Black Bottom Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

Good morning everyone!  I am sure you saw the picture of Addy on my Facebook page……Her cheer squad won their competition!  It was so exciting!  The girls were all so excited….it was probably the cutest thing ever.  Addy is still trying to wear the medal that she won.  She was supposed to wear it to school yesterday, but she tried to wear it again today.  I had to explain to her that at a certain point, the medal gets maybe hung up on your wall, and you can’t wear it every day.  I am pretty sure that Olympians don’t rock their medals every day.  But it is cute that she is so proud.  And of course, I am a very proud mommy too.

So Thanksgiving is quickly approaching.  Have you been searching for a new dessert recipe?  I have one for you.  And the best part….it doesn’t require any baking!  I created a recipe for a pumpkin pie that is totally different than what you are used to.  I call it a “Black Bottom Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie”.  Long name, I know.  But don’t worry, it is super easy to make.

Let’s start with the crust.

I made an Oreo cookie crumb crust for this.  You can totally buy a premade one if you want.  I had Oreos, I had butter, I figured why not make my own?  Plus, the homemade version always tastes better.  But I promise not to judge you if you buy one.  At least not out loud or to your face;) 

I threw about 24 cookies into my food processor.  If you don’t have a food processor, put the cookies into a re-sealable plastic bag and beat the hell out of them.  If you have a processor, blend them until they are turned into crumbs.  Then, pour in ¼ a cup of melted butter.  Blend that.

The mixture gets dumped into a pie pan and all you have to do is press it into the pan.  Sometimes it is easier to use the bottom and sides of a measuring cup to really make sure you get your crust tight and even.

Once you have your crust formed, pop it in the fridge while you move on to the ganache.

Remember I said this is a “black bottom” pie.  So not only does it have a chocolate cookie crust, it also has a layer of chocolate ganache on top of the crust.  Ganache is chocolate melted with butter and cream.  It will harden as it sits, but it will never get candy bar hard.  It will be more like the texture of chilled butter.

For my ganache, I used dark chocolate chips, heavy cream and butter.  You could use milk chocolate, semi-sweet, whatever your little heart desires.

Ganache is super easy to make.  I heated up the butter and cream in the microwave for about one minute.  Then, I dumped in a cup of chocolate chips and stirred that until the chips were melted.  It will be smooth and glossy when it is ready.

I poured the ganache right on top of the cookie crust.  Then, back into the fridge.  The ganache will set in about 15 minutes in the fridge.

Now onto the filling…..

This filling is super easy.  It is 4 ingredients.  I know I only have 3 in the picture.  I forgot to put the milk in the picture.  I really struggle with that;)

Anyhoo, I used cream cheese, whipped topping, milk and Pumpkin Spice Jell-O pudding.  You can only find this flavor Jell-O pudding in the fall.  I got mine at Wal-Mart.  You could always call your local store to see if they carry it.

I started the filling by beating the cream cheese and pudding mix together with a hand mixer.  My cream cheese had been sitting on the counter all afternoon, so it was nice and soft.

Once that is blended, I slowly beat in about ½ cup of milk.  This is just to loosen the pudding and cream cheese up a bit.  I beat this until it is lightened and somewhat fluffy.

The whipped topping gets folded in in 2 stages.  I added about ½ of the whipped topping container to the pudding mixture first.  I stirred this in to the pudding mixture.  Don’t worry too much about “folding” and keeping the fluffiness at this point.  Just get it blended. 

Once the first half is blended, slowly fold in the second half.  Folding is really very easy.  You drag you spatula down the middle and fold the bottom of your mixture over the top.  Turn your bowl about ¼ turn and do the same thing.  Keep going until the mixture is blended….but it should still be fluffy!

The filling gets spread on top of the ganache, and the whole thing gets put back in the fridge for another few hours.  I made my pie in the early afternoon, and we ate it around 7pm….so mine got about 7 hours in the fridge.

The filling should feel pretty firm when you take it out of the fridge.  This pie really sets up nicely.

I covered my whole pie with whipped cream and sprinkled some chocolate chips over the top.  If you only plan on eating a piece or two, don’t cover the whole thing with whipped cream.  Just add whipped cream to individual slices.  I say this because whipped cream won’t hold up well in the fridge, so your leftovers will have watery whipped cream on top.

Yum!  Do you see all the layers?  Now I love Pumpkin Pie, but this pie was so much better, in my humble opinion;)  It is light, cream, fluffy, and so good!  The cream cheese makes it cheese-cakey which it delicious in my book.

I hope you try this pie this Thanksgiving!  Your family and friends will love it!

PS-If you can’t find Pumpkin Spice pudding, replace it with vanilla pudding and beat in 1 cup of canned pumpkin with the cream cheese.  Omit the milk.

Black Bottom Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

Crust:

24 Oreos, crushed into crumbs

¼ cup butter, melted

Mix crumbs and melted butter.  Press into 9 inch pie pan.  Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Ganache:

1 cup dark chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter

¼ cup heavy cream

In a microwavable bowl, heat butter and cream for 1 minute in microwave.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Stir until smooth. 

Pour ganache over crust.  Chill in refrigerator.

Filling:

3.4 ounce box Pumpkin Spice Jell-O Pudding

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

½ cup milk

8 ounces whipped topping (Cool Whip)

In a large bowl, beat together pudding mix and softened cream cheese with a hand mixer.  Slowly beat in milk.  Continue beating until light and fluffy.

With a spatula, fold ½ of the whipped topping into the pudding mixture.  Whipped topping will lose some of its “fluff” while mixing.  Once blended, fold the other ½ of the whipped topping into the mixture.  This time, fold gently as to not lose the “fluff”.

Spread mixture on top of the ganache.  Chill pie for at least 4 hours.

Serve with whipped cream.