Make a no bake strawberry delight (also known as strawberry yum yum or strawberry lush) with an easy homemade sauce, a sweet cream cheese filling, and a buttery pecan crust. This is a classic layered dessert made without Jell-O, and it tastes just like the one Grandma used to make. This easy-as-pie dessert needs to be on your holiday dinner table, and it’s always the first to disappear at a potluck!
This old fashioned strawberry delight is just one of those nostalgic potluck desserts that I always find myself coming back to. Depending on what’s in season, you can also switch things up with so many other flavors, my favorites including blueberry yum yum and peach delight dessert. I even make a pumpkin delight for Thanksgiving!
I first learned how to make this recipe from my mom. No matter the occasion, she always made my dad’s favorite “cherry crunch”, which was really just a no bake cherry delight. I love any no bake dessert, but cherries aren’t really my favorite, so my go-to has always been to make it with fresh strawberries instead.
What You’ll Love My Strawberry Delight Recipe
- I’ll show you how to make a simple and easy homemade strawberry sauce on the stovetop with NO Jello. I find taking a few minutes to make a homemade sauce with real strawberries provides a bright, luscious flavor that boxed gelatin mix just can’t replicate.
- What sets this recipe apart is that it uses my famous no-roll pecan pie crust. While the crust is baked ahead of time to give it a toasted, nutty flavor and a sturdy crunch, the rest of the dessert is no bake. The pecan pie crust provides the perfect salty-sweet contrast to the sweet cream cheese filling!
- Strawberry delight is actually best served chilled, so you can make it ahead of time. This makes it a stress-free potluck or holiday dessert.
Ingredients and Substitutions Notes
- Pecan Crust – To make my pecan pie crust, you’ll need salted butter, all-purpose flour, and chopped pecans. Alternatively, you can also buy a store bought pie crust, press pecans into the bottom, and bake it according to package directions.
- Strawberries – I recommend fresh strawberries for the best flavor, but you can also use frozen strawberries. If your frozen strawberries are not already sliced, I’d go ahead and slice them before they’ve fully thawed. Then let them thaw completely, and drain out the juices before using them to make this strawberry delight dessert.
- Cornstarch – This recipe uses cornstarch as a thickening agent for the homemade strawberry sauce.
- Cream Cheese – Use full-fat cream cheese for this recipe. Be sure to let your cream cheese set out and soften for a little bit before mixing up the filling.
- Cool Whip – This recipe calls for Cool Whip just because it’s easy, but I’ve also often made strawberry yum yum with Dream Whip instead. I don’t recommend using whipped cream, because my experience has been that it will get all melty and make for a runny filling.
No Bake Crust Alternatives
You don’t have to make strawberry delight with a pecan crust. Here are a few other options if you’d rather have a no bake crust.
- Graham Cracker Crust – Use graham cracker crumbs to make a graham cracker crust for this dessert. You can even take one reader’s suggestion and line the graham cracker crust with sliced bananas.
- Pecan Sandies Crust – Make it like you would a graham cracker crust, only with Pecan Sandies.
- Vanilla Wafer Crust – Make a Nilla Wafer crust just like you would a graham cracker crust, or just layer Vanilla Wafers in the bottom of the pan for a crust.
How to Make Strawberry Yum Yum
We’ll start with the crust. Then we’ll make the strawberry topping so it has time to cool, and in the meantime we’ll work on the cream cheese filling.
How to Make the Pecan Crust
I like to make the my favorite nutty pie crust ahead of time, and that way it’s cooled and ready to go when I need it.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the melted butter and flour, forming a soft dough.
- Stir the chopped pecans into the dough until they’re all mixed in.
- Press the dough into a 9×13 baking dish.
- Bake at 350° F for about 20 minutes, or until the edges of the crust begin to turn a nice golden brown (baking times can vary). Then let the crust cool before adding any filling.
How to Make the Homemade Strawberry Sauce
Before making your strawberry sauce, you’ll need to stem and slice up your strawberries. If they’re frozen, try to slice them while they’re still partially frozen, and then let them thaw completely before draining and making the recipe.
- Start by making strawberry purée. Add 1-2 cups of fresh strawberries to a blender, and blend into a liquid purée; you’ll need 1 cup strawberry purée. Set the rest of the sliced strawberries aside for now.
- Whisk the corn starch and water together in a small Pyrex measuring cup.
- Add the corn starch mixture, strawberry purée, and sugar to a large saucepan and whisk ’til combined.
- Bring the strawberry mixture to a boil over low to medium heat, and boil for a good 3 to 5 minutes, or until it really thickens up and becomes a deep red color. Then remove it from the heat and allow it to cool completely.
Make the Cream Cheese Filling
You can use either Cool Whip or prepared Dream Whip in this recipe. I typically use Cool Whip for convenience, but Dream Whip does give a slightly lighter texture. If you choose Dream Whip, here’s a quick tutorial for how to make Dream Whip.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese by itself ’til smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and Cool Whip, whisking ’til the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Spread the mixture on top of the prepared crust with a rubber spatula.
How to Layer This No Bake Dessert
- Once the strawberry sauce has cooled, mix it together with the rest of the sliced strawberries you set aside earlier.
- Then spread the strawberry layer on top of the Dream Whip filling.
- Cover the assembled dessert with plastic wrap, and allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before serving.
When it’s ready to serve, you can top off strawberry delight with a dollop of whipped cream and an optional garnish like a fresh sprig of mint. This yummy strawberry yum yum dessert is full of thick but distinct layers of fluffy, creamy deliciousness!
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ’s
The key to getting a clean, picture-perfect slice of strawberry delight is to make sure that it is thoroughly chilled before slicing. Slice it cold, and wipe off both the knife and your spatula with a damp cloth in between each piece.
This can be for a few reasons. For one, it’s possible to over-mix the cream cheese filling, causing the powdered sugar to draw moisture out of the cream cheese. I’d also make sure that you’re using a full-fat, brick-style cream cheese, because low-fat cream cheese will also become runny. All that said, the most common culprit is that your strawberry topping is leaking down into the cream cheese layer, making it runny. To fix this, make sure to cook the sauce down until it’s properly thickened, and use washed and dried fresh strawberries.
The best way to store strawberry delight is in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator, where it should keep for 2-3 days.
Yes, you can freeze strawberry delight. In fact, you can freeze it either before or after you add the berry topping. Freeze it in an airtight container so it doesn’t get freezer burn, or cover with a layer of plastic wrapped and then a layer of aluminum foil. It should last up to 3 months in the freezer.
More Fresh Strawberry Desserts
If you love this strawberry yum yum dessert, you’ll love these strawberry desserts too!
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Strawberry Delight
Ingredients
Pecan Crust:
- 12 tablespoons salted butter melted
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pecans chopped
Strawberry Topping:
- 8 cups strawberries sliced
- 2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup cane sugar
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 16 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups Cool Whip (or Dream Whip)
Instructions
Pecan Crust:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350° F.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the melted butter and flour, forming a soft dough.
- Stir the chopped pecans into the dough until they’re all mixed in.
- Press the dough into a 9×13 baking dish.
- Bake at 350° F for about 20 minutes, or until the edges of the crust begin to turn a nice golden brown (oven times may vary). Then let the crust cool before adding any filling.
Strawberry Topping:
- First make strawberry purée by adding 1-2 cups fresh strawberries to a blender and blend into a liquid purée; you'll need 1 cup strawberry purée. Set the rest of the sliced strawberries aside for now.
- Whisk the corn starch and water together in a small glass measuring cup or small bowl.
- Add the corn starch mixture, strawberry purée, and sugar to a large sauce pan and whisk 'til combined.
- Bring the strawberry mixture to a boil over low to medium heat, and boil for a good 3 to 5 minutes, or until it thickens and becomes a deep red color. Then remove it from the heat and allow it to cool completely.*
Cream Cheese Filling:
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese by itself 'til smooth. An electric hand mixer makes this step easier.
- Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and Cool Whip, whisking 'til the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Spread the mixture on top of the prepared crust with a rubber spatula.
Layer the Strawberry Topping:
- Once the strawberry sauce has cooled, mix it together with the rest of the sliced strawberries you set aside earlier.
- Then spread the strawberry layer on top of the cream cheese filling.
- Cover the assembled dessert with plastic wrap, and allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight if possible, before serving.
- When ready to serve, you can add an extra dollop of whipped topping to each serving if desired.
So good!! My family loved it!! I made a graham cracker crust because we prefer that. I will add more strawberries next time. But this was worth dirtying all my mixing bowls🤣🙌
If you halve the recipe for a two person sized dessert, do you think it would be 8×8?
Linda, that sounds about right.
I was ready to print out this recipe to make for a luncheon, but the list of equipment and other unnecessary info at the beginning was going to use up far too many pages of printing. Regrettably, I went in search of another site.
Elli, I’m sorry you had so much trouble. Keep in mind that most printers give you the option to deselect unnecessary pages. Hope this helps!
Can you make strawberry purée with strawberry glaze instead
That’s basically what this recipe is, with a pecan nut crust and cream cheese base. It’s very delicious!
The dream whip filling turned out very runny, not thick at all. Anything I could have done differently? It tasted good but wont be making again unless I could get the filling to be not so runny.
Kris, I’m not sure why it would have done this. Mine is always a thick, creamy filling. It does tend to be just a bit runny if not refrigerated before serving.
I was wondering how much heavy whipping cream or cool whip to substitute for the 2 packages of dream whip?
Melissa, I wouldn’t recommend making it with heavy whipping cream. It did not work out well for me when I tried it. But I have read others saying that Cool Whip turned out fine. I believe it would be about 4 cups you’d need to use.
How many fresh strawberries do I use to make the purée
Audrey, I usually just guess; I think I probably use a good 2 cups of strawberries, so maybe a dozen or more, depending on the size of your berries.