Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie
Make a slightly healthier homemade pie without worrying about making a pretty pie crust using this simple recipe that feeds a crowd.
Equipment
- 1 9" x 13" baking pan
- parchment paper optional
- 1 Stainless steel dough blender and cutter (or 9-cup food processor)
- 1 Large bowl
- measuring cups and spoons
- 1 1.5-quart pot
- 1 small bowl
- 1 stand mixer (or electric hand mixer)
Ingredients
- unsalted butter for greasing pan
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into cubes
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
- ¾ cup toasted chopped nuts optional
- 4 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
- ⅓ cup coconut palm sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp water
- 16 ounces Neufchatel cheese (or lite cream cheese) at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9” x 13” baking pan with butter. (Optional: you can line it with parchment paper after greasing for easy removal.)
- Put butter, wheat flour, flour, and salt into a bowl and cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse sand. (Alternatively, put the ingredients in a9-cup food processor and pulse until it’s combined.)
- Mix in toasted nuts, if using. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the baking pan.
- Put the baking pan on the middle rack in the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Let cool completely, at least 1 hour.
- Put frozen blueberries, water, and palm sugar in a 1.5-quart pot stir well to combine. Put pot on high heat. When the blueberries come to a boil, turn heat down to medium high and stir. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Turn heat to high and bring blueberries back to a boil. Mix cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. Add to blueberries and stir until well combined. Cook for 3 minutes and turn off heat. Cool completely (about 1 hour). Mixture will thicken further as it cools.
- While everything is cooling, put room-temperature cream cheese into a mixer with a whisk attachment. Mix on medium speed until slightly whipped. Add vanilla, sugar, and heavy whipping cream to bowl. Mix/whisk on medium-to-medium-high speed until it looks like it doubled in volume. This will take about 5 to 10 minutes depending on the speed used on the mixer. Keep the cream cheese mixture cold in the fridge while the other components are cooling.
- Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture over the cooled crust. Top with blueberry topping. Put the pie in the fridge for at least 1 hour to set.
Video
Notes
Tips and Tricks
What can I use instead of heavy whipping cream?
I grew up using Cool Whip mixed with softened cream cheese. It tastes just as good and is $2 or $3 cheaper.
Can I use other fruits instead of blueberries?
Yes. This would taste great with any type of berry or a mix of berries.
If fresh or frozen blueberries are not in your budget right now, I would go with a different frozen berry than using the canned fruit pie filling. It costs about the same amount of money for the same amount of fruit filling, but the frozen fruit version will taste fresher than the canned version and you can control the type and amount of sugar that you use.
How can I add more nutrients to this pie?
You can add ½ cup of old-fashioned oats to the crust and reduce the flour to 1 ¼ cup. This will give the crust a similar texture to an oat bar.
Can I make this in advance?
Absolutely. Cook the blueberry compote up to 2 days in advance and keep chilled in the fridge. Whip up the cream cheese filling up to 2 days before you plan to serve. You can also bake the pie crust the day before. It would be hard to freeze in the baking pan, so if you want to freeze the baked crust, you can take it out and freeze it on a sheet tray.
Keep the 3 parts of the pie separate until the day you plan to serve. If you assemble it more than 1 day in advance, the blueberry compote will start to seep into the cream cheese layer.