This easy cheesecake pie is perfect for cheesecake lovers who want a quicker, easier alternative to making a classic cheesecake. The smooth and creamy filling is made of just 6 simple ingredients, and there’s no springform pan or water bath step required. It’s delicious on its own, or you can top it with raspberry sauce, whipped cream, hot fudge, lemon curd, fresh berries, or salted caramel.
This pie recipe wasn’t actually in my original plan for posting on the website, but it just kind of… happened. I was working on perfecting the recipe and technique for graham cracker crust, and needed something easy and reliable to use on repeat for a filling… approximately 75 cheesecake pies later, I thought: Well, I should probably share this recipe, too!
One reader, Jeff, commented: “I made this and it is one of the best cheesecakes I have had. It is easy and has a very New York cheesecake flavor. I make a lot of water bath cheesecakes and I found this to be just as creamy and flavorful as any others I have made. ★★★★★“
Here’s Why You’ll Love This Easy Cheesecake Pie
- It’s cheesecake… without the fuss
- Batter & crust come together quickly
- Same velvety, creamy texture and tangy-sweet taste as my classic cheesecake
- 6 simple ingredients, plus a 3-ingredient graham cracker crust
- Bakes and cools much faster than a regular cheesecake
- It’s very adaptable to taste and season, depending on toppings
What Is the Difference Between Cheesecake and Cheesecake Pie?
Today’s cheesecake pie is like a regular cheesecake, only (1) the filling layer isn’t as thick and tall and (2) you bake it in a pie dish instead of a springform pan. Basically, the taste and texture are the same, but you don’t have as much filling in each bite.
If you’re in the mood for real, classic cheesecake… definitely put in the time and effort to make a real, classic cheesecake. However, if you love cheesecake and don’t have the energy (whether that’s physically or emotionally!) for a water bath, accidentally over-baking or under-baking it, exceptionally long cooling and chilling times, plus the possibility of large cracks on the surface, just make a cheesecake pie!
(Because regular cheesecake can be finicky, right?!)
I have made at least 12 of these in the past few weeks and every single taste tester, neighbor, family member, and friend has said it tastes exactly like regular cheesecake. (And that’s because it is! Only thinner!) You’re going to love this dessert.
And if you are in the mood for a fall inspired flavor, try pumpkin cheesecake pie next.
Can I Skip the Water Bath?
Yes! As if there wasn’t enough to persuade you to make this cheesecake pie! You see, water baths are used to help an egg-heavy dessert like traditional cheesecake bake in a humid environment. The humidity evenly bakes the rich and creamy filling so it doesn’t burn, sink, and/or crack. Since today’s filling isn’t as tall, we don’t have those problems. So, skip the water bath today!
Success Tips for a Perfect Graham Cracker Crust
We’re using my perfected graham cracker crust recipe. You need 3 ingredients including graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. The ratio of ingredients is imperative and what you’ll find below (and also on the graham cracker crust page) yields a crisp, crumbly crust that holds shape beautifully. But what’s more important than the ingredients is the technique you use to press the crust into the pan.
Over the years, I’ve learned exactly what makes and (literally) breaks a great graham cracker crust:
- Use your hands first: Press the bottom and around the sides with medium-firm pressure until the crumbs aren’t moving around anymore—you don’t want any loose crumbs. You can even use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help smooth out the surface.
- Don’t pack too tightly: The crust needs to be compact, so it doesn’t crumble apart, but not so tight that it bakes into a hard, dense crust. You really just want to pack it until the shape has set and it’s no longer crumbly.
- Keep it rounded: This sounds a bit odd, but you don’t want a right angle at the bottom edges where the sides and the bottom meet. Instead, you want it a little bit rounded so it stays connected when you slice into it—so the side crust doesn’t immediately separate from the bottom crust. Slide a spoon around the inside of the crust where the sides and bottom meet, to get that rounded shape.
Or you could use an Oreo cookie crust or Biscoff pie crust instead if you’d like.
Here is a photo of the rounded crust. Be sure to pre-bake this for 10 minutes before adding the filling.
Grab These 6 Ingredients for the Filling:
- Bricks of Cream Cheese: Philadelphia cream cheese isn’t affiliated with this post, but it IS my favorite cream cheese brand. Whichever brand you use, make sure you’re using bricks of full-fat cream cheese and not the cream cheese in a tub you would use for spreading on bagels. Same rule applies when making cream cheese frosting and strawberry cream cheese pie.
- Granulated Sugar: You’ll love that this cheesecake isn’t overly sweet. Vanilla sugar would be great here.
- Sour Cream: My team and I tested this cheesecake pie several (several!!!!) times and there was a major difference between the pies with sour cream and the pies without sour cream. You need 1/4 cup of sour cream to help bind the ingredients together and smooth out the filling so it tastes creamy. Without it, the filling tasted like cream cheese, not cheesecake.
- Vanilla Extract: Feel free to use homemade vanilla extract in this pie!
- Lemon Juice: A splash of lemon juice adds freshness and depth of flavor—I recommend you don’t leave it out. This cheesecake pie does not taste like lemon cheesecake.
- Eggs: A main ingredient in any baked cheesecake! Careful not to over-mix these, and be sure to add them right at the end.
Pour the filling into the warm pre-baked crust, and then bake:
Can I Add Chocolate Chips to the Filling?
I have no idea if anyone would even ask this question, but I love chocolate chips in cheesecakes and the answer is YES! Feel free to add 3/4 cups mini or regular semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. (What we do when making amaretto cheesecake.) This version would be tasty served with salted caramel on top.
Cooling & Chilling Is a Breeze
You know how you have to wait a few hours for a regular cheesecake to cool and then you have to wait some more for it to chill in the refrigerator? You’re doing the same thing here, only in a fraction of the time. The cheesecake cools for about 1 hour at room temperature (no need to let it cool in the oven like some cheesecake recipes!) and then you chill it for about 2–3 hours before serving.
Low-maintenance cheesecake!
What to Serve With Cheesecake Pie
You can, of course, serve the cheesecake pie plain, but I like to add raspberry sauce, whipped cream, and fresh raspberries. Or you can spruce it up with:
- Salted caramel
- Blueberry sauce/swirl from blueberry swirl cheesecake (you can prepare a blueberry swirl cheesecake pie by using the same swirling instructions in that recipe)
- Chocolate ganache or red wine chocolate ganache
- Strawberry sauce
- Lemon curd
- Brown sugar pecan topping from pecan pie cheesecake
- We slightly scaled down the filling to make room for extra toppings in this caramel apple cheesecake pie
Talk about a versatile dessert recipe!
Easy Cheesecake Pie
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes (includes crust pre-bake)
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: one 9-inch pie
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is regular cheesecake… made easier! Enjoy a creamy, velvety smooth filling with a crispy, crunchy graham cracker crust. Skip the water bath and use a pie dish instead of a springform pan. Feel free to serve with optional toppings listed in recipe Note.
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full sheet graham crackers)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted
Filling
- 16 ounces (452g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- optional for topping: raspberry dessert sauce, fresh raspberries, & whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Make the crust: If you’re starting out with full graham crackers, use a food processor or blender to grind them into fine crumbs. Stir the graham cracker crumbs and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl, and then stir in the melted butter. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy. Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie dish. With medium pressure using your hand, pat the crumbs down into the bottom and up the sides to make a compact crust. Do not pack down with heavy force because that makes the crust too hard. Simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumby/crumbly. Tips: You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help press down the bottom crust and smooth out the surface, but do not pack down too hard. And run a spoon around the bottom “corner” where the edge and bottom meet to help make a rounded crust—this helps prevent the crust from falling apart. For more shaping technique tips, see the graham cracker crust recipe page.
- Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Make the filling in the next step as the crust bakes.
- Make the filling: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, and then beat until fully combined and very smooth. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed to combine—you don’t want any lumps. Then on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just blended. After the second egg is incorporated into the batter, stop mixing. If you still see some lumps at this point, switch to a whisk and whisk by hand just until you break up the large lumps. Some small lumps are OK.
- Lower the oven temperature to 325°F (163°C) and spread the cheesecake filling into the warm crust.
- Bake the pie for 35 minutes or until the center is almost set. Check it at the 25-minute mark, and if it’s browning too quickly on top and around the edges, tent it with aluminum foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.
- Set the pie on a wire rack and cool for 1 hour at room temperature. Then place it in the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days before serving. (Cover if chilling it for longer than a few hours.)
- Feel free to garnish the pie with any of the optional toppings listed in the notes right before or a couple hours before serving. (Keep pie refrigerated if you decorate it and plan to serve later.) I use a squeeze bottle to drizzle raspberry sauce on top and a piping bag fitted with Wilton 1M piping tip to zigzag whipped cream on top. For neat slices, use a clean sharp knife, and wipe the knife clean between each slice. Tip: The first slice is never pretty! Much easier to slice after that first piece is out.
- Cover and store leftover pie in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: This cheesecake pie can be made up to 2 days in advance. See step 7. It’s best if the crust is still a bit warm when you pour in the filling, so I don’t recommend pre-baking the crust in advance. You can also freeze the baked and cooled cheesecake for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Glass Mixing Bowl | 9-inch Pie Dish | Electric Mixer (Stand Mixer or Handheld) | Cooling Rack
- Oreo Cookie Crust: You can use an Oreo cookie crust instead of a graham cracker crust.
- Toppings: My favorite toppings for this pie are raspberry sauce, fresh raspberries, and whipped cream, which are pictured in the post. You can also top the baked and cooled cheesecake with salted caramel, lemon curd, strawberry topping, chocolate ganache, or red wine chocolate ganache.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature before beginning. Room temperature ingredients combine quickly and evenly, so you won’t risk over-mixing. Also, beating cold ingredients together will result in a chunky cheesecake filling, hardly the way you want to begin!
- Non-US Readers: If graham crackers are not available where you live, we have also tested this pie with a crust made from digestive biscuits, and it turned out great. Use 200g ground digestive biscuit crumbs (about 2 cups; 13–14 biscuits), 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar, and 6 Tablespoons (85g) melted butter. Pre-bake the crust for a bit longer, about 12–14 minutes. 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 this pie. I have no experience with it, but this is what I’ve heard from other non-US readers. If you try it, let us know how it turns out!
Reader Comments and Reviews
I haven’t made this recipe yet, but I have made many other recipes of hers and none of them have disappointed me I am excited to try this one today as a surprise for my husband. Thank you so much for sharing your experience love all I’ve made.
Happy baking, Cheryl!
Hi Sally. I’m an American living in Poland. Cheesecake is popular here, but the traditional variety is made with farmer’s cheese, so lacks the tang of cream cheese. Philly cream cheese is not readily available, and is pricey if you can find it. I took a chance on a local cream cheese spread (Twój Smak Naturalny) for this recipe a couple of years ago, and it is perfect. Several of my Polish friends have bookmarked this recipe 😉 It’s a great basic recipe and easily adaptable: I’ve added pumpkin, pistachio cream, etc. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thrilled to read this, Rod!
Hi, I have started drawing the Greek cream cheese, yogurt pie green Mountain Farms at Walmart. Two times more protein. Two times more protein, same creamy mouth feel.
We make a no bake cream cheese pie that uses sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla and a graham cracker crust.
This was a hit at Christmas! It was way easier than the springform pan version, and maybe more delicious! I love it with Sally’s raspberry sauce recipe.
Tinted with foil the last 10 minutes. Fill stuck and ripped off the top
Thank you so much for this recipe. It makes baking a cheesecake so much easier without missing out on the delicious taste. It’s become my daughter’s favorite and she now requests it for her birthday and holidays. I also use your strawberry sauce recipe as the topping.
Could I double the recipe and make it in a 9×13 or 11×14 baking pan?
Hi Jill, for a 9×13 pan, we’d use our full-sized cheesecake. You can then follow the baking time and directions for the 9×13 option listed in the recipe notes of these white chocolate raspberry cheesecake bars.
Hello! I’m very excited to try this recipe. Do you know if it would be possible to make this into a gingerbread cheesecake by adding in a bit of molasses?
Hi Sierra! We wish we could help but have not tested adding molasses to this cake (you would want to add some spices, like ginger, too!). We would love to hear if you give anything a try.
This is the best, easiest cheesecake recipe I’ve ever made! I’ve made it for thanksgiving three years in a row because it’s always requested by my family, even those that don’t like cheesecake. No need to look any further- this recipe is foolproof and delicious!
I have made this recipe so many time over – will never make classic cheescake again!!
Can I use buttermilk instead of sour cream?
Also has this been tested with a biscoff cookie crust instead of graham cracker crust?
Hi Porsha! Sour cream is really best here. A full fat plain yogurt would also work. A Biscoff crust would be great here!
Excellent! I made this as written except I doubled the lemon juice to two teaspoons and added the zest of one lemon. Pow! So good! I also used GF cinnamon grahams for the crust. Simply delicious
Easy and delicious! I made it for book club and everyone loved it. It was so easy to make and this recipe covers everything you need to know to make sure you bake it perfectly.
turned out perfectly and was very easy to make. was shocked at how professional it tasted with such minimal effort
I’m in the uk and want to make your Easy Cheesecake Pie but can’t find block cream cheese. Any ideas what I can do or use.
Thank you
Hi Deborah! In the U.S. block cream cheese is very different than the tubs and is the only cream cheese that will work for frosting. We have been told by readers outside the U.S. that cream cheese in a tub is different from ours and can work, but we have not tested it. Please let us know if you try!
I’ve used UK Philadelphia in numerous cheesecake recipes (including traditional baked) and it works fine. It does have a little salt in though so bear that in mind. I can confirm that block cream cheese seems impossible to find in the UK so I hope this helps!
Hi there! So thankful for all of your recipes, you are my go to! Do you think if I used light sour cream the recipe would turn out okay still?
Thank you!
Hi Chelsea, full fat sour cream is strongly recommended for the best taste and texture. The filling may not set quite as well using a lower-fat sour cream.
Is it possible to use a springform pan instead of a pie tin in this recipe?
Hi Manvitha, This recipe and its ratios really are best for a pie dish. If you wish to use a springform pan, we’d recommend halving our traditional cheesecake recipe instead.
Hi Sally, I made this recipe twice and each time it turned out perfect. I topped it with cherry pie filling and everyone loved it. Lemon and sour cream adds a nice tang.
Tasts exactly like a normal cheesecake but with less fuss
If I added the brown sugar pecan topping would it be after baking? Or would I bake the cheesecake pie with the topping? Thx!
Hi Christina, It would be added after baking and chilling. Make the topping according to these directions. Let the topping cool and thicken before spooning over the chilled cheesecake pie. Enjoy!
I would love to make this in a deep dish pie plate. Do you think i can do this by doubling the cheesecake filling. If so, do you think I need to adjust/increase the cooking time?
Hi Annie! We wouldn’t double this recipe. The more volume, the more it’s just like a regular cheesecake and for that, you’ll need precise baking and cooling instructions. (Just make this cheesecake!)
Hello! I’m wondering if I can substitute sour cream with Greek Yogurt? Thank you!
Yes, you can use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream here. Enjoy!
Hi Sally, I absolutely love your recipes! I’m having trouble with my graham crust, it’s coming out of the oven greasy and wet. I use plant based butter sticks and follow the recipe. thank you, Joyce.
Hi Joyce, we haven’t tested our graham cracker crust with a plant-based butter before, so we wonder if that might be part of the issue. Does the crust firm up as it cools? It could be that it needs an additional minute or two in the oven to help firm up, too. We hope this helps for next time.
Hi Sally!
I wanted to make this recipe with biscoff cookies – will that work?
Thanks so much for your work. I admire every recipe of yours
Yours,
Lisa Martina
Absolutely, Lisa! Same amount. Enjoy!
Can a springform pan be used instead of the pie dish?
Hi Diane This recipe and its ratios really are best for a pie dish. If you wish to use a springform pan, we’d recommend halving our traditional cheesecake recipe instead.
My teenage daughter is getting into baking and this was a wonderful introduction to cheesecake for her. We talked a LOT about the importance of getting ingredients to the right temperature before starting, and it turned out delicious! I made a quick raspberry coulis as topping, and she’s so proud of what she made.
Love to read this, Sarah!
This is a wonderful recipe. It’s easy as pie, sorry for the pun. It’s very easy to make and everyone loves it. I’m using store bought graham cracker shells. This is where I’m having trouble. My pie crust is getting too done. I think my oven is off on temperature. I’ll try lowering the temp. This recipe is lovely and yummy even with an overdone pie shell. But I will adjust the temp. The pie filling is easy, wonderful, and tasty. Make this pie!! You”ll love it!!
Hello bakers
Would you say that I could successfully use fresh sliced peaches on top of this cheese cake pie recipe using SBA’s peach cobbler filling ingredients as is, or should adjustments be made?
Thank you!
Hi Lee! For fresh peaches (not a filling that will be baked), we would try something more similar to the topping of this strawberry cream cheese pie, maybe with an added dash of cinnamon.
Made this for the first time yesterday and it was delicious! So easy to make and it turned out wonderfully. I made a huckleberry sauce to go with it and they paired great together.
Easy, great tasting with a hint of lemon!
I am making cheesecakes for a baby shower BBQ soon. It was requested for flavors, can I add chocolate chips, or a fruit syrup before baking? I am using 10″ pre made graham cracker crusts, so I can cover them for transportation and have room to add toppings.
Hi Bettie, you could definitely add chocolate chips to the batter. We haven’t tried this particular recipe with a fruit syrup, but don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Take a look at this recipe for white chocolate raspberry cheesecake bars and Nutella swirl cheesecake bars for some guidance on adding a swirled topping before baking. Enjoy!