Deliciously creamy pumpkin cheesecake filling inside a light, airy, crispy choux pastry shell – these bite-sized Pumpkin Cheesecake Profiteroles are the perfect alternative to the classic pumpkin pie or crustless pumpkin pie on your Thanksgiving day dinner table this year! Or on any dinner table or party for that matter.
Enjoy this seasonal favorite with a cup of coffee flavored with pumpkin spice coffee creamer for a cozy autumn-worthy experience!
Pumpkin profiteroles
Pumpkin pies, pumpkin cheesecakes, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin scones, pumpkin rice krispie treats.. so why not pumpkin profiteroles, right? I mean, it doesn’t have to be pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving now does it? Or is that too sacrilegious? Or maybe both? Yup, both sounds good. At least, that’s our plan for T-day this year.
Sure, a profiterole with the classic whipped cream or pastry cream filling with a chocolate glaze sounds great. But imagine a profiterole with a yummy Fall makeover? Deliciously creamy and sweetened cream cheese, flavoured with pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice, trapped inside a light, airy, crispy choux pastry?
These bite-sized Pumpkin Cheesecake Profiteroles are the perfect accompaniment for your Thanksgiving day spread this year. Or for any dinner party for that matter. And when you have a great choux pastry recipe, these are a breeze to make.
And that’s precisely why I put together this great troubleshooting guide on how to make perfect choux pastry, every time, along with several choux pastry related recipes such as these perfect cream puffs, chocolate cream puffs, strawberry cream puffs, perfect classic eclairs, chouquettes, choux au craquelin etc.. You get the idea right?
I have to be honest. Last year’s Thanksgiving was not fun for me. I made a fantastic Thanksgiving meal, I mean the whole nine yards, and then came down with the flu that very morning. And didn’t have the appetite to eat a thing.
I watched my husband chomp down on the beautiful roasted turkey breast and all the Thanksgiving dishes in between sympathetic glances in my direction. Not this year, I thought to myself and went the whole year without getting sick, only to come down with the flu again last week, just a week before Thanksgiving! But at least I have these profiteroles to keep me company. And lots of Netflix (Yay, Jessica Jones!) And maybe some chicken soup.
The result is that our Turkey day spread is smaller this year, but at least I’m feeling a lot better now, and will most definitely be eating some delicious pumpkin pie, come Thursday. And pumpkin cheesecake profiteroles too, of course.
Recipe
Pumpkin Cheesecake Profiteroles
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling
- 8 oz of cream cheese at room temp.
- ¼ cup of 100% pumpkin puree
- Heaped ¼ tsp of pumpkin spice
- 3 tbsp of icing sugar powdered sugar, I like mine to be less sweet, but you can add more icing sugar if you like it sweeter.
- 2- 4 tbsp cream
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Glaze
- 10 oz semi-sweet chocolate
- 4 oz of cream
Instructions:
Choux Pastry
- Follow my choux pastry recipe in the link, but place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a large circle tip (about 1 cm or larger).
- Prepare the baking sheet as per instructions in that recipe, and pipe choux pastry for a profiterole, about 1 – 1.5 inch in diameter (round shape). Remember to keep the tip just touching the surface while you’re piping those “mounds”. This helps reduce splitting and spreading. Then flatten any points with a moist fingertip to prevent those points from burning. Bake according to instructions in that recipe.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling
- Place pumpkin puree and cream cheese together in a bowl and whisk to combine until smooth.
- Add icing sugar, vanilla, pumpkin spice, salt and whisk well, until smooth. Add more icing sugar if you like it sweeter.
- Whisk in 2 tbsp of cream to create a nice, thick, pipeable filling. Whisk in 2 more tbsp if you need to thin it out – this will depend on the pumpkin puree you use and the softness of your cream cheese.
- Refrigerate the filling for a couple of hours, until chilled.
Chocolate Glaze
- Place chopped chocolate/chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl.
- Next heat the cream in a small saucepan, or in the microwave, until it starts to steam.
- Pour this cream over the chocolate and cover, and let it steam for a couple of minutes.
- Whisk to combine and melt the chocolate in the cream for a shiny, thick chocolate glaze. Microwave this mix in 10 sec bursts ONLY IF THE CHOCOLATE HAS NOT COMPLETELY MELTED. Set aside to cool to room temp.
Assembly
- Transfer the chilled pumpkin cheesecake filling to a pastry bag fitted with a bismarck tip to fill the profiteroles. If you don’t have a bismarck tip, use a small circle tip (about ½ cm opening).
- Pierce the bottom of the choux pastry cake with the bismarck tip and fill it with your cheesecake filling. I use the first choux pastry shell to determine how much filling I need to fill the shell. (tip: to do this I basically count how long I have to squeeze the pastry bag to fill the shell).
- If you don’t have a bismarck tip – use a small sharp knife and cut a small slit, on the side or the bottom of the choux pastry shell, just large enough to slip the nozzle tip in. Then fill the pastry shells with your pumpkin cheesecake filling.
- Dip the top of the profiteroles in the chocolate glaze.
- Best served within a few hours. You can also refrigerate these for a few hours in an air-tight container until needed.
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
Is it bad that I actually ate this pumpkin cheesecake filling on its own? I mean, I actually scraped the bowl and licked the spoons too. And I’m not even sorry!
This filling is seriously that good. The choux pastry was perfect – not dry and not soggy either – with a very generous amount of that pumpkin cheesecake filling inside. And with a yummy chocolate sauce glaze on top.
So if you’re looking for an alternative for the traditional pie this year, but still want some classic pumpkin flavour on the table, look no further than this delightful bite-sized dessert. Plus, you can serve them with some whipped cream and/or more chocolate sauce. It’s the perfect Fall treat on your Thanksgiving day dinner table.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers! Enjoy and stay safe.
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