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 delight with its strawberries and cream like filling.
Two of my favorite ways to make this dessert are by making a strawberry delight with vanilla pudding or strawberry angel delight. They're both cool, refreshing twists to this dessert.
This is one no bake strawberry dessert that’s super easy to make, though. 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.
Love Dream Whip Desserts and want another flavor? Try blueberry delight or cherry yum yum! And for the fall season, make this pumpkin delight recipe.
WHERE CAN I FIND THE ACTUAL RECIPE CARD?
If you’d rather skip all of my tips, important info for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the recipe – just scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find a printable recipe card and longer how to video.
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 crust recipe, it’s so simple and easy and requires just a few minutes of bake time.
I like to make it ahead of time, and that way it's ready to go when I need it. And yes, you can freeze it for later.
- First, melt the butter. Then mix together the melted butter and flour, forming a dough.
- If your pecans aren’t chopped, finely chop them. Then stir the chopped pecans into the dough until they’re all mixed in.
- It’s a press in pie crust, so just press the dough into a 13″x9″ baking dish.
- Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes, or until the edges of the crust begin to turn a nice golden brown (baking times can vary).
- Let the crust cool before adding any filling.
Here's the link to the full recipe for my favorite pie crust with pecans, ingredient amounts and all.
You can also just buy a store bought crust and press pecans into it, although this will likely make a smaller pie.
PIE CRUST ALTERNATIVES FOR STRAWBERRY DELIGHT
- Graham cracker crust
- Pecan Sandies crust – Make it like you would a graham cracker crust.
- Press in pie crust without nuts
- Vanilla Wafer crust
- Line a graham cracker crust with sliced bananas.
- Press crushed pretzels into the pie crust instead of pecans.
AND THEN THE DREAM WHIP FILLING
Now some people do make this 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.
Just a few tips for how to make the creamy filling…
- Beat the cream cheese separately first thing. This will help it soften up more, and it will blend in better with the Dream Whip, once you’re ready for that step.
- Mix the Dream Whip according to the package directions (also included in the recipe card below).
- You can split the Dream Whip filling in half to make 2 smaller pies (also, the strawberry filling above).
- You can save back just a little bit of whipped cream for a whipped topping on the final dessert.
Once your Dream Whip is mixed up, you’ll layer it on top of the crust.
NEXT STEP: MAKE THE 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.
Just a few tips…
- Use fresh sliced strawberries. They don’t have near the amount of water that frozen berries will have. And they have better flavor.
- Bring the puréed strawberry mixture to a boil, and boil for a good 3 to 5 minutes, or until it really thickens up and becomes a deep red color.
- Once your strawberry sauce has cooled, mix it together with the sliced strawberries.
- And then you’ll add the strawberry pie filling on top of that dreamy whipped cream cheese layer for the most scrumptious dessert ever.
The ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below. It’s strawberries and cream at its best!
CAN I FREEZE STRAWBERRY DELIGHT?
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 a sealed container or covered really well so it doesn’t get freezer burnt.
It should last up to 6 months in the freezer.
WANT MORE STRAWBERRY DESSERTS?
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Strawberry Filled Cupcakes
- Fresh Strawberry Pie Recipe
- Strawberry Jello Poke Cake
- Strawberry Rice Krispie Treats Recipe
- Gluten-free strawberry rhubarb crisp
SHOP KITCHEN TOOLS FOR THIS RECIPE:
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.
GET THE PRINTABLE RECIPE
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Find my original recipe for this strawberry dessert over at Adventures of Mel!
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Strawberry Delight No Bake Dessert
Ingredients
Strawberry Topping:
- 2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup pure cane sugar
- 1 cup strawberry purée
- 6 cups sliced strawberries
Dream Whip Filling:
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- 2 envelopes Dream Whip
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Pie Crust:
Instructions
- Have the pecan crust baked, cooled, and ready to go.
- 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.*
- Meanwhile, using a mixer, beat the cream cheese well.
- 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.
- 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!
Why call it no bake when you have to bake the crust?
Ginger, the no bake is assuming that you have made the crust ahead of time. I often make these crusts ahead of time and put them back in the freezer. It works well so that I can just pull them, throw everything together and into the refrigerator for consumption at a later time.
Could I use a jello pudding instead of the cool whip? I thought of Bannana cream pudding with strawberries on the top.
Although I have not tried it myself, I’d bet that would turn out very good. I don’t see a problem with it! Let me know how it turns out if you do so.
Why are there no instructions for the strawberry puree?????? This is incomplete.
Replying to your comment because i just got done making this. she did have it in her instructions! you have to go to walmart and buy the strawberry purée. then you mix the corn starch and water and put it in the saucepan with the strawberry purée and sugar and bring to a boil and that’s all!
I really wanted to try this but would it have killed her to have included a recipe for pureed strawberries? or let us know we needed to get them and where? this really ruined me wanting to make this…call me a baby but she could edit it and it would be so much better…strawberry puree isn’t that hard to make is it? she went to the trouble of telling people how to make a pecan crust. tsk tsk …
That was an unkind thing to say to someone who just shared her recipe with all of us. 🙁 A little kindness goes a long way. 🙂
You can use a box of strawberry Jello instead of the puree. I have always use dry jello! You can also use any kind of berries that you want to use as long as you can get that flavor jello. Blackberry is delicious! Hope this helps.
Wow
You can make your own strawberry purée . Put about 6 large strawberries into a blender and purée the berries, should make about 1 cup of purée. This is what I did and this recipe was great!
I to was unable to find instructions for the purée so I winged it. I used just over a cup of strawberries and added some water and puréed it in my food processor. So hopefully that works, also using a cool whip cream cheese filling that I use for other desserts. Thanks for the dessert idea for Father’s Day!
That sounds delicious, Denise. Thanks for the feedback!
I’m sorry but I just don’t see the instructions for the strawberry puree. I have looked where you said it would be and it is just not there. I ran off the recipe card & I still don’t see it.
Okay, so I went back to the recipe, there are no instructions on this thread on how to make the puree. I did, However, look around at other recipes of yours on a different site (not on this one) & I did, FINALLY, find out how to make the puree. This has been an hour long process to get the information. When so many comments where made about not seeing it , perhaps you should have logged on to it and see what we see.
I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, Fran. I will look into this. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Mel,
I’m excited to try this yummy-sounding recipe! Would you please edit the instructions to include how to make the strawberry purée you said to use a cup of? I would sincerely appreciate it!
Thanks for sharing! 😋
Thanks for the suggestion, Debbie! I may do this.
What a bunch of complainers. Use your common sense. It’s not hard to purée something. Use a blender. That’s what I did with no problem. Turned out perfect.