Pumpkin Pie with Maple Mascarpone Swirl

Pumpkin pie is an all-time holiday dessert classic, but maybe it’s time for a glow up. For Thanksgiving this year, Cookdap challenged 5 of our favorite bakers to upgrade our basic pumpkin pie recipe. The rules? The base ingredients needed to stay the same, and the bakers could only use five additional ingredients for their upgrade. Check out the rest of the pumpkin pie recipes from our challenge, here.

One of my all-time favorite flavor combinations is pumpkin and cream cheese. The contrast of spiced pumpkin against cold, tangy cream cheese is a gift I look forward to every fall. Whether it's a pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting, pumpkin muffins, or (my personal favorite) pumpkin cheesecake, I've riffed on this match made in heaven countless times without fail. This recipe — my favorite trick for turning any pumpkin pie recipe into a show-stopping dessert — swaps out cream cheese for swirl of luscious, smooth, mascarpone.

Much like cream cheese, mascarpone is a soft, spreadable cheese that is a tad sweeter and has a luscious, dairy-forward flavor. The cheese can be combined with milk and flour to create a simple three-ingredient cheesecake filling that can be streaked through any pumpkin pie filling. The mascarpone filling sits atop the pie to create a dramatic presentation that completely elevates it.

And while the basic upgrade would be delicious all on its own, I like to sweeten my cheesecake swirl with maple syrup to give it a sweet, caramel-like flavor that complements the spiced pumpkin filling. It's a simple addition that takes traditional pumpkin pie to a whole new level, adding a complex, autumnal flavor. And with only four additional ingredients, it's the low-effort, high-reward trick for making any pumpkin pie feel fancy.