to 3 months. See instructions in blog post above.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | 9-inch Springform Pan or 10-inch Springform Pan | Silicone Spatula | Offset Spatula
- Lemon Juice: Lemon juice brightens up the flavor. This cheesecake does not taste like lemon. For lemon-flavored no-bake cheesecake, remove the sour cream from the recipe and add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon lemon zest.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Bring the cream cheese and sour cream to room temperature before beginning. Room temperature ingredients guarantee a smooth cheesecake filling. Beating cold ingredients together will result in a chunky cheesecake filling. (The heavy cream, however, MUST be cold in order to whip into stiff peaks.)
- Toppings: Before serving, decorate with whipped cream, lemon curd, strawberry sauce, fresh berries, salted caramel, or your favorite cheesecake toppings. I used Ateco 849 piping tip for the whipped cream in the pictured cheesecake.
- Can I Make Mini No-Bake Cheesecakes? Yes, see my mini no bake cheesecakes, which are made in a standard muffin pan.
- Non-US Readers: Don’t have graham crackers where you live? Use 270g ground digestive biscuits instead (about 18 biscuits), the same amount of butter, and add a bit more brown sugar (about 1/2 cup, or 100g). And from what I understand, spreadable cream cheese sold in a tub in countries outside of the US is a little different from the spreadable cream cheese in the US. It’s thicker, sturdier, and more solid and should be OK to make cheesecake. I have no experience with it, but this is what I’ve heard from other non-US readers.
Adapted from All Recipes.
This was the first time I made a cheese cake and it was good
Forgot to rate
5 stars
This was delicious!
And yes, you are correct about stuff where you talk about outside US bakers.
Can this be made into a chocolate cheesecake
Hi Pam, We’re sure you could make a chocolate version, but we haven’t tried it. It would require some testing because we’re torn if we would use melted and cooled chocolate or cocoa powder. You could always top it with chocolate ganache and use an Oreo crust. You could also add up to 1 and 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips. Let us know what you try!
Your website is my absolute bible. This recipe is the best no bake cheesecake I ever tried. My family gets a new topping each time and are complimenting every time.
One question though, I tried adding pecan/caramel but in order to keep the caramel liquid enough, I have to reheat it which doesn’t work with the cold cheesecake. Any suggestion on this?
Love from France
Hi Emma, if using salted caramel, we’d recommend keeping it separate and adding to individual slices when serving. Salted caramel will start to solidify after some time, especially when in the refrigerator. Reheating the salted caramel and spooning it over individual pieces is the best way to go!
It’s not quite as tasty as other no bake cheesecakes I’ve made.. I’m an avid baker and followed directions to a T.. the filling tasted a bit bitter to me, maybe it’s the lemon juice. Also, we will be using maple sugar next time, it’s a much healthier option. I made this in the past and loved it, I think we added something to it to make it taste better, but I can’t remember what that was.. any suggestions?
Would this recipe still work if I folded in some crushed mini eggs into the filling? Thinking of making this more Easter-y. Thanks!
Hi Emily, we’ve added up to 1 and 1/4 cups of mini chocolate chips to this batter without any problems, so as long as your candy eggs are crushed into very small pieces, that should work! Let us know how it goes for you.
Extremely dairy-licious! Not for the dairy-intolerant but I sure did enjoy it.
it is the best resipe I ever had
Just wanted to let you know I substitutioned the heavy cream in this recipe for cool whip, and it came out just fine! They set perfectly. And it made the recipe even easier as I didn’t have to beat the cream to stiff peaks, the cool whip is already light and fluffy. I made this recipe for my assisted living residents and they loved it! Thank you so much Sally for this easy and delicious recipe!
Thank you for sharing, this will be helpful to readers! I appreciate it.
Amazing!
This was outstanding. I did it deconstruction method. Made the crust and left out on counter. Made filling and refrigerated overnight. When it was time to serve, I put a large dollop of filling on a plate, topped with strawberry compote or lemon curd, and topped with the crust. Bingo. So easy and quick. Passion fruit curd coming next. Nobody knew it was a no-bake. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi, can I use this as filling between cake layers? What modifications would I need to make it hold weight of cake layer? Add no flavor gelatin powder?
Hi Nadia, We don’t recommend this no bake cheesecake as a sturdy layer between or under cakes. But you could try creating a dam with buttercream around the edges of the cake, then lightly filling the inside with this cheesecake filling, so that it doesn’t come out the edges. Let us know what you try!
Can you fold fresh blueberries into this and still have it set up for a fresh blueberry cheesecake?
Hi Melissa, we don’t recommend adding fresh fruit, generally. It would change the consistency of the filling and likely prevent it from setting properly. If you’re interested, we do have this blueberry cream cheese pie recipe, which includes a light, whipped cheesecake-like filling with a blueberry sauce on top. Let us know if you give it a try!
Can this filling be used in a parfait layered with graham cracker crust and strawberry filling?
Hi Kim, you can, or try the filling from these no-bake cheesecake jars!
I’ve made this several times before and I loved it. What I’m curious about is how to turn it into a cookies and cream cheesecake? Right now I imagine just making the filling how it is and then adding cookies into would work?I am concerned that might ruin the texture or that it might not set properly? Alternatively I considered just making an Oreo pie crust and then topping it with crushed cookies? Which would you recommend
Hi Allison, you could make an Oreo crust and add crushed Oreos to the batter, but we haven’t tested it ourselves. You could also try this recipe for Cookies and Cream Pie instead!
Love this recipe. I made a batch and added Oreo and made a simple Oreo crust with just Oreos and butter. Turned out great! Also made a batch with banana cream instant pudding mixed in, and made a crust with vanilla wafers and butter and salt. Also turned out great! I put them in little jars for easy snacks throughout the week or a sweet treat to add to our lunches for work.
OMG thank you so much for this recipe. This is hands down the best homemade cheesecake I’ve ever made! I did tweak the ingredients a little on my end but, when I cut a slice it looked perfect and tested even better.
Waist of time and ingredients! Runny and nothing like cheesecake! Disappointed
Maybe try following the recipe meat.
I loved the cheese cake and the recipe was easy to follow. The best cheese cake i have ever had. Just one question, the biscuit base was leaking ? What can i do to rectify it ?
Hi Umang, so glad you enjoyed this cheesecake. It seems strange that a no-bake cheesecake would leak, but the springform pan the root of the issue. You can try wrapping it with aluminum foil around the outside.
Hiii 🙂 I was wondering how I could turn this into a lemon cheesecake that isn’t too sour or overwhelming, a subtle lemon flavor, but present enough to taste like a lemon cheesecake. Do you recommend I add some lemon zest? If yes, then how much? Thank you 🙂
Hi Khushi! See recipe Notes for details on making a lemon no-bake cheesecake: For lemon-flavored no-bake cheesecake, remove the sour cream from the recipe and add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon lemon zest.
I am in Canada and our “whipping cream” is 35%.
Is this the same as your “heavy cream / heavy whipping cream” ?
I want to make sure it will set properly.
Hi Christine! Our heavy cream/ heavy whipping cream is 36%, so yes, that should work just fine!
It reminded me of a rather superior cream cheese icing. Having said that, the icing is the only reason I eat carrot cake.
Conversely, of the people I made it for, 3 of them rated it the best cheesecake ever. One young man went so far as to give it “200 out of 10”.
Yep, I’ll make it again, in fact I just did.
Could I divide this between two 6 inch pans ?
Hi S, yes, and if you have any leftover batter, you can make a few mini no-bake cheesecakes on the side. Enjoy!
If I was to make this into a 10” cheesecake would I add an extra 8oz of cream cheese and increase the whipping cream?
Hi Jody, you can stretch this recipe as it to fit a 10-inch springform pan. The slices will just be a little thinner/shorter.
So easy to make. Topped it with a blueberry sauce. Everyone loved it.