No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe for Easy Fall Dessert

This simple no bake pumpkin cheesecake is made with just FOUR easy ingredients nestled inside a buttery graham cracker crust. If you’re not a pumpkin pie person, this is the perfect substitute for your Thanksgiving dinner dessert table — happy fall, y’all! 🎃 It’s hands-down one of my favorite pumpkin-themed dessert ideas because there’s zero oven time involved, which means zero stress about overbaking. Can we talk about how great that is during the busiest cooking week of the year?

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Ingredients Needed For No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

Here’s the whole thing in a nutshell: cream cheese, pure pumpkin puree, sugar, and whipped topping (or my homemade stable whipped cream!). That’s it — that’s the great recipe. No eggs, no water bath, no fussing with a thermometer. Just a buttery graham cracker crust made from crushed graham crackers and melted butter, pressed into the bottom of the springform pan with the bottom of a measuring cup for neat, even layers. Add in a little pumpkin pie spice for those classic pumpkin spice flavors, a splash of vanilla extract, and you’ve basically built yourself a pumpkin pie cheesecake without ever touching the oven.

Recipe Tips & Notes

★ You can make this pie as easy or as involved as you want! If you’re short on time, use a store-bought prepared crust, cream cheese spreads (no need to soften), and Cool Whip straight from the tub. Then pop the whole thing in the freezer for a couple of hours to speed up chill time — perfect for last-minute pumpkin cravings.

★ If you want to go the from-scratch route (which *I think* is worth the effort and honestly not difficult at all), make the homemade graham cracker crust or try a gingersnap cookie crust using crushed ginger snaps or gingersnap cookies instead — be still my heart, it’s so good with the pumpkin flavor. Whip up my Best Homemade Whipped Cream, and bring a brick of cream cheese to room temperature before mixing for best results. You can still stick this in the freezer to speed set-up, but make sure you serve it thawed!

FAQ’s

Why Is My No Bake Cheesecake Not Firm?

✓ Cream Cheese: if you used reduced fat, low fat, or whipped cream cheese, your cheesecake filling will be too soft. A cream cheese spread will also make for a softer cheesecake batter. I highly recommend Philadelphia brand cream cheese in brick form, beaten in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth, scraping the bottom of the bowl as you go.

✓ Whipped Cream: if you’re using whipped topping from a tub, it really needs to be Cool Whip brand — generic versions are too thin and won’t hold up. Prefer homemade? Pour cold heavy cream (or cold heavy whipping cream) into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add powdered sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until you reach stiff peaks. This is also the trick behind a great no bake chocolate cheesecake if chocolate is more your love language than pumpkin.

✓ Temperature: you won’t be able to cut this cheesecake into neat slices until it has firmed up in the refrigerator. Since you brought the cream cheese to room temperature before mixing, it has to chill again in order to hold its shape — give it enough time, at least a couple of hours, before serving.

Baked Cheesecake Recipe vs. No Bake Cheesecake Recipe: Which One Is Better?

Really, this is comparing apples to oranges. A traditional baked cheesecake, like my Cheesecake Factory copycat, is made with eggs as the binding ingredient and baked low and slow for a creamy-yet-firm texture. To bake a cheesecake recipe the traditional way, you need a springform pan, a water bath, and real patience — but the payoff is that classic pumpkin cheesecake texture everyone loves.

A no bake pumpkin cheesecake recipe skips all of that. It’s really more of a creamy, mousse pie than a bake cheesecake recipe in the traditional sense. The cream cheese mixture is broken down with brown sugar or white sugar using an electric mixer or hand mixer, then folded with whipped topping to create that fluffy pumpkin mixture. Once it chills for several hours, it firms back up enough to slice. No oven space required — which, during Thanksgiving week, might just be the best part of this whole easy recipe.

Variations

Crust Ideas

Follow the directions for making an Oreo crust in this recipe and use that instead of the graham cracker crust, maybe with a dusting of cocoa powder on top — because duh. Or go full gingersnap crust with crushed Biscoff cookies for extra spice. Skip the crust altogether and serve the cheesecake filling in individual bowls as a mousse, or layer it with brownie pieces and a drizzle of caramel sauce for an epic trifle. You can even pour the pumpkin pie filling into a pre-baked buttermilk pastry crust with a rolling pin for that classic pie crust snap, giving you a dessert reminiscent of actual pumpkin pie filling, just creamier.

Want to pipe it fancy for social media? Load the pumpkin mixture into a piping bag and pipe swirls into cups using the back of a spoon to smooth the edge of the cheesecake for picture-perfect presentation. If you’re hooked on all things pumpkin this season, don’t miss my Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake, a rich pumpkin cake swirled with cheesecake batter, or my Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe for individual, no-bake, spiced treats. Between the pumpkin flavor, the crackly crust, and zero freezer burn if you store it right, this really is a great option for satisfying pumpkin cravings all season long.

More Pumpkin Recipes

Ready for the recipe card? Scroll down below to print or save it for later — and if your pumpkin spice flavors cravings are still going strong, check out my Pumpkin Roll Layer Cake or Libby’s Pumpkin Pie for more pumpkin recipes to round out your dessert table this fall.

Move over pie, there’s a new pumpkin superstar in town! This Pumpkin Tres Leches is amazing, and you just may find that you’d rather serve this at your holiday feast instead of pumpkin pie. Homemade pumpkin cake soaked in four kinds of milk and topped with whipped cream.

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Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake is a Fall twist on one of my all time favorite recipes– this Cinnamon Roll Cake. The most classic flavors of Fall in one delicious and totally achievable AMAZING cake.

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The smell of Fall is in the air! Especially if you put this Pumpkin French Toast Casserole in your oven. This simple, one-bowl recipe is a delicious and filling breakfast or dessert that will fill your kitchen with a warm and spicy Autumn aroma. Top it with whipped cream and caramel sauce or maple syrup.

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