Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

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This pumpkin cream cheese pie is the perfect summer to fall transition dessert. A buttery cinnamon graham cracker crust is filled with creamy no bake pumpkin filling, and topped with sweetened whipped cream and a homemade caramel drizzle.

It’s September, which means ALL THINGS PUMPKIN are roaring into stores and into our hearts. It’s still quite warm here in southern Oregon (it’s was 107° yesterday 🥵), so this semi-no-bake pie is definitely the perfect summer to fall transition dessert when you want minimal oven time usage. My pumpkin cream cheese pie starts with a sweet and buttery cinnamon graham cracker crust. It is filled with a simple and creamy no bake pumpkin cream cheese filling (loaded with spices too!), and it is topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream plus a generous drizzle of homemade caramel sauce. It’s wonderfully decadent, bridges the gap between seasons, and is sure to please the pumpkin lover in your life.

What you’ll need to make this pumpkin cream cheese pie:

Graham cracker crumbs

Salted butter

Granulated sugar

Cream cheese

Pumpkin purée (unsweetened)

Dark brown sugar

Pure vanilla extract

Ground cinnamon

Ground nutmeg

Heavy Cream

Caramel sauce

The Crust

This super easy graham cracker crust has a fun fall spice added: cinnamon. Now you can absolutely use cinnamon graham crackers instead, but I love the already crushed Keebler graham cracker crumbs that save me from having to crush them myself. I add the cinnamon, the sugar, and the melted butter. The ratio is perfect; it’s not too wet and not too dry. This ratio allows the crust to bake up well without being crumbly, and hold any filling you dream of. It also is important that the crust isn’t too laden with butter so that it falls apart and is greasy.

The Filling

This dreamy filling is super simple to make and full of pumpkin cream cheese flavor. Why? Because it has real pumpkin and real cream cheese. This filling is comprised of pumpkin purée, cream cheese, dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, pure vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. It’s perfectly pumpkin-y, served chilled, and curbs that summer-to-fall dessert craving.

The Whipped Cream + Caramel Sauce

Lightly sweetened whipped cream (read: heavy cream plus sugar, that’s it!) and a tantalizing and deceptively easy homemade caramel sauce top off this pumpkin cream cheese pie. The heavy cream is best whipped to still peaks, and my 3 ingredient homemade caramel sauce is better than any store bought caramel you will ever try. Sugar, butter, and heavy cream are all it takes to make perfect caramel every time.

The Dietary Substitutions

I love providing gluten and dairy free substitutions so that those with alternate dietary needs can enjoy my recipes to their fullest! These are subs that I have either used and continue to stock in my own home, or that have come highly recommended from others. I want your baking experience to be the best it can be, and avoiding gluten or dairy shouldn’t hinder that process in the slightest. 

As always, here is a list of tried and true dietary substitutes, so that you can enjoy this recipe without the additions of gluten or dairy. 

Miyokos butter is a plant based brick that closely resembles dairy butter not only in its look, but it’s taste as well. It melts, browns, and spreads just like real butter, and truly is a fantastic substitute in this recipe. Use it as a 1:1 ratio sub, same as the flour, so the recipe measurements will not change. 

Miyokos also makes a wonderful cream cheese that would be an excellent dairy free base in this recipe. 

Silk Dairy Free Heavy Cream is a great option for both the cheesecake and the whipped topping. 

Pamela’s Honey Graham Crackers are gluten free and perfect for use in this crust if you want or need to avoid gluten.

I hope you love this wonderful, chilled, pumpkin cream cheese pie! As always, I love hearing your feedback on what you thought of my recipes. Happy Baking!

XO,

Heather