I blame this pie almost entirely for my childhood weight issues – and man was it ever worth it! Grandmama used to make this around Christmas time and she’d send an entire pie to our house! Fortunately, my brother was dropped on his head as a child and didn’t eat things like this, which meant I got to eat his share. My sister pretty much came out of the womb counting calories so I’m pretty sure I ate her share as well. Opening the refrigerator and finding this looking back at you sure was a beautiful sight!
The fact that it is so incredibly easy to make just adds to the wonderment of one of my favorite Christmas pies.
Did you have a grandmother who made you a special
Christmas treat as a child?
We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
You’ll need: Cream cheese, lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and a graham cracker crust.
Of course, you can make your crust from scratch but I just get the store bought ones for this because I love the handy little plastic lid to put on top for storage in the refrigerator.
You’ll also need one can of your favorite pie filling.
I’m just showing two here because these two are my favorites to use on this. Today I’ll be using cherry, just like my Grandmama always did.
Ironically, Grandmama could never eat this pie when she used cherry because she is allergic to red food coloring.
Place your softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl and add your sweetened condensed milk.
Add in your lemon juice.
and vanilla.
Mix that up until creamy and smooth.
Spread into pie crust.
Like so.
It is important to make sure your cream cheese is softened before you make this so you won’t have lumps in your pie…
Just disreard those teeny tiny lumps in mine.
Cover that and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.
I also refrigerate my pie filling at this time as well, just stick the whole can in there. You don’t have to, though.
After several hours, top with your favorite pie filling and return to refrigerator until ready to serve.
Note: This is a soft pie. It won’t ever get firm so it is important to get it well chilled before serving and store it in the refrigerator.
Look at this photo…
~Whimper~
These are Corelle dishes from the eighties. The pattern is called “Holly Days”.
Aren’t they purty?
If you’ve had this pie before, I hope you make yourself one soon because you’re probably wanting it as bad as I am right now!
If you haven’t had this pie before, isn’t it time you made a special treat for someone you love?
Cherry Cream Cheese Pie Ingredients- 8 ounce pkg cream cheese, softened
- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (use the cheap stuff like me if you want, no shame in that!)
- store bought graham cracker crust
- 1 Can of pie filling of your choice (I love cherry or blueberry)
Instructions- Make sure cream cheese is softened at room temperature to prevent pie from being lumpy. In mixing bowl, place cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Mix until creamy and smooth. Spread into pie crust and cover. Refrigerate several hours. Top with pie filling and return to refrigerator until completely chilled. Serve cold.
- Note: This is a soft pie. It won't get firm so keep it in the refrigerator and serve cold.
- 8 ounce pkg cream cheese, softened
- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (use the cheap stuff like me if you want, no shame in that!)
- store bought graham cracker crust
- 1 Can of pie filling of your choice (I love cherry or blueberry)
- Make sure cream cheese is softened at room temperature to prevent pie from being lumpy. In mixing bowl, place cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Mix until creamy and smooth. Spread into pie crust and cover. Refrigerate several hours. Top with pie filling and return to refrigerator until completely chilled. Serve cold.
- Note: This is a soft pie. It won't get firm so keep it in the refrigerator and serve cold.
I had a little pantry makeover this weekend. If you’d like to see it (with before and after pics) please click here to visit the post in the Life At Bountifulsection of the website.
J. McMurry made such a heartfelt contribution to our Give A Penny Quote Page and I just had to share it all with you.
“After I was home from surgeries and prior to my chemo beginning (I had been diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer…..and now in November am enjoying being in remission)….the best quote my dear hubby laid on my Bible for me to find…..it’s lengthy, but fits right in with Southern Cooking:
‘You are the cheese to my macaroni. You are the horizon to my sky. You are the bacon to my eggs; you are the laces to my sneakers. You are the jelly to my peanut butter; you are the smile to my face. You are the gravy to my mashed potatoes. You are the bubbles to my bath. You are the milk to my cookie; you are the ink to my pen. You are the ketchup to my French fries..you are the water to my ocean. You are the icing on my cupcake.’
Do you see why I feel so blessed?” ~J.McMurry. Yes, J, I sure do! Now we’re blessed because you shared this. Gratefully, Christy
Did you have a grandmother who made you a special
Christmas treat as a child?
We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
Yum 
My mom always made this exact cherry cream cheese pie at Christmas. We love it at different times also. My grandmother always use to make peanut butter candy. Nobody could ever make it as well as she did. Gosh I miss her!
Heaven is getting sweeter every day.
Christie, Is this the pie that some people add pecans to the cream cheese filling?
You certainly could!!! That would be so good!!
My mom has made this pie ever since I was a little girl. It is sooooo delicious!!!
My dad and I can eat the entire pie ourselves. If you’ve never had it , you must try it!!
I know what you mean, Kristi. I’ve made this pie for at least 30 years and it’s delicious each time!
I think it’s about time I made another one!
I don’t use condensed milk, instead, and it always come out just right, i make my own crush,then i take 4 cream cheese. room temp, add one small cool whip, to the cream cheese, mix together with mixer,add powered sugar to taste, mix all together, pour in pie crust, that was in the refig, put back in refig, for a couple of hours, then add the cherry pie feeling, , it is soooooo good, i always have to make a large one everyone loves it
Christy, we love this pie, but use fresh sliced strawberries mixed w/ Wicks strawberry glace ( like you would use for short cake. Soooo good!
Oh great idea!!
One of my favorites too!
My grandmother made this for us for years it so good and so easy. It became my husbands favorite pie while we were still dating and he asks for it all the time. 🙂
i love this pie, except i don’t use
the lemon juice, i add 1 egg and bake it
for 30 minutes
My Mama made a cherry cream cheese pie at Christmas that was a bit different. She put Dream Whip in the filling and used a pie crust that was prebaked with pecans pressed into the bottom. Then she put the pie filling over the top. It was the best pie ever. Your recipe reminded me of it!
It sounds delicious!
My mother made this every year for my daughter for her birthday, which is New Years Eve, so she made it on Christmas. My Mom passed away in April and my Dad Dec 7th, it will be a sad Holiday but I will be making this pie for my Daughter and in memory of her Granny. Thank you for posting and your site, Love your stories
Tracy Tice
So sorry for your losses Tracy. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
My grandmother, Ruby Bradley Miller, used to make what she called a “Pink Cake”. She knew I loved it and it was a great treat. After she died i could not find it among her recipes. This is how I remember her making it:
1 Box of Powdered sugar
1 Powdered sugar box of flour (plain – add soda and baking powder)
1 jar of Maraschino cherries, chopped, add juice to cake batter
1 cup of milk
1 cup chopped pecans\
Mix together
Bake @350 in greased & floured oblong pan
I have tried to make it like hers, but it is not exactly the same. She worked in a garment factory and would always take her best friend, Miss Portis a piece !
After I was grown and moved, I was taught Miss Portis’ great-niece piano, it really is a small world.
Any suggestions on the cake? Please feel free
3 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3 c. sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 c. Crisco
3/4 c. milk
1/2 bottle maraschino cherries (10 oz. bottle)
1/2 bottle maraschino cherries (juice)
1 tsp. vanilla
Cream Crisco and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well, then add flour, milk, vanilla and cherry juice alternately. Do not mix cherries with mixer. Dice them in small pieces and stir with spoon. Bake at 300 degrees in tube pan for 1 1/2 hours.
ICING:
1 box powdered sugar
3 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese – room temp
1/2 stick butter – room temp
1/2 bottled diced cherries
1/2 bottle cherry juice
1/2 c. pecans (chopped)
mix all together
Rusty Miller and Barbara Miller, are you two related?
Nope, I’m not really a Miller. That is my third ex-husbands last name.
I also had this pie growing up but it was usually for our Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day’s which were all spent at the creek on our cousins lake lot ! The cherry cream cheese pie was as much a part of our ritual as swimming in the creek was !! Those were the days !!! We never worried about copperheads…water moccasins … (we called ’em ‘cottonmouths’) …. bacteria in the water…or wadin’ out over our heads!!! The worst thing we dealt with was swimming then getting out of the creek for dinner–we didnt call it lunch! (which was ALWAYS homemade chicken stew in a wash pot) !! We knew once we ate dinner, we weren’t allowed back in the creek to swim for at least 30 minutes (or you’ll get the bends my daddy would always say!! But having a big piece of this pie for dessert was worth not swimming till my daddy said we could go back in the creek !!! Needless to say, this pie brings back lots and lots of great family memories!!! I’m making one tonight to take to school for my co-workers tomorrow (cause we tell each other all the time “just keep swimming just keep swimming”) lol
P.S. I sure hope your legs are healing and getting stronger every day gf !!
What wonderful memories Connie!!!
My step grandmother made each of the four grandchildren an easter cake one year. I will never forget it! One round layer cake cut in half tuned on sides together made the bunny body. Part of the second layer made the tail and part the head. With paper ears, green coconut grass, covered in white coconut icing, and jellybeans scattered around. She personally delivered each cake. She loved me, just like i was her own, and i have never forgotten.
I didn’t know my grandmothers but you can bet I spoil my grandchildren with treats. I’ve made the pie many times. It’s wonderful and easy too.
Where’s the “pin” button on your newly redesigned website?
Found it!
I too grew up having a very similar pie. Well I have lived in Australia for several years now and they do not have cherry pie filling in a can so I had to figure out how to make my own!
1 jar of cherries already pitted in juice
some corn flour/corn starch
a bit of icing sugar /powdered sugar
a dash of vanilla
Pour cherries with juice into sauce pan
add the icing sugar
stir put on medium to high heat and stir constantly
add corn flour
continue to stir until cherry juice starts to thicken
make sure you scrap the bottom of the pan as you are stirring and don’t let it burn
Remove from heat an add vanilla – continue to stir until combined then pour over your pie and return to refridgerator. The cherries are tart but very nice with the cream cheese mixture.
This was a super hit for morning tea at work!
Thanks for sharing Ali!!
My grandmother made Polish kolache cookies every Christmas, and I started making them the Christmas after she passed away. It’s been nearly 20 years and I still make them every Christmas, no matter how tired or busy I am. There would be a family revolt if I didn’t! She also used to make “toad in a hole” (fried egg in a piece of toast with the center cut out) for breakfast whenever we would spend the night at her house. I made it for my kids for every first day of school, all the way to their senior year of high school!
My grandmother made “fruit salad” just for me every Christmas. Of course, everyone else loved it too. Hers was made with apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, fruit cocktail, and vanilla pudding. Oh, how I loved it!!! I have made it several times myself, but it just doesn’t taste as good as hers. When she got older, I would beg her to make it and she would say, “Honey, Granny’s old hands can’t cut all that fruit up like they use to.” She had arthritis really bad. I would just say that it would be ok, I didn’t want her to hurt her hands, but come Christmas, she would have it made in that big ole bowl with the tulips on it! She has been gone for almost 20 years and I have such great memories of being at her house. I still really miss her!
My family loves these pies, I’ve made them for ages. I have a sweet memory about them. One year ago I lost my precious brother, who was the rock and patriarch of our family. He was a deacon at our church, and every year we had a barbecue dinner, and Joe smoked the briskets and such. I would provide desserts and usually took one of these pies and a cake. I wondered why they never seemed to make it out to the table. So one year, I walked in the kitchen to check it out. Lo and behold, there was my brother and my two nephews, each one with a fork in their hand a my pie on the table. That memory brings a smile to my face every time I make one of these pies, and sometimes a tear to my eye.
Thanks Christy my husband loves the cherry pies I make and he will really love this recipe.Merry Christmas and God bless. The poem made cry thank you for sharing. My grand-mother passed away when I was 2yrs old but my Mom made me a chocolate pie just for me because I love hers, she has been gone 2yrs now. She was my water when I was thirstey and still is.
I have made this pie for several years before my son got hooked onto it, now whenever he has the family get together my admission cost is two pies, one for the occasion and one just for him. I believe that it is the easiest cream cheese cherry pie that you will find so easy to make and yummie, yummie for my tummie. Enjoy.
I made this pie for my Daddy all year round when I was a high school girl at home. He loved it and how I wish he was still here to enjoy it with me. My Mum (Daddy’s mom) made me a lemon pudding cake as a special treat and my Grannie (Mama’s mom) made me a real lemon meringue pie as a special treat. Bet they made me those citrusy treats because I had such a sunny disposition as a granddaughter…..haha! Thanks for giving me a moment to think of fond memories of people I have loved so much!
I’m making this pie this weekend for my husband except I am using some fresh plant city, fl strawberries. We always make this pie wit fresh strawberries since we don’t like cherries. My granny always made peanut butter roll the divinity hadbto be cooked perfectly or it didn’t turn out right. Yum
I was raised by my maternal grandmother from the time I was born until my Mom and Dad remarried when I was 8. We then promptly moved to Texas where my Dad lived at the time. We would visit my grandmother every chance we got, every couple of years or so. My favorite color was blue, so she would always make me a batch of blue divinity, colored with blue food coloring of course. She passed away a little over 2 years ago, and I still tear up every time I make divinity at home.
Thanks for bringing that memory back Christy.
Instead of the graham cracker crust, I use the pre made shortbread crust
Christy, Thanks for sharing this recipe. It is one my mom used to make on special occasions or when we were entertaining my dad’s bosses. I have a church small group dinner Monday and am responsible for a dessert. I was struggling with what I would take but guess what I will be making now!!! And in honor/memory of my mom. May have to make a second one for us to eat at home!
Thanks again!
I married into the right family. They introduced me to this pie, a must at all birthday celebrations. : )
I was a military wife and wherever we lived, my mother always sent me a big homemade fruitcake every Christmas.
I wonder how the filing would taste spread on brownies? I am looking for something to add a little flavor to some round brownies I bought?
I was just wondering if the lemon juice was the concentrated kind you buy in the store, or if it’s more like lemon juice straight from a lemon. (not concentrated) Thanks! 🙂
I prefer to use straight lemon juice but any of it will work!
Does anyone have the recipe for the Cherry Topping using a can of Sour Cherries, Corn Starch, sugar and the juice in the can of Sour Cherries? That was the way I used to make mine, and, there was a recipe on either the the Cherries Can or the Eagle Brand milk, but then it changed to pie filling. I”d like to make it again with the sour cherry recipe.
I used to make the cherry cheese pie also, but, istead of using cherry pie filling I used to make a sauce with the cherry juice and corn starch, and a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Then I would stir in the cherries after the sauce cooled. My father in law loved it and I made it often. I haven’t been able to find the recipe for years. Does anyone have the recipe for the sauce.
My Granny made this for every special occasion/holiday dinner. We still make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s still my favorite cheesecake.
What precious memories this pie brings to your family!! I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!
This is my most requested pie, but I put fresh strawberries (that have been sliced and sprinkled with some sugar on them and put aside in the fridge until they’ve formed a syrup) instead.
Oh, I bet that is wonderful as well!!!
Good morning, Christy!
I have made this pie since 1970. Have made it so much that I don’t need the recipe any more. It’s delicious!
My special Christmas treat is a white cake with white icing that my mom made every year. She would decorate it with the Red Hots candy. It was such a pretty cake.
Can this pie be frozen successfully?
My father is the one who made a pie like this. His set up though so maybe he used whipped cream instead of condensed milk or along with it. I wish I could ask him but he died of ALS 22 years ago. Mom has made it since then but my father was the baker in our house. Mom is better at the savory and Filipino desserts since that’s where she’s from. Her last attempt of cherry cream pie didn’t set up though. Maybe because the cream cheese was put in the freezer by my sister-in-law and it likely didn’t thaw in time. My son doesn’t like cherries so I use strawberries or apples if he and his daddy are eating it since they both like them. Lee does like cherries though. My favorite fruits for pies though are peaches or cranberries. Maybe I’ll do mini pies so we each can have what we like. I’ll try various combinations of the middle version until I get something like my father’s as Mom has been forgetful lately.
I made this pie as directed and it came out lumpy and airy, first two tries. The longer I ran the mixer, the airier it got but the lumps would not blend smooth. I modified the directions – I blend just the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk first, until smooth. Then add the lemon juice and vanilla and blend that until smooth. No lumps and it sets much better.