Before you roll your eyes and tell me Thanksgiving is over and that you’ve experienced pumpkin overload (especially if you just made this), hear me out on this pumpkin pie with goat cheese.

A friend of mine shared this recipe from Munchies with me and it sounded too interesting not to try for a Thanksgiving dessert. This goat cheese pumpkin pie sits in an gingery almond cookie crust that has gone savory with fresh earthy rosemary and the filling, a simple blend (literally blended) of pumpkin puree, cream cheese, and tangy-funky goat cheese, requires no baking at all. Greg, my mom, and my brother Garrett will tell you I was hesitant about making this because of the no-bake-factor, an atypical attribute of a traditional pumpkin pie, but, I’m so glad I gave it a shot.

Not only is this goat cheese pumpkin pie simple to put together—your only effort going towards squishing the crust up the sides of a springform pan—but it also proved to be a crowd pleaser. Even after our Thanksgiving dinner complete with four turkeys—one baked, one fried, one BBQ’d and bacon wrapped, and one deboned, stuffed with herbs, and grilled—even after all of the mashed potatoes and stuffing and cranberry sauce was weighing in our bellies, nearly all of our family and friends topped their dessert plates with a sliver of the orange-hued pie.

There were too many requests for the recipe for me not to share with them, and with you, even if you keep it bookmarked until next year.

goat cheese pumpkin pie

November 28, 2018

by Butter Loves Company

Category desserts and sweets eat

Persons

Notes

Adapted slightly from Munchies

Ingredients

for the crust:

2 (5.25-ounce) packages Anna's Almond Thins (or any similarly thin gingersnap cookie). These are Swedish Pepparkakor which are a ginger cookie.
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter), melted and cooled

for the filling:

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
8 ounces soft goat cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces full fat cream cheese (half of a standard block), at room temperature
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Position oven racks into the bottom and middle third of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Grab a 9-inch round springform pan and set it nearby. You could likely use a 9-inch pie dish as long as the sides are ~2 inches high. In this case you will cut and serve from the dish rather than removing before serving.
In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse together the cookies, rosemary, and salt until combined. Add the melted butter and run until well combined, stopping and scraping down the bowl to ensure the butter is evenly distributed. The dough should stick together when pinched.
Press the dough firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan so there are no holes (give your food processor bowl a quick rinse since we are making the filling with this as well). Don’t worry about getting all the edges even. Take a piece of foil and gently press it into the pan to keep the dough in place when baking. Place a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven and then bake the crust on the middle rack for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and then continue baking for another 5 to 10 minutes or until the edges are golden. Set aside to cool.
While the crust is cooling, prepare the filling in the cleaned work bowl of your food processor. Combine the pumpkin, goat cheese, cream cheese, butter, sugar, salt and all the spices and blend until very smooth. It may take a few minutes but you want to get rid of all the chunks. Scoop into the cooled, baked pie crust and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate until the filling firms up, about 6 hours, or overnight, before serving.