This refreshingly tart and sweet No-Bake Sour Cream Lemon Pie is what summer dreams are made of! A golden Oreo crust crust, silky soft lemon custard filling, and swirls of sweetened whipped cream without ever heating up your kitchen by turning on the oven make this no-bake pie recipe the perfect dessert for summertime!

A no bake sour cream lemon pie in a white pie plate garnished with whipped cream and lemon slices.

With summer upon us and the weather heating up (it was in the high 80’s here just the other day!), I’m already looking for ways to avoid turning on the oven and heating up my kitchen. Enter the easy, wonderful no-bake pie!

When it comes to no-bake desserts, my go-to’s are typically banana cream pie (which I make in the microwave!), grasshopper ice cream pie, and chocolate cream pie.

Except honestly, every time I’ve made those I’ve baked the crusts, and it’s really just the fillings that are no bake! So I decided that with this no bake sour cream lemon pie I was going to try making it truly 100% no bake by chilling the crust to help it firm up rather than baking it in the oven an it worked like a charm!

The butter, which goes into the crust melted, helps bind the packed crumbs once it resolidifies somewhat in the fridge. The texture isn’t quite the same as baking the cookie crust for 10 minutes in the oven – you won’t have the crunch that heat gives to a baked Oreo cookie crust – but you also don’t have to turn on the oven at all, so it’s a worthy trade-off.

And the same approach would work for the other almost no-bake pies I mentioned earlier, except that you would need to do a graham cracker crust for the banana cream pie rather than a traditional blind-baked pie crust.

This particular no-bake sour cream lemon pie has a crust made with golden Oreos and a creamy, smooth filling thanks to a homemade lemon custard that only takes about 10 minutes to make.

It’s light and refreshing, with just the right level of lemon tartness the gets balanced out by the addition of sour cream, and the sweetened whipped cream that goes on top is an absolute must because it pairs so well with the lemon custard.

No-bake pies are a fun, easy way to get kids involved in the kitchen – crushing cookies or graham crackers for crusts, mixing and pouring, pressing crusts into pans, etc. – and everybody gets a sweet, cool reward at the end!

For other amazing no-bake recipes, be sure to check out my Easy No-Bake Blueberry Delight, Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies, Strawberry Pretzel Icebox Pie, Easy Lemon Icebox Cake, and No-Bake Chocolate Eclair Cake.

An image of a slice of lemony no-bake sour cream lemon pie with swirls of whipped cream and a slice of lemon on top, with a bite taken out of it.

Lemon Sour Cream Pie Recipe Ingredients

Granulated Sugar
Golden Oreos
Salted Butter
Cornstarch
Whole Milk
Lemons
Egg Yolks
Sour Cream
Heavy Cream
Powdered Sugar
Vanilla Extract

An image of an entire no-bake lemon cream pie decorated with swirls of whipped cream and lemon wedges.

How to Make No-Bake Sour Cream Lemon Pie

Pulse the golden Oreos into fine crumbs in a food processor (affiliate link) with some melted butter, then press it into a pie plate (affiliate link) and let it chill in the fridge while you make the filling. If you don’t have a food processor (affiliate link), you can also crush the cookies by putting them in a heavy duty zip-tight back and pounding them with a rolling pin (affiliate link) or meat mallet.
Make the homemade lemon filling by whisking the sugar and cornstarch with the milk and lemon juice in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat just until the custard starts to thicken and bubble. Then you will drop the heat down to low and continue to cook for 2 minutes more, stirring frequently while the mixture bubbles, filling your kitchen with the smell of sweet lemony lemon pudding.
Temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring about 1 cup of the hot liquid over the yolks, whisking so that the yolks come up to temperature, then pouring the tempered egg yolks back into the saucepan with the rest of the lemon filling and cooking another 2 minutes over low heat, whisking constantly.
Pull the lemon custard off the heat and whisk in the lemon zest and butter until it melts, then (and this is the hardest part) wait until the custard cools before stirring in the sour cream and pouring the lemon filling into the cookie crust.
Let the pie chill completely in the fridge for 4 hours before topping with the sweetened whipped cream and garnishing with lemon wedges.

Like most cream pies, this no-bake sour cream lemon pie can be tricky to slice and get a clean serving. It might be slightly easier if you make this in a springform pan and can just slide the pieces out, instead of lifting them out, but honestly, after one bite, no one will care if their slice of pie isn’t shaped in a perfect triangle!

An image of a slice of no-bake sour cream lemon pie on a white plate next to the pie dish.

Tips for making No Bake Lemon Pie

If the lemon custard hasn’t thickened to be a pudding-like texture but is still soupy instead, then you will need to cook it longer or double check that ingredients weren’t mismeasured.
Don’t skip tempering the egg yolks by adding a small amount of the hot lemon custard liquid to them and whisking before adding them to the pan. Otherwise they can easily scramble if added directly to the pot.
Let the pie chill thoroughly before topping with whipped cream and serving so that it has time to set up and slices well.