Description
Celebrate Halloween with a festive Spider Pie featuring a creamy pumpkin cheesecake filling layered over a graham cracker crust and decorated with adorable Oreo spiders and a chocolate spiderweb. This fun and spooky no-bake pie is perfect for holiday parties and dessert tables.
Ingredients
Scale
For the crust:
- 1 1/2 cups (180 grams) graham cracker crumbs
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) unsalted butter, melted
For the filling:
- 16 ounces (454 grams) full-fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups (240 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 7.5 ounces (212 grams) canned pumpkin puree (half of a 15-ounce can)
For spiderweb and baby spider leg frosting:
- 1/3 cup (56 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon black cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon refined coconut oil or unsalted butter
For mama spider:
- 1 normal-sized Oreo
- 2 normal-sized candy eyes
- mini pretzels for legs
For baby spiders:
- 8 mini Oreos
- 16 mini candy eyes (1/4″ or 6mm in diameter)
- leftover black frosting from the spiderweb
Instructions
- Prepare the crust: In a medium mixing bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and salt until well combined. Stir in the melted butter until mixture is uniform. Press the crust firmly onto the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9-inch pie pan to form an even, thick crust. Freeze the crust while preparing the filling.
- Prepare the filling: In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt until light and fluffy. Remove one quarter (approximately 197 grams) of this white cheesecake filling into another bowl and beat in the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice on low speed until combined. Set the pumpkin filling aside.
- Layer the pie: Spread half of the remaining white cheesecake filling (about 294 grams) evenly over the frozen crust. Freeze for 30 minutes or until firm enough to spread the pumpkin layer. Next, spread all the pumpkin filling over the white layer. Freeze again for 40 minutes or until firm enough to spread the final white cheesecake layer. Spread the second half of the white filling evenly over the pumpkin layer.
- Make the spiderweb frosting: Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl at half power in 30-second increments, stirring after each until smooth. Stir in the black cocoa powder and coconut oil or butter to create a glossy, fudge-like frosting. If the frosting is too runny to pipe, let it cool at room temperature or refrigerate briefly until thickened but still pipeable.
- Pipe the spiderweb: Fit a piping bag with a Wilton #5 tip and fill it with the black chocolate frosting. Create the spiderweb by piping a plus sign over the pie, then an X over it, and finally connect the lines by piping arcs between them to form the web pattern.
- Assemble the mama spider: Carefully cut off the legs from mini pretzels using a sharp paring knife. Split the normal-sized Oreo in half. Place the pretzel legs between the two Oreo wafers, positioning the legs to point downward like spider legs. Optionally, pipe a small amount of leftover black frosting as glue to secure the legs after scraping off the Oreo cream. Attach two normal-sized candy eyes to the top Oreo wafer using a little frosting for adhesion. Sandwich the two Oreo halves back together with legs in between. Place the mama spider in the middle of the pie.
- Assemble the baby spiders: Attach pairs of mini candy eyes to each of the 8 mini Oreos using frosting. Place the baby spiders around the mama spider on the pie. Use leftover black frosting and a smaller tip like Wilton #2 to pipe four small straight legs on each side of the baby spiders.
- Storage and serving: The undecorated pie can be frozen for up to 3 months and thawed in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours or at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. Candy eyes should not be refrigerated because moisture may cause color bleeding. The pie with spiderweb decoration can be refrigerated up to 3 days, but add the spiders just before serving for best appearance.
Notes
- For a gluten-free version, use gluten-free graham cracker crumbs, Oreo alternatives, and gluten-free pretzels.
- If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, substitute with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon each of nutmeg and cloves or allspice.
- Approximate conversion: 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs equals about 12 full graham cracker sheets.
- If using cream cheese intended for spreading (sold in tubs outside North America), drain liquid by placing in cheesecloth and squeezing until you have 450 grams.
- Use about 10 mini pretzels to have enough legs; some may break when cutting.
- This recipe yields 8 to 12 pie slices.
- Nutrition information is estimated for 12 slices and excludes the candy eyes.
- For the best visual effect, avoid refrigerating candy eyes before assembly to prevent bleeding of the pupils.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 350 kcal
- Sugar: 28 g
- Sodium: 180 mg
- Fat: 25 g
- Saturated Fat: 14 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 9 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 27 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 70 mg
