Simple and easy strawberry delight recipe with berries, cream cheese, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and a pecan crust. Dreamy no bake dessert recipe!
Strawberry season is right around the corner, and I've got strawberries on the brain. While I love a good strawberry cream pie, my sweet tooth also loves strawberry yum yum with its strawberries and cream like filling.
This is one no bake strawberry dessert that's super easy to make. It doesn't take a lot of time.
It also requires no baking, depending on what type of crust you go with. Personally, I love making it with our favorite nutty pie crust, but you can also make it with an easy graham cracker crust.
It does require just a few minutes of stove time to prepare the strawberry filling, but trust me when I say, it's so worth it.
If you love no bake dessert recipes, you'll also love my blueberry delight and no bake pumpkin dessert, as well as cherry yum yum.
WHERE CAN I FIND THE ACTUAL RECIPE CARD?
If you’d rather skip all of my cooking tips, important cooking info for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the delicious creamy no bake strawberry dessert recipe – just scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find a printable recipe card.
INGREDIENTS YOU'LL NEED:
- Your favorite crust – We'll talk about crust options below.
- Corn starch
- Water
- Cane sugar – or granulated sugar
- Strawberry purée – Make strawberry purée by blending strawberries in a blender. It'll likely take 6-8 big strawberries to make 1 cup of strawberry purée.
- Strawberries
- Cream cheese
- Dream Whip
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar
Remember, all of the ingredient amounts you’ll need are in the printable recipe card below.
KITCHEN TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT YOU'LL NEED:
13″x9″ Baking Dish – You’ll need this size baking dish for this recipe. I find myself using this size for so many recipes, not just desserts.
Blender – for puréeing the berries.
Spatula – Where would I be without my spatulas? I have a whole slew of them because we’re ALWAYS using them.
Mixer – You’ll need a mixer to mix together the ingredients for the creamy filling.
HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY DELIGHT
We'll start with the crust. Then we'll make the strawberry filling and the Dream Whip cream cheese filling.
LET'S START WITH THE CRUST
So, first things first, you have to lay a foundation for your dessert. And that means, you need a crust.
If you choose to make my favorite pecan nut pie crust, it's so simple and easy and requires just a few minutes of bake time.
There are other pie crust options, though. For instance…
- Graham cracker crust
- Pecan Sandies crust – Make it like you would a graham cracker crust.
- Easy shortcut no-roll pie crust (without nuts)
- Vanilla Wafer crust or just Vanilla Wafers layered in the pan
- Buy a store bought crust and press pecans into it. (This would likely make a smaller pie.)
- Press crushed pretzels into the pie crust instead of pecans.
- Line a graham cracker crust with sliced bananas.
HOW TO MAKE FRESH STRAWBERRY PIE FILLING
The strawberry pie filling is probably my favorite part of this dessert, besides the cream cheese. It's quick and easy to make too.
Be sure to use fresh strawberries. They don't have near the amount of water that frozen berries will have. And they have better flavor.
- Whisk the corn starch and water together in a small Pyrex measuring cup.
- Add the corn starch mixture together with the sugar in a medium to large saucepan.
- Mix in the strawberry purée. Bring the mixture to a boil on low to medium heat, constantly stirring with a spatula to avoid scorching.
- Once the mixture boils, cook it for 3 to 5 more minutes, or until it thickens and turns a deep red. Then remove the strawberry sauce from the heat, and allow it to cool.
- After your strawberry sauce has completely cooled, mix the whole strawberries with the sauce. And this will be your pie filling for the top of your dessert.
HOW TO MAKE THE DREAM WHIP CREAM CHEESE FILLING
Now some people do make the cream cheese filling with Cool Whip, but I've carried on my mom's tradition of a creamy Dream Whip filling. I like to call it angel fluff.
When you mix Dream Whip with cream cheese, it becomes this amazing dreamy filling with all that cream cheese goodness. It makes an excellent strawberry no bake dessert.
Before you get started, be sure to soften and whip your cream cheese with a whisking paddle, and then set it aside. This will help the cream cheese to soften up more, and it will blend in better with the Dream Whip, once you’re ready for that step.
Just a few steps to make the creamy filling…
- Whisk together the Dream Whip with the milk and vanilla, according to package directions. Whisk it until it begins to form soft peaks, about 4 minutes. You can also follow this tutorial for how to make Dream Whip.
- Fold in the Dream Whip mixture with the confectioners sugar and softened/whipped cream cheese, and whisk for 3 to 5 minutes, or until it’s smooth and creamy.
HOW TO LAYER STRAWBERRY YUM YUM
- Spread the Dream Whip cream cheese filling onto the prepared and cooled pie crust.
- Then top it all off with strawberry pie filling.
Be sure to store this no bake dessert in the refrigerator, where it should keep for 2-3 days.
It's definitely strawberries and cream at its best and so delicious, your friends and family will beg you to make it again and again.
MORE STRAWBERRY DESSERTS
CAN I FREEZE THIS NO BAKE STRAWBERRY DESSERT?
Yes, you can freeze it. In fact, you can freeze it either before or after you add the berry topping.
Just be sure it's in an airtight container or covered really well so it doesn't get freezer burnt. It should last up to 6 months in the freezer.
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Strawberry Delight No Bake Dessert
Equipment
- Krokori Rectangular Bakeware Set Ceramic Baking Pan, 13 x 9 Inches
- NutriBullet Blender 1200 Watts, 1200W
- OXO Good Grips 11-Inch Better Balloon Whisk
- Cuisinart MultiClad Pro Stainless Steel 4-Quart Saucepan with Cover
- GLOUE Heat-Resistant Baking Spoon & Spatulas
- KitchenAid 5-Qt. Artisan Design Series with Glass Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 pecan nut pie crust ready to go
Strawberry Topping:
- 2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup pure cane sugar
- 1 cup strawberry purée*
- 6 cups strawberries sliced
Dream Whip Filling:
- 2 envelopes Dream Whip (1 box)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Whisk the corn starch and water together in a small glass measuring cup.
- Add the corn starch mixture together with the sugar in a medium to large saucepan.
- Mix in the strawberry purée.
- Bring the mixture to a boil on low to medium heat, constantly stirring with a spatula to avoid scorching.
- Once the mixture boils, cook it for 3 to 5 more minutes, or until it thickens and turns a deep red.
- Remove the strawberry sauce from the heat, and allow it to cool.*
- In a separate mixer bowl, whisk together the Dream Whip with the milk and vanilla, according to package directions. Whisk it until it begins to form soft peaks, about 4 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whip the cream cheese well.
- Add the cream cheese and powdered sugar to the Dream Whip mixture, and whisk for 3 to 5 minutes, or until it's smooth and creamy.
- Spread the Dream Whip cream cheese filling onto the prepared pie crust.*
- Once the strawberry sauce has cooled enough, mix the sliced strawberries into the sauce.
- Spread the strawberries and sauce mixture over the Dream Whip filling.
- Cover your no bake strawberry dessert and allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight if possible.
- When it's ready to serve, you can top it off with a dollop of whipped cream or serve it as is. It's so delicious! Be sure to store this no bake dessert in the refrigerator, where it should keep for 2-3 days.
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.