Almost every cheesecake total time you see is mostly waiting. A New York cheesecake is twenty minutes of mixing, an hour in the oven, and then six or seven hours of cooling and chilling it cannot skip. The no-bake versions trade the oven for four hours in the fridge. Either way, cheesecake is a plan-ahead dessert, and the only honest way to list them is with the real total time.

So that is what these twenty-five show. No-bake first, then classic baked, fruit, chocolate and peanut butter, pumpkin and apple, bars, minis, and two cheesecake-cake hybrids. One of them is done in fifty minutes, which makes it the only same-evening cheesecake on the page.

No-Bake Cheesecakes

No oven, no water bath, no cracking. The four hours is chilling, and the hands-on work on all three is about twenty minutes.

No Bake Graham Cracker Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese whipped with a cup of heavy cream, sour cream and powdered sugar over a graham crust, topped with strawberry sauce. Nine ingredients and the baseline no-bake recipe. View the full recipe — 4 hours 20 minutes · 12 servings · 9 ingredients

No Bake Cherry Cheesecake Squares

Eight ingredients: eight ounces of cream cheese with powdered sugar and whipped topping on a graham base, under a full twenty-one ounce can of cherry pie filling. Cut into nine squares. View the full recipe — 4 hours 20 minutes · 9 servings · 8 ingredients

Salted Caramel No Bake Cheesecake with Toffee Bits

Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese with a cup and a third of cold heavy cream, over a crust made with both white and brown sugar, finished with three quarters of a cup of caramel sauce, toffee bits and flaky sea salt. Fourteen ingredients. View the full recipe — 4 hours 30 minutes · 12 servings · 14 ingredients

Classic Baked Cheesecakes

The ones with eggs in the batter. All four need several hours of cooling, and the time below includes it.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Sixteen ounces of cream cheese with a cup of melted white chocolate chips and a cup of fresh raspberries folded through. Nine ingredients, serves eight, and the shortest baked cheesecake here at five and a half hours. View the full recipe — 5 hours 30 minutes · 8 servings · 9 ingredients

Cinnamon Swirl Cheesecake

Sixteen ounces of cream cheese with a teaspoon of cinnamon in the batter and a brown sugar cinnamon swirl dragged through it before baking. Thirteen ingredients. View the full recipe — 6 hours 20 minutes · 12 servings · 13 ingredients

Classic Baked Lemon Cheesecake with Fresh Berries

A pound of cream cheese with a whole lemon, two tablespoons of flour for stability and sour cream, served under two cups of mixed fresh berries. Eleven ingredients, serves eight. View the full recipe — 6 hours 20 minutes · 8 servings · 11 ingredients

New York Cheesecake

Twenty-one ounces of cream cheese with four eggs, an extra yolk, three quarters of a cup of sour cream and two tablespoons of cornstarch. Dense, tall and plain, the way it should be. Eight and a half hours total, almost all of it cooling. View the full recipe — 8 hours 35 minutes · 12 servings · 10 ingredients

Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust

Eight ingredients and nothing else: twenty-four ounces of cream cheese, sugar, half a cup of sour cream, vanilla and three eggs on a graham crust. The shortest ingredient list of any cheesecake on this page. View the full recipe — 9 hours 10 minutes · 12 servings · 8 ingredients

Fruit Cheesecakes

Three with real fruit folded in or piled on. The mango one sets with gelatin rather than eggs.

Fresh Blueberry Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust

Two cups of fresh blueberries in a twenty-four-ounce cream cheese batter with lemon juice. Nine ingredients and no topping needed. View the full recipe — 6 hours 20 minutes · 12 servings · 9 ingredients

No Bake Mango Cheesecake with Passionfruit

A pound and a half of ripe mango flesh set with gelatin over a graham base, layered with whipped cream, fresh mango and passionfruit. Seventeen ingredients and the only tropical one here. View the full recipe — 7 hours · 12 servings · 17 ingredients

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake

Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese under a ganache of a cup of heavy cream and a cup of chocolate chips, topped with a full pound of fresh strawberries glazed with jam. View the full recipe — 7 hours 25 minutes · 12 servings · 13 ingredients

Chocolate and Peanut Butter

The heavy ones. Two have a cookie crust instead of graham, and one is built on a brownie.

Caramel Drizzle Brownie Cheesecake

A real brownie layer made with half a cup of butter and a third of a cup of cocoa, topped with sixteen ounces of cheesecake batter and half a cup of caramel sauce. Five and a half hours, serves eight. View the full recipe — 5 hours 25 minutes · 8 servings · 13 ingredients

Chocolate Cheesecake with Cookie Crust and Chocolate Frosting

Thirty-two ounces of cream cheese with four eggs, three extra yolks, a cup of chocolate chips and half a cup of cocoa, on a crust of two and two thirds cups of crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, with a cocoa glaze. Eighteen ingredients, serves sixteen. View the full recipe — 6 hours 40 minutes · 16 servings · 18 ingredients

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache and Caramel

Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese with a full cup of creamy peanut butter and sixteen chopped peanut butter cups, on a chocolate cookie crust, with chocolate and peanut butter chips in the topping. View the full recipe — 7 hours · 12 servings · 14 ingredients

Pumpkin and Apple

Three for fall. One uses the Instant Pot, which is actually the easiest way to avoid a cracked top.

Apple Crisp Cheesecake

Sixteen ounces of cream cheese under three large apples cooked down with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Twelve ingredients, five hours, serves eight. View the full recipe — 5 hours · 8 servings · 12 ingredients

Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake with Brown Sugar and Pumpkin Spice

A full fifteen-ounce can of pumpkin puree with twenty-four ounces of cream cheese, both white and brown sugar and a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice. Ten ingredients, serves twelve. View the full recipe — 6 hours 10 minutes · 12 servings · 10 ingredients

Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake

Twelve ounces of cream cheese with a cup of pumpkin puree on a gingersnap crust, steamed in the Instant Pot over a cup of water. The gentle moist heat is why it comes out without a crack. View the full recipe — 8 hours 25 minutes · 8 servings · 15 ingredients

Bars and Squares

Easier to serve and easier to transport than a round cheesecake. All three cut into nine to sixteen pieces.

Caramel Cheesecake Brownies

A box brownie mix as the base with sixteen ounces of cheesecake batter swirled in, a cup of caramel sauce and six chopped chocolate caramel nougat bars. Two hours ten, which makes it the fastest thing in this group by hours. View the full recipe — 2 hours 10 minutes · 16 servings · 9 ingredients

Strawberry Crunch Cheesecake Bars

Eight ounces of cream cheese over a graham base with three quarters of a cup of strawberry jam, under a brown sugar and flour crumble. Fourteen ingredients, cut into nine. View the full recipe — 5 hours 55 minutes · 9 servings · 14 ingredients

No Bake Caramel Crunch Cheesecake Bars

Sixteen ounces of cream cheese with half a cup of caramel sauce and a cup of whipped heavy cream, on a graham base, topped with four chopped crunchy peanut butter candy bars. Nine ingredients, sixteen servings. View the full recipe — 6 hours 35 minutes · 16 servings · 9 ingredients

Minis and Cupcakes

Individual portions, which means no slicing and much shorter chilling. The first one is the only cheesecake here you can make and eat the same evening.

Fluffy Japanese Cotton Cheesecake Cupcakes

Only half a cup of cream cheese, lightened with whipped egg whites and cream of tartar into something closer to a souffle than a cheesecake. Nine ingredients and fifty minutes, start to finish. View the full recipe — 50 minutes · 12 servings · 9 ingredients

Mini Blackberry Cheesecakes

Sixteen ounces of cream cheese baked in twelve cups with blackberries and jam, under a cooked blackberry sauce thickened with cornstarch and more fresh berries on top. View the full recipe — 3 hours 7 minutes · 12 servings · 14 ingredients

Mini Baked Cheesecakes with Whipped Cream and Berries

Twelve ounces of cream cheese with lemon zest and sour cream on a cinnamon graham base, each topped with whipped cream and a strawberry, blueberries and raspberries. Nineteen ingredients because the garnish is part of the recipe. View the full recipe — 5 hours 40 minutes · 12 servings · 19 ingredients

Two Cheesecake-Cake Hybrids

A full cake layer and a full cheesecake layer in one pan. Both serve sixteen, and both have twenty-four ingredients because you are making two desserts.

Butter Pecan Red Velvet Cheesecake

A buttermilk red velvet layer under sixteen ounces of brown sugar cheesecake with a cup of butter pecans, finished with cream cheese frosting, more pecans and red velvet cake crumbs. View the full recipe — 6 hours 5 minutes · 16 servings · 24 ingredients

Carrot Cake Cheesecake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Twenty ounces of cheesecake on a carrot cake layer made with a cup and a half of grated carrots, applesauce and canola oil, with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, under cream cheese frosting. View the full recipe — 6 hours 40 minutes · 16 servings · 24 ingredients

Cheesecake Questions, Answered

Why are the total times so long?

Because cooling counts. A baked cheesecake has to come to room temperature slowly and then chill for several hours, or it will not set and it will crack. The active work on a New York cheesecake is well under an hour; the other seven and a half hours are waiting. The no-bake versions are four to seven hours for the same reason.

Is there a cheesecake I can make today and eat tonight?

One: the Fluffy Japanese Cotton Cheesecake Cupcakes at fifty minutes. They are much lighter than a standard cheesecake, which is exactly why they do not need the long chill. After that, the caramel cheesecake brownies at two hours ten.

How do I stop a cheesecake from cracking?

Three things. Do not overbeat the batter, since beaten-in air expands and tears the surface. Pull it while the center still wobbles. And cool it slowly rather than moving it straight to the fridge. The Instant Pot pumpkin cheesecake avoids the problem entirely by steaming it.

Do I need a water bath?

It helps for the tall baked ones, and the recipes that want it say so. The ones with flour or cornstarch in the batter, including the New York cheesecake and the lemon cheesecake, are more forgiving because the starch stabilizes the custard.

No-bake or baked, which should I pick?

Baked if you want the dense, sliceable texture of a classic cheesecake. No-bake if you want to avoid the oven and do not mind a softer, mousse-like set. No-bake is also the safer choice if you have never made one.

Which cheesecake feeds the most people?

Four serve sixteen: the chocolate cheesecake with cookie crust, the no-bake caramel bars, the caramel cheesecake brownies, and both cheesecake-cake hybrids. Most of the rest serve twelve.

Can I freeze cheesecake?

Yes, and it freezes better than most desserts. Chill it fully first, then wrap whole or in slices and freeze for up to two months. Thaw in the fridge overnight. Do not freeze one with fresh fruit on top; add the fruit after thawing.