A creamy and flavorful key lime cheesecake made in the Instant Pot and topped with Homemade Whipped Cream.

It is garnished with crushed graham crackers and lime zest. Key Lime Cheesecake is the perfect spring and summer dessert.

Ingredients in Instant Pot Cheesecake

• Cream cheese
• Eggs
• Heavy cream
• Granulated sugar
• Cornstarch
• Vanilla extract
• Salt
• Key Lime juice, substitute limes if needed
• Key lime zest, substitute limes if needed

Homemade Graham Cracker Crust

• Unsalted butter
• Graham crackers
• Salt
• Brown sugar

Ingredients in Homemade Whipped Cream

• Heavy cream
• Confectioner's sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Water
• Unflavored gelatin - this stabilizes the whipped cream

Preparing the Crust

I always line my Cheesecake Pan with parchment paper because, for me, it's so much easier to remove it from the pan.  It's not necessary to do this, you can instead use nonstick cooking spray.  I just prefer the parchment paper method.

I always blind bake my crusts because I prefer a crispier bite when eating cheesecake. 

You prepare the crust by melting the crushing the graham crackers, melting the butter, and mixing the ingredients together along with the salt and the brown sugar.   

You can completely forgo the blind baking if you want, but the graham cracker crust won't have as much of a crunch as it would if you were to blind bake it.

TIP: Blind baking is when you bake a crust in the oven without the filling.  It makes the crust a little more crunchy than if you were to ignore the blind baking step.

RELATED: Instant Pot Cheesecake with Fresh Raspberry Topping

Key Lime Cheesecake Filling

This cheesecake has lime juice and key lime zest.  If you don't have key limes available you can just use limes. 

The only huge difference between the two is that the key limes are smaller and seedier than limes.  The taste is very similar. 

Use a grater to remove the peel from the limes.  Be careful to only grate the green and leave the white peel.  The white peel will result in a more bitter taste.

It's very important to use room-temperature ingredients.  Always lay out the heavy cream, eggs, and cream cheese about 2 hours before you actually start making the cheesecake. 

The ingredients will incorporate easier and be more workable.  I also use a food processor because it allows short pulses (and more even blending) vs. a hand blender and helps prevent overbeating.

Key Lime Cheesecake Topping

I made homemade whipped cream as the topping for this cheesecake.  You can, by all means, use already prepared whipped cream in place of homemade. 

I didn't have any on hand but did have all the ingredients needed to make it homemade.  I garnished the top of the whipped cream with crushed graham crackers and sprinkled the cheesecake with lime zest.

Accessories Needed To Make the Instant Pot Cheesecake

• Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
• 7″ Cheesecake Pan
• Parchment Paper
• Instant Pot Sling or Handmade Aluminum Foil Sling
• Aluminum Foil
• Hand Grater

A Larger Cheesecake

What if you have an 8 qt. Instant Pot?  You can still make this cheesecake with the 7-inch pan or if you would prefer you can make this recipe in an 8-inch pan.  

The number of ingredients (for the 7″) will make a slightly shorter cheesecake but it will still taste the same.  If you are making the cheesecake in the 8-inch pan, you will have to adjust the time by 5 minutes.

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