No-Bake Fluffy Cranberry Pie with Graham Cracker Crust
If you’re looking for an easy no bake holiday recipe, you must try this one. And if you love cranberry flavors, then even better. Our no bake cranberry pie is fluffy, delicious and way too easy to make for the Thanksgiving and Christmas. Happy Holidays!

Easy Cranberry Pie without Baking : No Oven
While developing some recipes for a client this past Summer, we started to think about easy desserts to make without the oven. No bake cranberry pies was one example that could be made without ever having to turn on the oven. For days when we’re reaching hot dry temperatures, the very last thing in the world we’d ever want to do is to turn on the oven. We were inspired to make pies without the need for an oven. Essentially two words dominated our food creativity and conversations when the thermometer reached its sweat inducing peaks: don’t bake.
VIDEO: No Bake Cranberry Pie Video:
Fluffy Cranberry Pie Recipe
We also wanted a fluffy pie to make sure it was easy but delicious as well. Then we started researching and found some inspiration (whew!) on desserts that were no bake, no heat and no oven torture. A no-bake graham cracker crust filled with a whipped cream, fluffy filling. Fill it, chill it, and eat it. A delicious, creamy, fluffy pie and no oven time needed. We were hooked. With the holidays here, especially the epic food holiday of Thanksgiving, having a no-bake dessert up our sleeves it more than handy.
How Long To Chill the Pie?
This is the hardest part: waiting for the pie to set. It usually takes at least 4 hours for the pie to set fully but depending on how cold the fridge is, it could take 6 hours or overnight. This is a great pie to make ahead of time the day before. So just plan ahead and you can make it up to 2 days ahead. This will make planning easier.
Adding Orange Zest to Pie
Please don’t skip this part for th no bake cranberry pie. The orange zest is so aromatic and really adds a wonderful flavor to the cranberry pie. Besides, orange and cranberry goes so well together. It’s worth buying an orange for the zest. And then juice the orange to drink the fresh juice. So nothing goes to waste.
No Bake Fluffy Cranberry Pie with No Bake Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients
No-Bake Graham Cracker Crust Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (125 g) graham cracker crumbs (about 9 whole crackers worth)
- 2 Tablespoons (30 g) packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter (1 stick) , melted
Fluffy Cranberry Pie Filling Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) heavy whipping cream
- 12 ounces (340 g) cream cheese , softened
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 14 oz (397 g) canned whole berry cranberry sauce
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla
- zest of 1 medium orange
- optional – a few drops of red food coloring to achieve deeper pink color
- optional – orange peel curls for garnish
- optional – a handful of frozen cranberries for garnish (rolled in sugar)
Instructions
- Make the pie crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Mix in the melted butter until evenly combined.
- Press the crust mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan into an even layer. Press well to compact the crust. Set aside.
- Make the cranberry pie filling: Whisk the heavy whipping cream in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- In large bowl, beat together the sugar and cream cheese until well combined and smooth.
- Stir in the cranberry sauce, vanilla, and orange zest until smooth.
- Add the whipped cream mixture and enough food coloring to achieve your desired pink color. Continue to gently fold the entire mixture until well combined.
- Add the cranberry pie filling into pie pan prepared with the graham cracker crust.
- Chill the pie for about 6 hours or overnight, until firm.
- To sugar the cranberries, toss a handful of frozen whole cranberries in granulated sugar until evenly coated with sugar.
- Garnish with orange peel curls and/or sugared frozen cranberries.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Easy Holiday Recipes
- Enjoy more cold weather recipe like this sriracha roast chicken
- our famous potatoes au gratin recipe with NO CHEESE
- more holiday dessert recipes here.
- party spinach artichoke dip
- meyer lemon cranberry scones
- lemon pie recipe
- dill chicken pot pie
- blue cornbread with blue cornmeal
- This recipe was originally published in 2014 and re-published with an updated video.
I really love how easy this was to make. It’s great that we don’t need to bake it because then the kids could help.
This is delicious! All family members said, “Keep this recipe!”
Awesome! Happy everyone loved it!
This sounds delish and I am thinking of making it for thanksgiving. I will have and 1 1/2 drive on Thanksgiving day and I am wondering if the pie will melt. Do you think that I could make it the day before, chill it to let it set, then freeze it overnight? That way is can thaw on the drive. What do you recommend?
Tiffany- If it’s cool/cold weather, then maybe the drive won’t soften it too much. Once it’s out of the fridge, it’s pretty firm. We’ve had the pie at room temperature for about 2 hours and it was still firm and delicious. Not sure how it would thaw if it was “frozen”. So best advice is to keep it as cool as possible in the car, maybe even in a cooler and the pie should be fine.
Does the pie need to sit out for a few minutes before serving?
Jennifer- we’ve eaten it straight out of the fridge where it was a little more firm and it still was great. But letting it sit out for a while won’t hurt either. The filling will soften up a bit but as long as it’s still a little cold and firm, it should taste great.
I love how this pie is no bake and fluffy. The best of both worlds!
Have two of these chilling in my fridge as I type this! I am so excited and really hope they set up well, as I was a little worried about mine when I was pouring the filling into the crusts. But even if it doesn’t, that just means we’ll just keep them here at home instead of taking them with us for the big Thanksgiving gathering! ๐ Thanks for such a yummy recipe.
That is one good looking pie!! ๐
This would make a great cranberry mouse without the graham crackers, you think ??
Hi Terri,
That sounds like a great idea.