Skip the pumpkin pie this year and make these easy pumpkin cheesecake bars with a can of crescent dough instead.

Pumpkin pie is the classic Thanksgiving dessert. – to pumpkin pie or not to pumpkin pie? It is also a very highly debated pie. Some people love pumpkin pie and others are not fans. You can substitute a pumpkin cheesecake, which is delicious, but it’s pretty time consuming to make.  But if you put a pumpkin cheesecake filling between two layers of buttery, cinnamon crescent rolls, then you get a truly incredible pumpkin dessert. No one will wonder where the pumpkin pie is when you make these pumpkin cheesecake bars.  

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars Recipe

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars Ingredients:

What I love most about this recipe is that it only needs a handful of ingredients so it’s super easy to make.

• Pillsbury Crescent Dough sheets – The top and the bottom crusts are made from Pillsbury™ Crescent dough sheets.  If you can’t find the dough sheets, then just use crescent rolls. When you unroll them, make sure to pinch the seams of the rolls together to make one flat sheet. 
• Pumpkin puree
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Butter
• Cinnamon and sugar

How to Make Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars:

Lay one sheet of the crescent dough on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan. There’s no need to grease the pan. Gently stretch the dough out a little width wise to meet the edges of the pan, if needed. 

Whip together the pumpkin, cream cheese and pumpkin pie spice. You can make your own pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have any on hand. It is easier to mix this together with an electric mixer to get it all nice and creamy. 

Spread the pumpkin mixture on top of the crescent dough.  Then put a second sheet of crescent dough on top of the pumpkin filling.  Pour the butter over top layer of crescent dough. Don’t worry – it works! Pour away. Then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar liberally on top of the butter.

The bars need a solid 30 minutes to bake. We bake them closer to 40 minutes because the top layer sometimes takes time to bake thoroughly.  The butter should be absorbed and the top will be bubbling up and a deep golden brown when it is done.

Remove from the oven.  Allow the bars to cool completely and then chill before cutting.  It will be hard to not just dig in, but resist the temptation.

Cut the bars up or just leave in the pan until you are ready to serve them up.  They are delicious with a nice hot cup of coffee and would be a perfect Thanksgiving dessert.