Pumpkin Delight

Pumpkin delight combines a graham cracker crust, pumpkin pudding, and a cream cheese filling in the most decadent and delicious fall dessert ever!

One of my all-time favorite desserts is striped delight. My mom has been making for our family since I can remember, and it’s the most requested dessert anytime we get together. That along with pizza loaf.

But in the fall, I like to add a little pumpkin to my life so I decided to make this pumpkin delight, a fall inspired version of that original striped delight recipe!

It’s the ultimate fall dessert and I think you’re going to love it!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Easy – there’s really nothing to do this recipe other than mixing, pouring, and sprinkling! It’s pretty much fool-proof, which is how I prefer my recipes!
• Basic ingredients – other than the pumpkin spice pudding, you’ll probably actually have most of these ingredients on hand already since they’re used in all sorts of recipes like mini cheesecakes, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, and more!
• Great make ahead dessert – this almost tastes better the next day, which makes it great for the holidays! Make it the night before so you can spend Thanksgiving morning making mashed potatoes and roasted root veggies instead!

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

• Graham crackers crumbs – you can either make your own or use the boxed kind. You can also change this up and use the crumbs from ginger snaps, shortbread cookies, or even Oreos if you want. Although if you really want a chocolate and pumpkin dessert, I recommend these pumpkin blondies instead!
• Milk – it needs to be whole milk so that the cream cheese layer is nice and thick. Anything less than whole milk will just be too watered down for this dessert.
• Pumpkin spice pudding mix – make sure to get the instant kind so that your pudding sets quickly!
• Butter – unlike some of my recipes that use unsalted butter, you actually want the salted butter in this instance. Melt it to combine with your graham cracker crumbs!
• Pecans – I like the addition of the pecans for the crunch, but you can totally make this without if you are serving somewhere that can’t eat or doesn’t like to eat nuts.

How to Make Pumpkin Delight

This is really one of the easiest desserts I make, maybe even easier than pumpkin crunch cake and that’s just dumping ingredients together!

Start by greasing a 9×13 baking pan and preheating the oven to 350°F.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and ⅓ cup granulated sugar in a bowl until it’s well mixed and resembles wet sand.

Press the graham cracker crumbs evenly into the prepared baking dish and bake for about eight minutes just to set the graham cracker crust. Allow it to cool completely before moving onto the next step!

While that’s baking, make your pudding so it can chill while the graham cracker crust is cooling.

To do that, you’re going to combine the pudding mix and milk by following the instructions on the box for pudding instructions (not pie filling). Once it’s mixed, put it in the fridge to allow it to set for a few minutes before moving on.

Once it’s thickened (typically 5-10 minutes) in the fridge, pour the pudding over top of the cream cheese mixture you’ll make in a minute!

While the pudding is chilling, combine the cream cheese and remaining 1/3 cup of sugar in stand mixer (I use a beater attachment) and combine until creamy.

Fold one package of the Cool Whip into the creamy mixture using a spatula until it’s totally incorporated. Then spread that cream cheese mixture over the top of the cooled graham cracker layer in the pan. You want to make sure and cover every part of the graham cracker crust.

Then pour the pudding mixture over the cream cheese mixture, covering all of the cream cheese if possible so that every bite has some of the pudding!

Top that with the other two container of Cool Whip and then sprinkle it with pecans on top (optional).

Let chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or ideally overnight before slicing and serving, or if you can’t wait that long – at least 3-4 hours to let everything set togeher!

Remove from the fridge when you’re ready to serve and cut into squares! Enjoy this yummy fall dessert!

Expert Tips

Place in the freezer for one hour before slicing if you want this to be a firmer dessert. It’s intended to be a soft and creamy dessert, but I know some people like they’re layered desserts firmer. That’s how you’d do it!

Refrigerate any leftovers by placing plastic wrap over the top of the baking dish. This can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Use two pre-made pie crusts in place of the 9×3 dish with the homemade graham cracker crust if you’d rather go the traditional circle pie route. Two pie crusts is just about the right amount for the amount this recipe makes.

Recipe FAQs

More Pumpkin Recipes

If you like pumpkin, you’ll love these other delicious pumpkin recipes!

• Pumpkin crisp – a soft pumpkin filling topped with a crunchy crisp topping, this one is a pumpkin lover’s favorite!
• No bake pumpkin pie recipe – another pumpkin recipe that uses a graham cracker crust and pudding, this one is a Thanksgiving favorite!
• Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies – these soft muffins are filled with pumpkin flavor and chocolate chips PLUS a yummy glaze on top!
• Tasty pumpkin cheesecake bars – another recipe that incorporates layers of graham cracker crust, cream cheese filling, and of course pumpkin! These are my go-to fall dessert to bring to a party!