Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie — Cream cheese is in the filling AND swirled on top!! A huge step up from regular pumpkin pie!! Easy, so good, and a big hit with everyone!!
A pumpkin pie recipe … with cream cheese? Yes, really!
This isn’t your ordinary (i.e. boring) pumpkin pie. Everything is better with cream cheese, and pumpkin pie is no exception.
The pie filling is made from a mixture of pumpkin puree, sugar, spices, and cream cheese. And there’s cream cheese swirled on top so you get a double dose of cream cheese. I’m not complaining.
The pie is fast and easy to make even for those of us who rarely make pie. In all my years of blogging, pie is very under-represented because I usually don’t want to take the time, but this one is a cinch.
I like the rustic appearance because it doesn’t have to look ‘perfect’ to still taste amazing.
The tangy cream cheese is a perfect contrast to the warming pumpkin pie spice. The pie is rich, perfectly dense, and your house will smell like Thanksgiving as it bakes.
I know what pie I’m making this year for Thanksgiving!
Ingredients for Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie
This recipe features a tangy pumpkin pie filling made with cream cheese, a cream cheese swirl, and a buttery pie crust.
To make this pumpkin pie with cream cheese, you’ll need:
- Pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
- Granulated sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Cream cheese
- Eggs
- Pumpkin puree
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Milk
Can Lite Cream Cheese Be Used?
No, low-fat or lite cream cheese will NOT work in this recipe. You need to use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese. The extra fat helps the pumpkin pie filling set up and keeps it moist.
How to Make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie
This is a super easy cream cheese pumpkin pie, thanks to a shortcut store-bought pie crust. Of course, you can use a homemade crust if you have the time and desire.
Once the crust is made (or purchased!), the filling and cream cheese swirl are simple whisk-together numbers.
Here’s a look at how the recipe for pumpkin cream cheese pie is made:
- You’ll first need to pre-bake the crust until light golden brown. It will be baked again after the pumpkin pie filling has been added, but you need to pre-bake it so it’s solid enough to withstand the filling.
- While the crust bakes, prepare the pumpkin pie filling. You’ll first need to beat together the flour, sugar, and cream cheese in a stand mixer. Reserve a heaping 1/2 cup of the cream cheese mixture.
- Add the remaining cream cheese mixture to the filling, then turn into the pre-baked crust.
- Swirl the 1/2 cup cream cheese mixture you reserved into the top of the pie.
- Bake the pumpkin cream cheese pie for about 45 minutes.
How to Tell If Pumpkin Pie Is Done
You’ll know the pie is done when the center is set and not overly jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter.
Should Pumpkin Pie Be Refrigerated?
Yes, you must refrigerate this pie, both for food safety reasons and also to help it set up properly.
How Long Is Pumpkin Pie Good for in the Fridge?
Pumpkin cream cheese pie will last up to 1 week in the fridge. Cover it with foil or plastic wrap.
Tips for Making Pumpkin Pie with Cream Cheese
To save time and because making pie crust is not something I enjoy, I used a refrigerated store-bought pie crust. However, I do have a homemade pie crust recipe that I love (I just don’t make crusts often!). Use that if you prefer.
The original recipe suggests covering the edge of crust with 3-inch strips of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning and to remove foil for last 15 minutes of baking.
Since my filling came up nearly as high as the crust, I didn’t bother with foil and the crust wasn’t overly browned; do as you see fit.
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Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie
Cream cheese is in the filling AND swirled on top!! A huge step up from regular pumpkin pie!! Easy, so good, and a big hit with everyone!!
Ingredients
- 1 refrigerated pie crust (or your favorite homemade crust)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 12-ounces brick-style cream cheese, softened (one 8-ounce package and half of another 8-ounce package; don’t use lite or whipped cream cheese)
- 3 large eggs
- one 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons milk (I used Silk Unsweetened Cashewmilk)
Instructions
Pre-Bake the Crust:
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Place pie crust into prepared pie plate, pressing sides down firmly and crimping edges if desired. Make sure crust comes quite far up the sides or the filling won’t all fit. Prick holes with a fork into the crust for steam to escape in about one dozen places.
- Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. While crust bakes, prepare the filling.
Make the Filling:
- To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large bowl and electric mixer), add the sugar, flour, cream cheese and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Reserve a heaping 1/2 cup in medium bowl; set aside.
- To the large bowl with the cream cheese and sugar mixture, add the eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, salt, and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn filling out into prepared crust, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula. I had about 1/3 cup of extra filling and since the exact dimensions of pie plates and exact thickness of crusts will vary, you may or may not have extra filling; set pie plate aside.
- To the reserved cream cheese mixture, add the milk, and whisk vigorously to combine.
- Turn the cream cheese mixture out over the pumpkin filling and spread lightly with a table knife or spatula. Cut through cream cheese and pumpkin with a knife or spatula in S-shaped curves in one continuous motion for a marbled design. Turn pie plate one-fourth turn and repeat.
- Bake about 45 minutes or until center is set and not overly jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter. (The original recipe suggests covering the edge of crust with 3-inch strips of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning and to remove foil for last 15 minutes of baking but since my filling came up nearly as high as the crust, I didn’t bother with foil and the crust wasn’t overly browned; do as you see fit.)
- Cool pie on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.
Notes
Storage: Pie will keep covered in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Adapted from Betty Crocker.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 404Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 113mgSodium: 387mgCarbohydrates: 45gFiber: 2gSugar: 29gProtein: 7g
More Easy Pumpkin Pie Recipes:
See all of my favorite Pumpkin Recipes here!
Cooking With Pumpkin: Recipes That Go Beyond the Pie – My second cookbook with over 50 pumpkin recipes including sweets, savory, drinks, and a photo for nearly every recipe. I’d be super grateful if you headed over to Amazon
Crustless Pumpkin Pie — The EASIEST pumpkin pie you’ll ever make because there’s no crust!! One bowl, no mixer, and the pie is PERFECTLY flavored with plenty of pumpkin spice and everything nice!
Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie — The easiest pumpkin pie you’ll ever make! Put it on your Thanksgiving menu and save yourself pie-making stress!
Pumpkin Pecan Pie – Merging two favorite pies in one so that the whole family can agree on a holiday dessert! This EASY pie is perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, holiday entertaining, and can be made in advance with store bought crust to save time!
Caramel Apple Crumble Pie – Apple Pie meets Apple Crumble meets plenty of gooey caramel. Easy, fast, 5-minutes to assemble. Goofproof recipe for those of us who aren’t pie-makers!
Best Homemade Apple Pie (From Scratch!) — This fabulous apple pie is a specialty of my grandma’s. The sauce for the apples is slowly poured over the lattice crust until it fills the shell.
Cherry Cream Pie — An old-fashioned pie with homemade scratch crust topped with NO-BAKE layers of sweetened cream cheese along with juicy cherry pie filling!! If you like cherry pie, you’re going to LOVE this amped up version!!
Crustless Cranberry Pie —A FAST, super EASY, no-mixer dessert that’s perfect for holiday entertaining!! Somewhere in between pie, cake, and blondies is what you get with this FESTIVE recipe!
Hello Averie, I made this today, and it is absolutely delicious! I used a pre-made crust from Pillsbury, and it worked out perfectly. I had some filling left over, but I just tossed it.
Thank you!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Hi Averie – made your pie today and it’s a real hit around here – even the cat enjoyed the part he nibbled off the top when no one was looking.
A couple of years ago I discovered that a refrigerated pie crust just fits in a 10″ pie plate so that’s what I used today and it was perfect for the amount of filling. I did shorten the baking time.
Thanks for the terrific recipe.
Sheila
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you! And great tip about the refrigerated crust fitting perfectly in a 10″ dish!
Hi, I am using a pre made pie crust do I still need to poke holes in the crust? Thank u for ur help!
Yes.
Thank u so much can’t wait to have it :)
Pie is definitely underrepresented on my blog too. For years, I convinced myself that I didn’t have the time and that the crust would turn out soggy… And my favorite part of the pie is always the filling, so why bother? I’d rather make a crumble (you know how much I adore a good streusel!) and have a double serving of that instead! But cream cheese in pumpkin pie?? Now that I want to try!
I’d rather make a crumble too most of the time (and so easy!) which is why pies, well, they’ve been neglected on my blog!
Yummy Yummy!! Great and perfect recipe for Halloween!!
Xoxo,
Love from http://www.trangscorner.com {a lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and food blog}
Averie, happy Halloween! such a great idea. I’m a cheese fan: -)
This looks soon great Averie! Happy Halloween :)
Hope you guys have a great Halloween, too!! :)
Pie is probably one of my favorite things to make, and this one looks lovely. Can’t wait to try it!
What a great looking pie! You had me at cream cheese :)
Hi Averie, Thanks you for sharing with us a great recipe, looks so delicious and I can’t wait to try it :(
This looks like the perfect pumpkin pie recipe!! I love that cream cheese swirl. And yes, rustic. I love making pie but mine always look rustic!
My pies always come out rustic, even if I try for otherwise, so I just embrace it :)
I’m not a fan of the OG pumpkin pie but THIS one, I can totally jump on board with! Will definitely be testing this out prior to T-day!
This pie looks delicious! We tried your pumpkin waffles for breakfast this morning and my three-year-old son ate one entire waffle (our maker divides it into four quarters), we were all pretty big fans!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Your 3 year old is impressive :)
Double cream cheese action here?! YUM!! At least our mornings and evenings are starting to resemble fall. We’ve been eating all our pumpkin things at night. Midday still feels like summer :P
I know it’s crazy how warm it was yesterday. I was out in the middle of the day running errands and sweating and had to turn my car a/c on but at night turned my house heater on for 30 mins!
Great recipe, Averie. I will definitely make it this weekend. Got one question though – I know that cheese does not go well with nuts, but I really like mixing pumpkin with nuts. Do you think It’s a good idea if I add some grated nuts in the pumpkin layer?
I would personally skip them in this pie since the baking time and how the pie sets up could be effected. Save the nuts for another recipe. Many of my other pumpkin recipes for breads and such that I linked to would be better.
I see… I guess there’s more time needed to properly bake the nuts. Anyways, I’ll try it just the way you’ve showed us. Thanks for your quick answer. Cheers!
This looks like the perfect marriage of cheesecake and pumpkin pie and I love the extra cream cheese swirled on top! I don’t mind making a pie crust–it’s the clean up (flour everywhere)after rolling it all out that I’d rather not have to deal with!
Yes the flour everywhere situation, not a fan of that at all! Have a great weekend, Paula!
If we can make pumpkin cream cheese bread, why not pie? Brilliant! And I rarely fool with making my own crust, either. I can do it, so yay, but it takes more time and I’m busy. The refrigerated ones are great!
I’m all about time-savers and less cleanup and just less hassle :)