This date sweetened pumpkin cheesecake is the perfect Thanksgiving dessert to serve to your loved ones. Entirely fruit sweetened, this pie contains no refined sugar or gluten!
Nothing conjures up cozy feelings of autumn quite like pumpkin desserts! Pumpkin cheesecake is one of my favorites and you can serve this fruit-sweetened version at Thanksgiving without feeling weighed down with processed sugar!
This dessert is perfect for your gluten-intolerant guests because it’s made with almond flour. Even those who eat gluten will enjoy the nutty base and unique twist to the holiday favorite. A bit of orange zest really rounds out the flavors and brightens up the entire dessert.
My date-sweetened desserts cookbook is now available on Amazon!
If you’re hosting Turkey Day, I recommend making this cheesecake 1-2 days in advance so you can free up oven space for the bird and sides…the flavors and texture also improve when you let this chill in the fridge (double wrap it with plastic wrap first so it doesn’t absorb any unpleasant fridge aromas). I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does. We eat it year round! Happy holidays and happy cooking!
date sweetened pumpkin cheesecake
Description
The perfect Thanksgiving dessert made with no refined sugar or gluten!
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 ounces medjool dates (pitted and chopped)
- ¼ Cup hot water
- 1 Cup almond meal
- ¼ Cup melted butter
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
Filling:
- 5 oz medjool dates (pitted and chopped)
- ¼ Cup hot water
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- 1, 8 ounce package cream cheese (room temperature)
- ½, 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp orange zest
- ¼ cup half and half
Instructions
- To make the crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place 2 ounces of dates in a glass bowl, cover with 1/4 cup hot water, let the dates soak for 10 minutes. Grind the softened dates in a food processor, stopping periodically to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to fully incorporate all the date chunks. Continue to grind the dates until they turn into a homogenous paste.
- Add the almond meal, melted butter, cinnamon, and salt to the food processor. Grind until fully combined and the mixture resembles gravel and sticks together when you pinch it.
- Press the almond meal mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie dish to form an even crust.
- Bake the crust in the oven for 10 minutes, until it starts to brown and becomes very fragrant.
- Remove the crust from the oven and allow to cool while you prepare the filling.
To make the filling:
- Place the 5 ounces of dates in a glass bowl, cover with 1/4 cup hot water, let the dates soak for 10 minutes. Grind the softened dates in a food processor, stopping periodically to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to fully incorporate all the date chunks. Continue to grind the dates until they turn into a homogenous paste.
- Add the eggs, cream cheese, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, orange zest and half and half to the date paste. Run the food processor until fully combined.
- Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and bake for 45-50 minutes, until the center of the pie is set and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Let the cheesecake cool at room temperature then place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours before serving.
10 Comments
What size can of pumpkin puree do you use? Recipe says 1/2 can…..
Hi Mona, I use a 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree. Thanks for the question, I just updated the recipe with that detail. Happy holidays!
Hi, just tried this recipe, turned out amazing! please share more date sweetened desserts
thanks! 🙂
Hi Vidya! I’m so glad you tired and liked this recipe! I definitely plan on sharing more date sweetened dessert recipes. I even have a kindle cookbook with lots of my favorite date-sweetened desserts if you want to check it out in the meantime 🙂 https://www.amazon.com/Date-Night-Desserts-sweetened-desserts-ebook/dp/B07HJJ73WR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=date+night+desserts&qid=1589832635&sr=8-1
Hope you’re staying safe and healthy!
Hi this recipe looks amazing. It sounds funny but can I skip the pumpkin and just add more cheese? We really don’t like pumpkin desserts but I’m desperate for a date sweetned cheesecake recipe
Thank you
Hi Rachel,
That’s a totally valid question. Unfortunately I’ve never tried it without pumpkin so I can’t guarantee the results. However, if you don’t mind doing a bit of recipe experimentation, I would start like this:
Filling:
10 oz medjool dates (pitted and chopped) (this is increased from the original 5 ounces)
¼ Cup hot water
2 eggs (room temperature)
2, 8 ounce package cream cheese (room temperature) (this has been increased from 1)
pumpkin removed
omit cinnamon
omit nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract
omit orange zest
omit half and half
I would bake it as directed in the original recipe but if the cheesecake is not baked when the time is up, continue to bake it longer. Again, sorry I can’t guarantee that this will work out since I haven’t personally tested it but if you don’t mind testing, let me know how it works out! Thanks for the question!
Hi, I have the opposite question of Rachel above. How might you recommend making this like a regular pumpkin pie, sweetened with dates, without the cream cheese? Thank you!
Hi Liz, I haven’t yet tried this without the cream cheese but if you’re willing to experiment you can try the following:
Omit the cream cheese from the recipe
Use the entire 15oz can of pumpkin purée
Add an extra egg (3 total)
Keep everything else the same.
Since I haven’t tried it myself, I can’t vouche for how it will turn out but if I were experimenting, I would make the changes listed above. Good luck and please let me know if you get a chance to test it out!
Thank you for your response! I will try this for Christmas, and I’m sure it will be delicious. I’ll let you know how it goes!
I’ve made your date sweetened chocolate cake and carrot cake recipes and they are amazing. Thank you for creating and sharing all of these wonderful recipes!
Great! Happy baking 🙂