Lemon Cheesecake Pie Recipe
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This Lemon Cheesecake Pie recipe is perfect for lemon lovers- so sweet, lemony and creamy, with just a tiny bit of tartness- yum!
Lemon Cheesecake Pie Recipe
Rather than a cake this year, I made my hubby a couple of pies for his birthday. The first was a chocolate cream pie (which is one of his favorites) and this fabulous Lemon Cheesecake Pie. Ok, so the Lemon Cheesecake was really for me, but it was so yummy!
Cheesecake is my ultimate favorite dessert and this one was sweet, lemony and creamy, with just a tiny bit of tartness- yum!
I’d planned on using a pre-made graham cracker crust that I had in the pantry, but turns out, the pie crust was way out of date. I didn’t want to serve a pie with a stale crust, so I ended up just using the other refrigerated pie crust leftover from the chocolate pie. I do prefer a graham cracker crust, so I’ll definitely use one next time…
The lemon cheesecake pie turned out so pretty and smooth with no cracks!
I have absolutely no skill at piping whipped cream (did you see my puppy dog specials), so I just chose to spread a thin layer of whipped cream on top.
Yummy!
How to make lemon cheesecake pie:
This Lemon Cheesecake Pie is basically a lemon cheesecake baked in a pie crust. (You can choose the type of crust you want – pastry pie crust, gram cracker or mmm, how about a crust made from Nilla Wafers. You blend room temperature cream cheese with eggs, sugar, sour cream and lemons and then bake like you would a normal pie.
The best part is – NO WATER BATH NEEDED!
One last bite?
Can I Use a Graham Cracker crust?
Of course! If you want a graham cracker crust, this is a good recipe:
- 1 ½ cups finely crushed graham crackers
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons sugar
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Stir together all ingredients. Press mixture firmly and evenly against bottom and side of pie plate.
2. Bake about 10 minutes or until light brown; cool on cooling rack
Recommended products and/or products used in this post:
- Springform pan
- Glass 9.5 inch pie plate
- Hand Mixer
- Dolcetto Meyer Lemon Gourmet Wafer Rolls
(ok, these weren’t used, but they are so yummy!)
- Lemon Curd
Pin this Lemon Cheesecake Pie here for later:
Lemon Cheesecake Pie Recipe
Description
This Lemon Cheesecake Pie recipe is perfect for lemon lovers- so sweet, lemony and creamy, with just a tiny bit of tartness- yum!
Ingredients
(recipe adapted from Real Simple magazine)
- 2 8 oz bars of cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- your favorite 9 inch prebaked pie crust
- extra lemon for zesting
Instructions
- In food processor or mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla and salt (everything except the zest and pie crust
) until smooth. - Pour into crust and bake at 325 until center is set but still slightly wobbly. (40 to 50 minutes.) To keep pie crust from burning, cover pie crust edges with foil. See how I covered my pie here.
- Let cool, then chill til firm (4 – 5 hours.)
- Before serving, top with thin layer of whipped cream and lemon zest
Enjoy
Notes
Use either a graham cracker or traditional pie crust – whichever you prefer!
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Love lemon too? You might want to check out these recipes as well:
Homemade Lemon Curd
(if you’ve never made this, you have to try it!)
(How good would this be with asparagus?)
“Magic” Lemon Sponge in the slow cooker
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Looks like I will be making a lemon 🍋 dessert next week. Just a quick trip to the store and I will be ready to enjoy this pie. I see there are other recipes to try also. They all look amazing. Thanks for sharing. **
Great recipe!!!! My family loves it. The only adjustment I make is 1/3 less sugar and it’s perfect.
★★★★★
Everyone loves this pie, homemade graham cracker crust tastes great with it, light, easy.
★★★★★
Such a spring-y and summer-y recipe, can’t wait to try it! I’ll give it a “go” with some GF graham crackers for my husband 🙂
Amazing-ness, thanks
★★★★★
I’m telling you from someone who’s tried this recipe probably 20 times that this is the best cheesecake pie I’ve ever had!!!! Everyone who’s tasted it says the same! I follow the exact recipe and don’t substitute anything, its perfect as is. Thank you so much for sharing and making me a star in my kitchen
★★★★★
Looks delicious and cannot wait to try it
Fantastic! I used Greek yogurt in place of sour cream. So good!
★★★★★
Made this last night, it was amazing!
★★★★★
This was Lemon Cheese Cake Pie was amazing I made two of the. I was experimenting and did one with a premade graham cracker pie crust and the other one with graham crackers . They both turned out and were a great hit ! Next time I will try it with just a regular pie crust .. I did PIN it and added to my recipes. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.!!
★★★★★
Love this pie! I have made it several times. I do prefer to make a graham cracker crust, instead of the store bought. It’s so quick and easy to make.
Thanks for posting!!
★★★★★
Family favorite!
★★★★★
I forgot to put in sour cream and it still turned out great! I used a graham cracker crust. Will def make again.
Carol, I’ve always used the Marie Callendar’s pie crust …. they taste exactly like homemade without the hassle, but it’s very hard to find them where I live… so worth the search! I’m gonna make this pie my husband loves lemon pie!!
Have you tried making this with a baked sour cream topping instead of the whipped cream? The baked sour cream topping is my favorite part of the regular cheesecake I make.
Haven’t tried that yet, I bet it would be very good though.
Wondering if this can be made in the instant pot…i make cheesecakes in it…thinking it would work using graham cracker or a lemon cookie crust.
I’m sure it could.
I don’t actually have a food processor, can I just mix them all in my kitchen aid mixer? Or does that change the consistency. Making this for a groups tomorrow.
Use whatever type of mixer you have, as long as the ingredients are well combined and smooth.
Just made this lemon pie with Marie Callender’s pie crust. Awesome!! Best & easiest lemon pie I have ever made. Gave a slice to my 92 year old neighbor who still loves to bake, she loved it & asked for recipe after the first bite. Thank you sooo much for posting!!
Thank you Carol, I’m so glad it worked for you!
Can I get a GramCracker crust that doesn’t need baking? Just put it in fridge an let form that way like a cheesecake?
The crust might not need to bake, but the pie will still need to cook/
Thanks for this new idea for dessert. I’ll try to make it for Christmas. If you’re using the store bought graham cracker crust, How long do you bake the filling and crust together in the oven. I’m sorry if I missed that. Thanks Ray
I don’t think you need to pre-bake a store bought crust. Just follow the recipe instructions after that.
A lot of brands you do need to prebake for 12 minutes at 350* . They have instructions on the back of the label.
You can do without, but it makes it crisper and it makes it taste fresher.
Instead of a pie crust , do you think I can substitute with a Graham cracker crust ? If so should I bake the crust first , then add filling . Sorry , I’m not a big baker, but I’m trying ! Thanks for any help .
Yes, I bet graham cracker would be great, in fact, that’s the type of crust I prefer. If you used a store-bought graham cracker crust you will not need to bake it, if you make one from scratch:
1 ½ cups finely crushed graham crackers
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Stir together all ingredients. Press mixture firmly and evenly against bottom and side of pie plate.
2. Bake about 10 minutes or until light brown; cool on cooling rack
Good luck!
If you use a homemade graham cracker crust would you prebake it? If not, how long would you bake the pie with the unbaked graham cracker crust? This sounds delicious and right up my husband’s alley!
I would prebake the graham cracker crust.
Good luck!
Hi, can you make this the day before?
I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why not. My only thought is you might want to keep the filling separate from the crust and make sure the crust is at least room temp before adding the filling and baking.
I was looking for a recipe for a quick, easy pie for tonight (we eat dinner VERY late). How much easier and quicker could a pie recipe get?! And I actually have everything – although the lemon juice will have to come out of a bottle. This is going to be amazing!
It is easy- hope you guys enjoy it!
I've made this several times now and it is wonderful. Thank you for sharing this great recipe!
Thanks Donna, I'm so glad you liked it!
looks delicious, Gonna give it a try this weekend !
Oh gosh – yes THIS. I've been craving Lemon Cheesecake!
Hello – stopping by from the Create Love Inspire party. I love cheesecakes and I love lemon meringue pie — what a great combination of flavors! I'm pinning this to try soon!
Debi @ That Crafty Lunch Lady
My husband would absolutely love this lemon cheesecake pie!! Hey I would love it if you stopped by and shared your stuff on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday – Link Party…it's going on now!!
It says prebaked pie crust, won't it overcook the crust if it cooks for another 40-50 minutes?
You are correct, I should have included a note to cover the pie crust
edges with foil so they don't burn. I even got a good picture of this with my phone. I will update the post to reflect this information.
Thanks, Jamie
I came over from Freedom Fridays linky party. This looks wonderful! I've got it pinned. Thank you!
How incredibly delicious does this look? Thank you for creating such a beautiful recipe! Stopping by from the Show Me Saturday linky party and pinning to Pinterest!
I assume that Greek yogurt can be substituted for the sour cream. Or should I stick to the sour cream?
I haven't tried it, but I found this article: http://www.nigella.com/kitchen-queries/view/Sour-Cream-For-Cheesecake/3439. If you try it, let us know how it turns out.
~jamie