Every September I buy pumpkin purée like I’m preparing for something.
Four cans, minimum.
By November I’m usually out and a bit annoyed about it because pumpkin does something no other autumn ingredient manages to do.
PIN FOR LATER 📌
It’s not especially sweet, it barely tastes of anything on its own, and what we actually love is the cinnamon and nutmeg and clove we pile on top of it… YUM!
What it does bring is texture, and that’s the reason pumpkin cheesecake is denser and pumpkin bread stays soft for four days when banana bread has gone stiff.
So here are 37 pumpkin desserts, sorted so you can find what you need.
Ingredients You’ll Probably Need
Most of these recipes pull from the same small pool of pantry staples, so it’s worth stocking up before you start working through the list. Here’s what you’ll want on hand:
- Canned pumpkin puree — just make sure it says 100% pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling
- Pumpkin pie spice — the shortcut blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves
- Individual spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves, worth having on hand separately for recipes that call for specific ratios
- Sweetened condensed milk & evaporated milk — two different products, don’t mix them up
- Cornstarch — for thickening puddings and custards
- Vanilla extract
- Graham crackers or graham cracker crumbs
- Cream cheese & mascarpone
- Full-fat canned coconut milk — for the dairy-free and vegan options
- Gluten-free all-purpose flour blend — for the gluten-free bakes
- Frozen puff pastry
- Candy melts — white and orange work for most of the seasonal decorating
- Old-fashioned oats
- Almond butter or peanut butter
- Maple syrup — used in a couple of the glazes throughout this list
Easy Pumpkin Desserts to Start With
1. Super Soft Pumpkin Cookies
Thick, cakey cookies somewhere between a cookie and a muffin top, with extra cinnamon and ginger on top of the pumpkin pie spice. No dough chilling, so they go from bowl to oven in minutes, and the maple cream cheese icing is optional but worth it. Forty-five minutes for 32 cookies.
2. Upside Down Pumpkin Cheesecake Pastries
Honey drizzled onto the parchment, a spoonful of pumpkin cheesecake filling on top, then a square of puff pastry pressed over it and baked. You flip them out, and the honey has caramelized into a glossy top. Twelve individual pastries in half an hour, and they look far more involved than four steps and a box of puff pastry.
3. 15-Minute Creamy Stovetop Pumpkin Pudding
Fifteen minutes, one saucepan, no oven at all: whisk everything together, simmer until thickened, then chill until set. Dollop with whipped mascarpone (or a dairy-free coconut cream swap) for a pumpkin-pie-in-a-jar vibe, genuinely one of the fastest routes to a proper fall dessert on this whole list.
4. No Churn Coconut Pumpkin Ice Cream
Genuinely just a blender and a freezer needed: pumpkin, coconut milk, and sweetened condensed milk blitzed together, then frozen for at least six hours. No ice cream maker, no churning, and no added sugar since the condensed milk does all the sweetening work already.
5. Pumpkin Pie Bars
A genuine crowd-pleaser built on canned pumpkin pie filling rather than plain puree, with a buttery cinnamon-clove crust and crumb topping made from the same one-bowl mixture. Simple enough for a low-key weeknight bake, but it shows up at basically every fall gathering the blogger hosts, and freezes well for up to three months if you want to get ahead of the holidays.
6. Easy Pumpkin Hand Pies With Puff Pastry
Store-bought puff pastry does most of the heavy lifting here—no pie crust to make from scratch, just spiced pumpkin filling tucked into squares, crimped, and brushed with egg wash and turbinado sugar for crunch. They bake in about 25 minutes and skip the whole “wait for the pie to set” problem entirely, genuinely ready to eat as soon as they’ve cooled.
MORE FALL RECIPES:
No-Bake Pumpkin Desserts
7. No-Bake Pumpkin Pie Truffles
Graham crackers blitzed to crumbs, blended with cream cheese, pumpkin purée, and pie spice, rolled into balls, and dipped in white almond bark. Fourteen truffles from half a can of pumpkin, and the graham cracker dusting on top is what makes them taste like pie rather than sweets. Around three hours total, but almost all of that is the freezer doing the work.
8. 3-Ingredient Pumpkin Fluff
Canned pumpkin, a family-size box of instant vanilla pudding mix, and Cool Whip, stirred together and chilled for an hour. That’s it. It works three ways: eaten from a bowl as a mousse, served with graham crackers and gingersnaps as a party dip, or poured into a shop-bought graham crust as a no-bake pumpkin pie.
9. No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups
Individual cheesecakes built in glass dishes: a Biscoff cookie crust, then cream cheese beaten with powdered sugar, pumpkin purée, and pie spice, with whipped topping folded through. Fifteen minutes of work and three hours in the fridge. The Biscoff crust is the smart swap, since those spiced Belgian biscuits do more for pumpkin than graham crackers manage.
10. No-Bake Pumpkin Cookie Pie
A graham cracker crust filled with alternating layers of no-bake pumpkin filling and whole gingersnap cookies. As it chills, the filling softens the cookies until they turn into tender layers running through the pie, so you get texture where a standard pumpkin pie gives you one uniform slab. Thirty minutes of work, four hours chilling, better overnight.
11. No-bake Pumpkin Peanut Butter Bars (vegan + gluten-free)
Seven ingredients stirred in one bowl: pumpkin purée, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, oat flour, and pie spice, pressed into a tin and topped with melted chocolate. Ten minutes of work, an hour in the fridge. Vegan, gluten-free, and no refined sugar, and they read more like a Reese’s cup than a virtuous snack.
12. No-Bake Pumpkin Lasagna
A genuine crowd-pleaser: layers of gingersnaps, a whipped cream cheese mixture, and a pumpkin pudding filling, all built in a 9×13 pan with zero oven time. It needs a solid four hours (or overnight) to set in the fridge, so plan ahead, but it comes together in about 15 minutes of active work, and the caramel-and-pecan topping makes it look far more polished than the effort actually required.
13. No-Bake Pumpkin Pie Date Balls
Made entirely in a food processor, graham crackers, dates, pumpkin, and almond butter blend into a sticky dough, roll into balls, then dip in melted chocolate. No oven at all, and they’re genuinely a freezer staple (stored and eaten straight from the freezer), so this one’s easy to make well ahead of any gathering.
Healthy Pumpkin Desserts
14. Vegan Pumpkin Pie Energy Bites
Seven ingredients blitzed in a food processor: pumpkin seeds, cashews, chickpeas, golden raisins, oats, pumpkin purée, and pie spice. Fifteen minutes, no cooking, seventeen bites. Sweetened only with dried fruit, so no maple syrup or sugar at all, and the chickpeas are the clever bit, binding everything with fiber instead of relying on a mountain of oats.
15. One-Bowl Vegan Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
Oat flour, a whole can of pumpkin, dairy-free milk, and maple syrup whisked in one bowl and baked into a tray you can slice into squares. Baking is what saves it: the edges are crisp, and the texture goes closer to an oat cookie than to porridge. Forty-five minutes, nine servings, and it keeps a week in the fridge.
16. Pumpkin Banana Muffins
Mashed overripe banana doing the work of extra oil and sugar, with pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, and a crumbly streusel on top. Forty minutes for twelve and 158 calories for a muffin. Vegan, and the batter can sit in the fridge for 24 hours before baking, which the author says makes them fluffier.
17. Healthy Pumpkin Oatmeal Mug Cake
A genuinely single-serving, protein-packed option: oats, protein powder, and pumpkin puree blended together and baked right in a mug, over 20 grams of protein and naturally gluten-free. Ready in about 25 minutes with zero decorating or assembly, closer to a healthy breakfast than a dessert, though a dollop of whipped cream on top pushes it into treat territory too.
18. Healthy Pumpkin Crisp
No crust to fuss with here, just a rich pumpkin custard layer topped with a crunchy oat and quinoa flour crumble, genuinely dairy-free and gluten-free thanks to coconut milk and oat flour instead of the usual dairy and wheat. It’s also a great make-ahead option, bake it the day before and reheat, and it holds up well served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or coconut whipped cream on top.
19. Healthy Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal Cups
A genuine make-ahead batch recipe: one bowl, a full can of pumpkin, and a muffin tin gets you 12 grab-and-go breakfast cups that freeze beautifully for up to three months. Naturally vegan and gluten-free (just check your oats are certified GF if that matters), not overly sweet, so it leans more “healthy breakfast” than dessert unless you top it with whipped cream or caramel.
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Desserts
20. Creamy Pumpkin Pie Bars (V + GF)
Ten ingredients, made almost entirely in a blender. The crust is blitzed oats and almond flour pressed straight into the tin, which skips the pastry cutter and rolling entirely, and the filling sets to a proper custard texture with cornstarch instead of eggs. Naturally sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar. Vegan and gluten-free, and nobody will guess either.
21. 1-Bowl Vegan Pumpkin Roll (GF)
A thin pumpkin sheet cake baked on a tray, rolled warm, then unrolled and filled with coconut whipped cream beaten into vegan cream cheese. Aquafaba stands in for eggs, a little mashed banana adds moisture without the taste of banana, and the whole batter comes together in one bowl. Ten slices, and it looks far harder than it is.
22. Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bundt Cake (Dairy-Free Option)
A real from-scratch bundt cake using butter, eggs, and gluten-free flour (with a dairy-free swap option built right in), finished with a maple vanilla glaze. Genuinely rich enough that, per the comments, nobody can tell it’s gluten-free, a solid choice if you’re baking for a mixed group and don’t want to make two separate desserts.
23. Gluten-Free Pumpkin Custard
No crust, no flour at all actually, just a silky, spiced custard baked in ramekins inside a water bath for that classic pumpkin pie flavor without any of the pastry work. It takes a bit more technique than most on this list (tempering eggs, a water bath, and a strainer for smoothness), but the payoff is a genuinely elegant, restaurant-style dessert that happens to be effortlessly gluten-free.
24. Creamy Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie
This one’s genuinely flexible: it works in a flaky pie crust, a graham cracker crust, or a shortbread tart shell and comes with both a baked and a no-bake filling option using coconut milk instead of the usual evaporated milk or cream. A solid pick if you’re catering to both gluten and dairy restrictions in one dessert without anyone feeling like they’re missing out.
25. Gluten-Free Pumpkin Scones
A genuinely simple gluten-free flour swap here, no exotic substitutions, just a standard GF all-purpose blend with a binder like xanthan gum, then the usual scone method: cold butter cut into the dough, a freezer chill, sliced into wedges, and finished with a maple glaze. A Starbucks-scone dupe that also freezes well unbaked, handy if you want fresh scones on demand without doing the whole process each time.
Vegan Pumpkin Desserts
26. Pumpkin Cobbler
A self-saucing pudding cake. You spread the batter, scatter sugar over the top, pour boiling water over the whole thing, and it looks like a disaster going into the oven. It comes out as cake sitting on a molten pumpkin pudding layer. One bowl, 15 minutes of prep, 50 minutes total, and vegan and gluten-free without tasting like either.
27. No-Bake Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake
Two layers of cashew cheesecake, one chocolate and one pumpkin spice, set on a chocolate date crust made from pecans, almond flour, and Medjool dates. Everything happens in a blender, with no oven and no dairy. Vegan, gluten-free, and paleo, and it settles the argument between the pumpkin people and the chocolate people in one dessert.
28. Vegan Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars
A graham cracker crust under a baked cheesecake filling made from blended firm tofu and vegan cream cheese, finished with cinnamon sugar that stays crunchy on top. The tofu is the trick: it gives you the density of real cheesecake without the cashew taste that most vegan versions can’t shake. An hour of work, then four to six hours cooling, and it makes sixteen bars.
29. Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes
Soft, spiced cupcakes made in one bowl, with a whole cup of pumpkin purée in the batter and vegan cream cheese frosting on top. Forty minutes, twelve cupcakes, and eight ingredients in the cake itself. The apple cider vinegar is doing quiet work here, reacting with the baking powder to lift a batter that pumpkin would otherwise weigh down.
30. Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
Fudgy brownies built on melted chocolate rather than cocoa powder, with dollops of pumpkin cheesecake swirled through the batter before baking. Flax eggs in the brownie and an egg yolk replacer in the cheesecake. Sixteen squares from an 8×8 tin, and they’re better cold when the cheesecake sets to something properly creamy.
31. Easy Vegan Pumpkin Trifle
Cubes of pumpkin cake layered with a stovetop pumpkin custard, whipped coconut cream, butterscotch sauce, and ginger cookies crumbled over the top just before serving. Everything can be made a day or two ahead and assembled the night before, which is exactly what you want from a dessert for a crowd. Sixteen servings.
32. Vegan Pumpkin Sheet Cake
Baked in a 9×13 pan rather than a full sheet pan, this stays genuinely fluffy and moist thanks to a mix of oil and plant milk; no eggs needed at all. Top it with cream cheese frosting once fully cooled, and it holds up beautifully in the fridge for days, making it an easy one to bake ahead for a gathering.
Classic Pumpkin Pies and Cakes
33. Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Cubed crusty French bread soaked in a spiced pumpkin custard made with four eggs, two extra yolks, half and half, and whole milk, baked until set, and served warm under salted caramel sauce, whipped cream, and toasted pecans. It tastes like pumpkin pie with a better texture. Just over an hour, serves twelve.
34. Spiced Pumpkin Tart
A pecan pastry crust pressed straight into a tart pan (no rolling pin, no crimping) under a heavily spiced pumpkin filling made with heavy cream and brown sugar. The shallower depth means it bakes and cools faster than a full pie. The unexpected ingredient is a pinch of black pepper, which nobody identifies but everyone notices.
35. Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Maple Frosting
A spiced pumpkin loaf studded with chopped pecans, under a cashew and maple frosting that sets like buttercream in the fridge. The spicing is where it separates itself: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and crushed cardamom seeds, which is unusual in a pumpkin bake and the thing reviewers keep mentioning. Twenty-five minutes of prep, fifty in the oven.
36. Persimmon Pear Vegan Pumpkin Galette
A free-form spelt crust spread with pumpkin pie filling, layered with sliced persimmon and pear, pecans scattered over, and the edges folded up by hand. No pie dish, no crimping, no blind baking. Fifty-five minutes and it looks like the most impressive thing on the table. Vegan mayo stands in for the egg in the filling, which sounds alarming and works.
37. Classic Homemade Pumpkin Pie from Scratch
This is the genuine, from-scratch benchmark: a homemade buttery crust and a silky spiced filling using evaporated milk, no shortcuts, no pre-made anything. It’s also genuinely make-ahead friendly (bake the day before and the flavor actually improves overnight), which makes it a solid pick if your roundup needs one “the classic done properly” entry alongside all the twists and shortcuts.