No-bake Cheesecake Berry Parfaits

         Hope you all had a great 4th of July this past weekend! Ted and I met up with some friends at one of their houses and hung out on the porch snacking and drinking till we went to go see fireworks.                                                                                   I made these festive no-bake cheesecake berry parfaits to bring over and they were a hit! You don’t need to turn on the oven (it’s sweltering here in DC) and you can make them ahead of time and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours too.

Here is the step-by-step below:

        The cast of characters: 2 boxes of cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, plain greek yogurt, graham crackers, milk, instant cheesecake pudding mix. (I forgot to take a picture of the lemon and the sugar!)

First crush the graham crackers in a ziploc freezer bag using a rolling pin. Be careful not to hit too hard or the bag might break! You could also use a food processor if you wanted.

 Once the graham crackers are crushed (it’s ok if you have some large chunks like I did) add the cinnamon, butter and sugar and mix until the mixture starts to come together.

Set the mixture aside and get started on the no-bake cheesecake filling

In a mixing bowl, beat the two packages of cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed and gradually add in the milk, a little at a time. It may look a little watery but it will thicken up in the next step.

Beat in the pudding mix until the filling is thick and smooth. It may take a few minutes.

  When nice and thick, add in the lemon zest, juice, and greek yogurt. Chill in the refrigerator while you cut up the strawberries.

Next cut up your strawberries into thin slices so they will be easy to layer into your cups or glasses.

   Now you can begin the layering process! I made a couple parfaits in glasses but made the rest in plastic cups to take over to our friend’s house.

   You can make the layers as thick as you’d like but I was trying to make around 15 for the get together so I made them a little thinner. First, layer in a couple spoonfuls of the graham cracker mixture and press it into the cup with a spoon or your finger. Then, add some blueberries and a couple spoonfuls of the cheesecake mixture.

After the blueberry layer, add on some sliced strawberries and then a couple more spoonfuls of the cheesecake mixture.

 Finally, top the parfaits with more berries and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs. You could certainly do more than 5 or 6 layers if you don’t need to make as many parfaits. You could also switch up the order of layers.

I had a large assembly line going with all of them!

Refrigerate if you are making in advance or eat right away! If you don’t have strawberries or blueberries around use raspberries and blackberries! It’s a very flexible recipe.

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No-bake Cheesecake Berry Parfaits

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 15 small parfaits

Ingredients

For the crust:
• 9 graham crackers
• 3 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
For the layers:
• 2 (8-oz) packages cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 (3.4-oz) package instant cheesecake pudding mix
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 3 cups milk
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
• 2 cups fresh sliced strawberries
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

1. Place graham crackers in a large ziploc bag and crush them into crumbs using a rolling pin. When crushed finely, add melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed and gradually add in the milk, a little at a time. It may look a little watery. Beat in the pudding mix until the filling is thick and smooth.
3. Add greek yogurt, lemon juice and lemon zest.
4. In glasses, layer graham cracker crumbs, blueberries, cheesecake filling, strawberries, cheesecake filling and top with more graham cracker crumbs.
5. Feel free to change up the layering order or use other fruits such as raspberries or blackberries as your layers.

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