Skip The Pie Crust And Make Our No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Truffles Instead

Making a pie crust from scratch is time-consuming, and even if you are a proficient baker, there is room for error. If you're in a hurry because you're expecting a house full of Thanksgiving guests, ruined pie crust can be incredibly stressful. Luckily, we have a way to skip the pie crust entirely: Make our no-bake white chocolate pumpkin spice truffles.

These truffles perfectly blend the flavors of the season. You only need seven ingredients to make them: cream cheese, pure pumpkin puree, powdered sugar, a dash of pumpkin pie spice, gingersnap cookies, white chocolate melts or chips, and sprinkles for decoration. You'll also need a baking sheet, microwave-safe bowl, whisk, hand or stand mixer, and a cookie scoop (a versatile tool that makes portioning these truffles a breeze).

When complete, they have a slightly rigid outer white chocolate shell covered in crunchy candy sprinkles, creating the perfect textural difference to balance out their sweet, creamy interior filling. The combination of pumpkin puree, cream cheese, and pumpkin spice mix is the epitome of the flavors of the fall season.

Best of all, it's incredibly easy to make these on the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Because they are coated in chocolate, don't leave them sitting out where they might melt in the heat of the kitchen. Instead, layer them in a container with wax paper between each layer and stick them in the fridge. Then take them out about an hour before you plan to serve them.

This recipe is incredibly easy to follow, and even novice bakers should have success. After making it ourselves, we do have some tips to make the process totally stress-free. First, you can use a substitute for parchment paper in step one if you don't have any. It's not a critical element of the recipe, and just greasing or spraying your baking sheet will work fine.

Next, you should bring the cream cheese to room temperature before mixing your ingredients. This will make everything easier to blend properly and ensure the cream cheese is fully incorporated into the batter. Otherwise, you might end up with chunks of cream cheese interspersed in your batter rather than completely and smoothly combined.

When crushing your gingersnap cookies, try placing them between two clean dish towels or in a plastic food storage bag to keep crumbs from flying everywhere. Then use a rolling pin to crush them. If possible, try to create somewhat even, fine crumbles so that the truffles are more uniform in size and appearance.

Finally, if you are using white chocolate chips and they aren't melting properly in the microwave, it might be because they contain stabilizers that are meant to keep them from melting. You can continue to microwave at 10-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until the chocolate is melted. However, when melting chocolate for baking, you'll have the best luck if you choose baking chocolate or chocolate melts. These are 100% chocolate products with no added stabilizers or sugar, and they will easily melt into the perfect smooth, creamy consistency in the microwave.