How to make an easy no bake lemon Dream Whip pie recipe with cream cheese and a graham cracker crust in 10 minutes or less. This old fashioned dessert is so light and refreshing for the spring and summer months, and it’s chock full of bright, lemony citrus flavor!
Dream Whip lemon pie is pretty similar to my Jello no bake cheesecake, except it uses Dream Whip instead of whipped cream. While as most lemon pie recipes on the internet use whipped cream, Cool Whip, or some other prepared whipped topping from the store, I’ve found that Dream Whip lends a lighter, fluffier texture to this particular no bake dessert. It’s also cheaper, and it takes less than 5 minutes to whip up!
This Dream Whip pie is truly no bake. Just spoon the lemon filling into a pre-baked graham cracker crust from the grocery store, and let it chill. Take it to the next potluck, picnic, or 4th of July party. Heck, you can just serve it up as an easy after-dinner summer dessert with a big cup of iced tea!
Ingredients & Substitutions Notes
- Dream Whip – I’ve used Dream Whip mix for no bake desserts for a long time now. If you can’t find this old time dessert topping at your local grocery store, I recommend substituting with Cool Whip instead.
- Milk – I always use whole milk, but 2% milk or even skim milk will work as well. This recipe is not picky, so just use whatever you have on hand!
- Vanilla Extract – I always recommend 100% real vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Cream Cheese – Dream Whip is super fluffy, so much so that I like to balance things out with a little bit of cream cheese. This lends a nice creamy texture to this cream cheese Dream Whip pie!
- Lemon Instant Pudding Mix – You’ll want a packet of Jell-O lemon instant pudding mix for this recipe. I use pudding mix for quite a few of my favorite recipes, including my family’s favorite lemon poke cake, and so I like to keep a good stock on hand for whenever I need it.
- Graham Cracker Crust – For the sake of ease and to make this a true no bake dessert, I recommend using a store bought graham cracker crust. If you’d rather make your own, here’s how to make a homemade graham cracker crust. It’s up to you!
How to Make Lemon Dream Whip Pie Recipe
Before getting started, you’ll need to prep your graham cracker crust. If you’re using a store bought crust, just make sure it’s thawed out and ready to go. If you’re making a homemade graham cracker crust, mix everything together, and press it out into your pie plate.
Mix Up the No Bake Lemon Filling With Cream Cheese
- Start by whipping the cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, ’til soft and creamy.
- In a separate large bowl, beat the Dream Whip, 1/2 cup of milk and vanilla on high speed for 5-6 minutes, ’til soft peaks form.
- In another bowl, beat the lemon pudding mix, 1 cup of milk and lemon juice on high speed for 1 minute.
- Finally, add the whipped cream cheese and Dream Whip mixture to the pudding mix mixture, beating on high for another 1-2 minutes.
How to Assemble Your Lemon Dream Whip Pie
- Once your lemon Dream Whip filling is mixed together, go ahead and spoon it into your prepared graham cracker crust. Don’t forget to scrape that bowl clean with a rubber scraper!
- Now your lemon Dream Whip pie is ready to chill in the refrigerator for about 4 hours, after which time the filling should have set and be fairly firm.
That’s it! Once your lemon Dream Whip pie has set in the refrigerator, it’s ready to serve. Top it off with a big dollop of homemade whipped cream and fresh lemon zest. Serve it up with a cold glass of iced tea, and you can have yourself the perfect old fashioned southern dessert!
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ’s
Yes, you can make this a dairy free lemon Dream Whip pie, although you will have to swap out quite a few ingredients. First, you’ll need a dairy free whipped topping. If you don’t mind a subtle coconut flavor, CocoWhip makes a great substitute for the Dream Whip. Otherwise, I recommend making your own homemade vegan whipped cream. Then you’ll need to swap out the regular milk with a plant-based milk, like coconut milk, almond milk, oat milk, soy milk or cashew milk. Use a dairy free cream cheese and a dairy free lemon pudding mix, and you should be good to go!
This has never been an issue for me so long as I whip the Dream Whip filling sufficiently. Assuming that you have followed the recipe instructions to a tee, and you haven’t added too much milk, the solution to this problem is to simply whip up the Dream Whip pie filling even more with an electric hand mixer. Remember, you want to whip the Dream Whip ’til soft peaks form.
Lemon Dream Whip pie is best stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I recommend storing it in airtight container, but you can also cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
Yes, you can freeze lemon Dream Whip pie. In fact, some people prefer to eat their no bake lemon pie frozen, as it can have more of an ice cream-like texture! Store it in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap, it should last in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Optional Add-Ins & Variations
- Top it off with fresh fruit! Blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries all go great with lemon flavor.
- You don’t have to use a graham cracker crust. This no bake pie would be really good with a chocolate cookie crust, shortbread pie crust or pecan pie crust. Even my favorite no-roll shortcut crust would work great for this recipe.
- Don’t care for lemon flavor? Swap out the lemon pudding mix with another flavor to make any flavor of Dream Whip pie you want. Think chocolate Dream Whip pie, butterscotch Dream Whip pie, vanilla Dream Whip pie, banana Dream Whip pie….You get the drift!
More Easy No Bake Desserts
- Strawberry Yum Yum Dessert
- Blueberry Yum Yum
- Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie
- Strawberry Cool Whip Pie
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
- How to Make Jello From the Box
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Lemon Dream Whip Pie
Ingredients
- 1 Graham Cracker Crust
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese
Dream Whip Mixture
- 1 envelope Dream Whip
- 1/2 cup Whole Milk
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Lemon Pudding Mixture
- 3 ounces Lemon Instant Pudding Mix
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 1/2 tablespoon Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Before getting started, you'll need to prep your graham cracker crust. If you're using a store bought crust, just make sure it's thawed out and ready to go. If you're making a homemade graham cracker crust, you'll want to get everything mixed together, and press it out into your pie plate.
- Start by whipping the cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, 'til soft and creamy.
- In a separate large bowl, beat the Dream Whip, 1/2 cup of milk and vanilla on high speed for 5-6 minutes, 'til soft peaks form.
- In another bowl, beat the lemon pudding mix, 1 cup of milk and lemon juice on high speed for 1 minute.
- Finally, add the whipped cream cheese and Dream Whip mixture to the pudding mix mixture, beating on high for another 1-2 minutes.
- Once your lemon Dream Whip filling is mixed together, go ahead and spoon it into your prepared graham cracker crust. Don't forget to scrape that bowl clean with a rubber scraper!
- Now your lemon Dream Whip pie is ready to chill in the refrigerator for about 4 hours, after which time the filling should have set and be fairly firm.
- That's it! Top it off with a big dollop of homemade whipped cream and fresh lemon zest. Serve it up with a cold glass of iced tea!
Not a lemony flavor, even though I added zest of 2 lemons. I think it’s the cream cheese. The original Dream Whip pie recipe does not have the cream cheese so I’m sticking with that.