I always love a tasty, yet easy cream cheese dessert recipe, and this fluffy cream cheese dessert is that to a “T”. It is a great take on the classic cheesecake, but with fruit and cream cheese base.
Summer desserts with cream cheese always seem to be a hit when you bring them to BBQs, so make sure you bring this to your next one. It is sure to be a favorite family dessert this summer.
This is such a great recipe for a hot day, and it’s an absolute favorite for summer holidays! It’s one of the best cream cheese desserts to make, and you can customize it with fresh fruit, fresh strawberries, graham cracker crumbs, edible cookie dough, or anything else you like to add to a sweet treat.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our fluffy cream cheese dessert, you need the following ingredients:
- Crushed vanilla wafers
- Unsalted butter
- Powdered sugar
- Cream cheese
- Cool Whip
- Crushed pineapple, drained
- Fresh berries (pick your favorite), optional topping
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Fluffy Cream Cheese Dessert:
- Melt butter in the microwave and allow to cool.
- Combine the cookie crumbs and butter and toss together until incorporated. Press 2 cups of the crumb mixture firmly into an 9×9 square pan.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. Turn the mixer down to low and add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until it is all mixed together.
- Next add the can of pineapple and cool whip and stir in with a rubber spatula.
- Spread the pineapple mixture over the crust.
- Sprinkle the remaining cookie crumb mixture on top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Feel free to top with fresh berries when serving, if desired.
Storage Instructions
You can make this easy cream cheese dessert up the night before you need it and make sure to store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Can I Replace Cool Whip With Whipped Cream?
We would not suggest replacing cool whip with whipped cream. Cool whip has a stability to it that whipped cream does not. Cool whip stays full and fluffy, while whipped cream is airred and will release the air quickly, making the whipped cream drop and become runny.
Enjoy More Delicious Puddings and Mousse Recipes
Puddings are easy enough for home cooks at any level, and they make a great dessert for any occasion. Check out our comprehensive list of all our pudding recipes!
- Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert Cups
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Lasagna
- Copycat Magnolia Pudding
- Easter Bunny Pudding Dirt Cake
- Halloween Graveyard Pudding Cups
- Layered Brownie Pudding Dessert
- Layered Chocolate Chip Cookie Dessert
- Layered Lemon Dessert
Fluffy Cream Cheese Dessert Recipe
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 ½ cup crushed vanilla wafers
- ½ cup butter (unsalted)
Filling
- 2 cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup butter (unsalted), softened
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 8 ounces cool whip
- 20 ounces crushed pineapple, 1 can, drained well
- fresh berries, optional topping
Instructions
- Melt butter in the microwave and allow to cool.
- Combine the cookie crumbs and butter and toss together until incorporated. Press 2 cups of the crumb mixture firmly into an 9×9 square pan.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. Turn the mixer down to low and add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until it is all mixed together.
- Next add the can of pineapple and cool whip and stir in with a rubber spatula.
- Spread the pineapple mixture over the crust.
- Sprinkle the remaining cookie crumb mixture on top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Feel free to top with fresh berries when serving, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
Yumm the cream cheese looks sooo fluffy! I definitely want to try this ^^
This is mine kind of dessert!!!
I make a no bake cheesecake very similar to this but leave out the butter and use only half the sugar and twice the light cream cheese.
Sounds delicious and EASY, can’t wait to try it!
Pineapple – tidbits, crushed, chunks, slices?????
Crushed!! So sorry about that, we adjusted the recipe!
The fluffy cream cheese dessert was absolutely wonderful. We had it for Easter dinner dessert. Thank you for the great recipes. Keep them coming.
The fluffy cream cheese dessert was wonderful! We had it for our Easter dinner dessert. It was so delicious. The recipes are wonderful. Keep them coming.
Confused about part where mix cream cheese and butter. Then turn to low before adding powered sugar? So you heat cream cheese and butter on the stove?
Turn your beaters down to a lower speed when adding the powdered sugar to the cream cheese and butter. 🙂
Easy to make. Pretty presentation. Tastes delicious. Everyone wanted a second piece. The only problem was that the “crust” on the bottom was all crumbles even though I used an extra teaspoon of melted butter and pressed on it firmly. Any suggestions?
Brought the dessert to our friend’s house and it was a hit. The crust was crumbly inspite of an extra teaspoon of melted butter. Any suggestions?
think you used the incorrect word.. your recipes says “turn the mixture down to low” i think you meant to say turn your “mixer” down to low speed… confusing because sounds like you are heating it to low…
I made this and I baked the crust at 350 degrees for about 8 min. Then cooled it before putting in the fluffy mixture. I didn’t have any problems with the crust being crumbly was perfect.
Wonderful recipe…great for family gatherings…
Could not locate the ‘print’ symbol?
Kind regards
Susan
Can you double this recipe and place in 9×13 pan? I love this recipe!
It should work just fine to double it and put in a 9 x 13 inch pan. So glad you love this recipe! It’s one of our favorites.
How do you get this to print? I clicked on the print-friendly button, but nothing happened .HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
How do you get this to print? I clicked on the print-friendly button but nothing happened. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
We just tested the print friendly button on this recipe and it worked fine. Not sure what the problem could be. Sorry Doris.
This fluff stuff was AMAZING!!!!!!! We’re completed addicted. The only change we made was slice up some fresh strawberries and put a layer of strawberries in the middle. Incredible! We will be making this again and again. And I’ll be making this for the next office potluck.
Forgot to add to my earlier comment. Definitely let this sit overnight. We tried eating it after the 4 hour mark and it was way too sweet. I was so disappointed but the next night we tried it again after dinner and somehow the sugar really mellows out after its sat for a day. And now we LOVE it. Just a tip. 🙂
Can you use any other types of canned fruit to make this.?
We have only made it with the drained pineapple. Just be sure whatever fruit you use that it is drained well.
made this recipe today. the next time I make it I would change a few things. first I’d use a bigger pan like maybe a9 by 13. and use half of the powdered sugar. I love desserts but this was just a little too sweet.
Thank you for all the yummy recipes!!!!!
If I use a store bought crust how much butter do I use with the cool whip, fruit and cream cheese mix?
If you are using a store bought crust, just omit the crust ingredients. Everything else will stay the same.
is this recipe gluten free? I have a cousin who cannot have gluten but I don’t really know what does and does not have gluten.
The crust is definetly not gluten free. If you could find a recipe for a similar style crust that is gluten free the rest of the ingredients should be good. However, some powder sugars use starch as an ingredient so you will need to check the ingredient list before hand. I have seen similar recipes to this that do not even use a crust. It’s just more of a fluff dessert and was still really yummy.
Just dropped in to say thanks for the recipe! We just made this for the New Year’s eve party and it tastes great!
The only changes we made was we layered the cookies and the cream mixture. Oh and we also brushed the tops of the wafers with the pineapple juice and refrigerated it overnight.
You could make it gluten free if you used gluten free vanilla wafers.
Will a can of sweetened condensed milk work in place of the powdered sugar and melted butter?
We haven’t made this using sweetened condensed milk. We have only followed the directions as on the recipe.
My daughter made this last week for her husbands birthday party Oh you’ve got to try it It’s to die for…..
Can’t wait for the next party to make it. Can’t enough!!
I do not like pineapple..can I sub with something else or leave it out?
We have only made it with the pineapple. I’m sure you could add strawberries. Let us know how it all turns out.
Basically anything with flour in it has gluten in it. I have never seen gluten free Nilla Wafers. I have seen Gluten free graham crackers. Maybe they could be used instead.
What if you dont have cool whip? Can u use condensed milk or powdered sugar
I wonder if anyone has tried substituting fresh peaches for the pineapple? Or graham
I wonder if anyone has tried substituting fresh peaches for the pineapple? Or, using graham crackers instead of vanilla wafers?
Has anyone tried substituting fresh peaches for the pineapple or graham crackers for the vanilla wafers?
I used ginger snap cookies from a health food store & added a little crushed pecans, oh man what a crust. I also used eurithritol (monk fruit, a natural sugar) in place of sugar. It’ll be ready for my small dinner party tmrw bite 😜 I’m confident & excited to try it! I’ll let ya know
I really don’t understand your recipes. I haven’t found one that includes the amount for each of the ingredients. Where would I get that?
If you click the “jump to recipe” button at the top of the post or scroll down to the bottom of the post you will find the recipe card complete with ingredients, measurements and detailed instructions
I need to double this recipe for a group of 8-10 people. Is this possible
Yes you can double this recipe