In this recipe, we’ll show you how to make crustless cheesecake topped with strawberries.
This is a creamy, no-crust classic cheesecake that’s topped with a sweet, homemade strawberry compote. It’s perfect for people like myself who prefer cheesecake without the crust. Also, the strawberry compote can be omitted if you want it plain.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against a cheesecake with a crust. In fact, I love this recipe for mini-cheesecakes with a vanilla wafer crust baked in a muffin tin. They’re the perfect little dessert.
When it comes down to it, making a crustless cheesecake is just easier in the long run. You don’t have to worry about forming the crust or melting any butter. Whenever I can save time and not sacrifice taste or quality, I’m all for it!
This recipe makes a full-size cheesecake. We also have some delicious recipes for Individual Cheesecakes in Ramekins and Mini Cheesecakes (with Vanilla Wafers Crust) if you want something smaller.
🥚 Ingredients Needed
You’ll need the following ingredients to make the crustless cheesecake:
- 4 8oz packages cream cheese
- 1 cup room sour cream
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (You can use gluten-free (GF) flour and make this a GF recipe.)
Ingredients to make the strawberry compote topping:
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 lb strawberries (hulled fresh berries or frozen)
🍽 Equipment and Supplies Needed
You’ll need the following equipment and supplies to make the crustless cheesecake:
- Conventional Oven
- 9-inch Springform Pan – This set of springform pans on Amazon comes in 3 different sizes, which is awesome!
- Aluminum Foil
- Electric Stand Mixer (or Hand Mixer)
- Large Mixing Bowls
- Deep Walled Baking Sheet (for the water bath)
Equipment and supplies to make the strawberry compote topping:
- Cooking top (stove top)
- Medium Stock Pot
- Knife and cutting board (if using fresh strawberries)
- Wooden Spoon
☝️ Recipe Tips
Making crustless cheesecake is easy if you know the right tips and tricks. Below are my expert tips:
Use Room Temperature Ingredients
To ensure that your crustless cheesecake comes out smooth and creamy, It’s important to use room-temperature ingredients when making the batter. If you use cold cream cheese, eggs, and sour cream, the batter will not mix consistently and your cheesecake will end up lumpy.
Leave the eggs, sour cream, and cream cheese on the countertop for about 1 hour before starting this recipe.
Prevent Your Cheesecake from Sinking
Cheesecake may sink in the middle for a number of different reasons.
- Inconsistent distribution of ingredients – Therefore, make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature before starting the recipe.
- Over-mixing the batter – Cheesecake batter should be mixed thoroughly, but not whipped. Therefore, make sure you mix it on medium speed and not whip it on high-speed. Only mix it until the ingredients are creamy and fully combined.
Use a Water Bath
Cheesecake is a form of custard. Therefore, it needs to be baked low and slow in order to cook evenly. A water bath achieves this by preventing the outside surface of the cake from baking too much faster than the center.
Using a water bath is essential for preventing your cheesecake from burning or cracking. It also preserves the smooth, rich texture.
To make a water bath:
- Use a deep-walled baking sheet.
- Place the springform pan onto the sheet and fill it with batter.
- Before placing the baking sheet and pan into the oven, fill the baking sheet with about 3 cups of water.
- Be careful not to let the water spill over the sides of the baking sheet, but fill it enough so the cheesecake pan has about 1-inch of water surrounding it.
- Place the cheesecake batter with the water bath into the oven and bake according to the recipe.
Preventing Water from Getting into the Springform Pan
To prevent water bath water from leaking into the pan and into the cheesecake, wrap the outside of the springform pan tightly with two sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Do this before you pour the batter into the pan!
Grease Your Springform Pan Well
Make sure your springform pan is greased very well. Otherwise, the sides of the cheesecake may stick to the pan.
Allow the Cheesecake to Rest In The Oven
To prevent your cheesecake from cracking down the center, allow the cheesecake to rest in the oven for 3 hours after baking. This allows it to cool and fall back down slowly and prevents it from cracking.
Just turn off the heat after one-hour of baking and leave it in the oven with the door closed for 3 hours.
I learned this through about 5 trial and error runs!
Chill the Cheesecake Before Slicing
Chill your cheesecake in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before slicing. This will help it to firm up and make it more dense and creamy.
Cheesecake Topping
I love a plain cheesecake but recently have been topping mine with strawberry compote. I love how quick and easy strawberry compote is.
You can use either use fresh or frozen berries, and skip the lime juice too. Just sub in extra water. This works well for frozen strawberries, but fresh ones fair better with the lime juice.
Printable Recipe
The printable recipe for Crustless Cheesecake with Strawberry Topping is below.
Crustless Cheesecake Recipe with Strawberries
Equipment
- 9" springform pan
- aluminum foil
- baking sheet
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
Cheesecake
- 32 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream room temperature
- ¾ cup whole milk room temperature
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean or bean paste
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups water for water bath
Strawberry Compote
- 16 ounces strawberries Can use hulled fresh berries or frozen
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- For the Cheesecake:
- Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
- Grease a 9" spring form pan. I use shortening for mine.
- Foil the pan's outside to prevent water from entering the spring form pan when baking. I use three layers to wrap around the outside of the pan.
- In a stand mixer, add your softened cream cheese, and sugar. Blend until creamy
- Slowly add in the milk and each egg one at a time
- Finally, mix in the vanilla, sour cream and flour- you might want to reduce your speed to prevent the flour from creating a dust cloud.
- Blend until creamy and pour into your greased springform pan.
- *Place foil covered spring form pan into a baking sheet that has 1 ½ cups of water in it to create a water bath.
- Bake for 75-80 minutes. Cheesecake will be golden brown, and puffy, but will evenly sink once done. Avoid opening the oven and drastically changing the temperature to prevent cracking.
- For the Strawberry Compote:
- Add lime juice, water, and strawberries to a medium stockpot
- Sprinkle in sugar and cook over low heat for 6 minutes. Berries will be slightly mushy. Allow to cool before serving to allow it to thicken.
Notes
Nutrition
Thank you for your response so quickly!
Happy Thanksgiving ♥️
That is so sweet that you came back! Thank you, for letting us know! I hope this can help others as well!
Amy
I have been making your recipe for the last year.
My family love it so I decided to try and adapt it for Passover.
I substituted the flour for potato flour and put a 1/4 cup less sugar. It was delicious. I served it the next day with fresh strawberries and it was a hit. Thank you!!!
You can use Greek yogurt, but you do need one or the other.
The recipe looks great but due to lockdown I don’t have any sour cream.
Can I make it without any?
And do you think adding lemon would work in this recipe?
Wow, that sounds amazing April! I need to try the animal cracker crust sometime!! Thank you, for stopping by!
Butter, not bitter!
I am not crazy about a Graham cracker crust and I never use one. I make a cookie crust . I like to use animal cracker cookies, crushed with blended or melted butter. I have a favorite brand but it gives a nice flavor. For chocolate cheesecake I either use the oreo crust from the store or make my own with oreo cookies and a little bitter. It’s always unexpected and delicious!
Thank you so much Amy for stopping by! I truly appreciate that you made this and shared your experience. Have a great day!
I made this yesterday and it is a fabulous recipe. I did not have vanilla bean or paste, so I did substitute with 1TBSP vanilla extract. Everything else on the recipe I followed and it turned out great. My husband dislikes crust on his cheesecake and he gave this a a thumbs up. Its a keeper!
Hi, this recipe works wonderful for us so I don’t see why you would have any issues. If you enjoy the ingredients you should enjoy this cake :) Thank you for stopping by.
sorry about the spelling i thought i had corrected all mistakes darn! and no way to fix them now!
i have often found out that wile these recipes sound well how do they taste .I have often found after making them that they are not at all what i expect i am hoping this one will taste just as it should cheese cake here in Canada cost a small fortune to make so i am hoping this one is not in vain than you for the recipe.I will try your recipe because it does sound amazing n but is the flavors all there that should be? i will let you know i was looking for a recipe that would go well with my chocolate no bake crust so now i can make it !!!!!!!!!!!!
yay!!
Amy, thank you for sharing this! I have made this so many times. Everyone that tries it, loves it!
Amy, wow, thank you for the recipe! It looks so delicious. I will try to make this cheesecake tomorrow!
Amy, this looks amazing! Thank you, I will try this right away!
What a gorgeous cake! Your directions make this seem like such an easy approach, too. I would love to make this soon!
It looks so yummy! I love the step-by-step instructions, making it an easy recipe to follow!
Amy, WOW! so simple, yet SO tasty! This is fantastic, yum. Thanks for the recipe.
Amy,thank you! I made this exactly as recipe states and it was delicious. It has wonderful flavors. Five stars for this cheesecake.
Amy, this is really a great recipe. I will make this at the next chance i get.
Amy, what a gorgeous idea! We absolutely love cheesecake! Definitely need to try these!
Hi, it should have worked :)
I’ve just put it in the oven and realised I forgot the flour. Hope it works out ok
This looks so delicious! I am so going to make this for our friends this weekend!
I have never been a fan of cheese cakes either. But that is because I never grew with them. I tried my first at the age of 17 I think. And still, I am not a fan.
But my husband loves them, so I am saving the recipe. Thank you.
I only started liking cheesecake in the past few years. This looks delicious. I haven’t ever had one with fruit…I started with chocolate. :-)
I love love crustless cheesecake! I usually make a no bake cheesecake without crust and just add fruit as a quick yummy snack. But I so want to try this! The waterbath sounds hard, definitely looking up videos on how to do it right!
That definitely looks so good! I love cheesecake and I also don’t mind making it at home. The crust is a nice touch but I could go on without it either way.
This looks great!! I am also not a fan of crust at all. I always would eat just up to the crust, the filling is just so much better. I’m glad I found a recipe for a cheesecake I would actually eat!!
What a very delicious dessert recipe! I love cheesecakes ever since. I know my family would love this. Can’t wait to try one.
Oh my goodness this looks to. die. for. It is the perfect spring dessert and even looks pretty enough for me to do a styled shoot around… that is… if mine turned out this gorgeous ;) Wish you lived close to the ATL, I’d totally collab with you on this! Stunning and probably just as delish!
Ummm I sure wish I had a slice of that in front of me right now. I’m drooling over here! What a yummy looking cheesecake!
I love the crust on a cheesecake, but it can be such a pain to deal with. I feel that way whenever I make a pie as well. I like the idea of making one sans the crust. It’s still just as tasty.
Cheesecake has always been one of my favorite desserts. This recipe looks so decadent and creamy, I would love to sink my taste buds into this one.
I love cheesecake – it’s one of my favorite desserts and now you have me craving some. I will admit to loving graham crackers. I’ve also made them with chocolate wafers, vanilla wafers and ginger snaps. I guess I’m easy when it comes to crust. heh. I’ve never made one without a crust – maybe I should try. I’ve also never made one in a water bath.
I’ve never tried a crustless cheesecake. I can’t wait to try it!
I LOVE cheesecake. It is the one thing my dad knows how to make, so it has a special place in my heart. My husband would love this version, too because crust is not his favorite.
This is my kind of baking too! I never make cheesecake because of the dang crust LOL. Will be giving this a try, maybe my kids will even like it too.
Yumm that looks so good. Cheesecake is my favorite dessert! I need to try this.
I simply adore cheesecake. I haven’t made a crustless one before. I will have to give it a try.
i needed a crustless cheesecake but does this work in a sheet pan ?
Oh how good does this look?! I would give anything for a slice right now haha x
Who could not love a great cheesecake like this. The strawberries just add to the delicious looking dessert and who needs crust.
wow that looks so good. I have actually never eaten cheesecake before but I absolutely love strawberries. thank you so much for sharing
This is my kind of dessert! I would love to try this! Something I know my family will enjoy!
OMG! This is absolutely swoon-worthy!!
I love cheesecake, and I love strawberries. I love the idea of a crustless cheesecake with strawberries! Yum, yum!
This looks amazing. I love that it’s crustless. I don’t usually eat the crust anyways, so this is perfect.
Oh my this cheesecake looks amazing. I love cheesecake but have never made a crustless one. I am excited to try this recipe soon.
I have never had a crustless cheesecake before. This recipe look so delicious and easy to make. I wil have to try making one for dessert this weekend.
Oh man, cheese cake is my weakness! This looks super delicious.
I’ll admit that I too don’t like cheesecake. Honestly the idea of it just churns my stomach. It shouldn’t even have the name cake in it lol! Strawberries though – LOVE those!
I love a good cheesecake. I’ve never tried a crustless one but this sounds delicious!
I’ve never tried a crustless cheesecake. It does look delicious!
Cheesecake has got to be one of my favorite desserts. This looks really good with the strawberries topping it.
This is such a cool recipe. I think I’d love cheesecake with or without crust. I’d love to try it this way.
This is so perfect for my family. I’m the only one in the family who likes the crust, but we all like cheesecake part.
Oh my goodness, Amy! I am not a cheesecake fan either, but that looks amazing. Saving this one for later. Yum!
Yum! I love cheesecake and this one looks delicious! I need to make one soon, thanks for the recipe!