When berries are in bounty, and you want a show-stopping dessert, try out this recipe for Charlotte’s Eats & Sweets Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie. A copycat of a pie of an Arkansas dessert institution, this pie has a decadent cheesecake-like base stacked with whole strawberries coated in jam. It is crazy easy to make and dangerously easy to eat!

In Arkansas’s Lonoke County, a stone’s throw away from metropolitan Little Rock, is the town of Keo. And while it is known for pecans, this small town has a sweeter gem in its possession—pies, or more specifically, the pies from Charlotte’s Eats & Sweets. If you are on the town’s downtown drag, then you’ll see a line before the old converted pharmacy turned eatery opens. While it is one of the few places in town to sit down and eat, it is certainly the best.  

Since 1993, the place has served both lunch and desserts, but it’s the dessert, or more specifically the pies, that draw the crowds. Everyone eyes the pie case, and everyone orders their dessert with their main meal, just in case. This is the place that epitomizes the concept of eating your dessert first. While there’s always coconut cream, chocolate custard, and caramel custard on the day’s menu, something like this strawberry cream cheese pie is a special delight. 

Here, the pie starts off with a baked pie crust. You can use a premade pie dough from the frozen aisle of the supermarket or use your own from scratch version. 

Once cooled, the layer of whipped sweetened cream cheese is spread onto the bottom.

Next, the strawberries that have been coated in a bit of strawberry jam are piled on top.

A mound of whipped cream finishes this pie off. 

This pie has so many components going on. It has the flakey buttery pie crust countering the creamy cheesecake-like filling on the bottom. The fruit on top is like a burst of the spring and summer with a pure, unadulterated taste of strawberries enhanced only by a small amount of sweet, richly ripe jam. Whipped cream counters the tanginess of the cream cheese layer as well as the tart fruitiness of the strawberries, making it a great pie you don’t want to finish eating. 

It’s a great recipe to have when you want the fresh and bright taste of strawberries. The cream offsets the mild acidity of the strawberries without overtaking the flavor of the pie, making it a great spring and summer treat.