Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Fruit Dip ♥

Hey, fruit people. Here's a great way to up your fruit game, an autumn version of that favorite cream cheese dip, just cream cheese, canned pumpkin, a natural sweetener like maple syrup or honey, plus the all-important pumpkin pie spice. As fruit dips go, this one is unusually healthy thanks to a high proportion of pumpkin:cream cheese and a small measure of sweetener.

Real Food, Fast & Casual. Just Ten Minutes & Four Ingredients. Budget Friendly. Little Effort, Big Taste. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Great for Meal Prep. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free.

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October in Small-Town Missouri

October 1, my hometown farmers market makes a magical transformation: the row of farmstands becomes a pumpkin patch playground, the perimeter lined with hay bales. Little ones play bumper tractors as the moms and grandparents look on, often recording the squeals of delight. Out front is a pile – more of an engineering feat, really – of many-sized pumpkins, minis to mammoths.

When my Lady Dog was a puppy and teaching me to heel, the farmers market water spigot was a frequent destination. During that first October, as we approached, she would warily eye the pumpkin pile, the bulbous shapes, the alarming color, sensing I always figured, the frightening faces of the pumpkins' inner jack o' lanterns. Mustering bravery, she would bark – furiously, wildly – pulling at the leash to attack the vicious orange creatures.

Isn't October grand?!

I thought about Lady's pumpkin fear while throwing the ingredients for this easy-easy pumpkin dip into the food processor – wondering if I should have made time to roast a whole pumpkin.
But then, tasting the dip – it's delicious! – I was just as happy to use the oh-so-convenient canned pumpkin.

The recipe comes from Margie, one of my OCHER-Yaya friends, who suggests serving it with Granny Smith apples and ginger cookies. I'd vote for these old-fashioned favorites, Molasses Cookies.

Me, I love it schmeared onto a bagel or a slice of my forever-favorite recipe for pumpkin bread. I even stirred a spoonful into my morning oatmeal: excellent! Unlike some pumpkin spreads I've tasted, this one really tastes like pumpkin, that's a good thing!

COMPLIMENTS!
"It was delicious spread on a hot English muffin." ~ Maris

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PUMPKIN-CREAM CHEESE FRUIT DIP

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Makes 3 cups

16 ounces (454g) canned pumpkin puree
8 ounces (212g) cream cheese
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Maple syrup, honey, sorghum, powdered sugar (or another sweetener), to taste

In a food processor, mix the pumpkin, cream cheese and pumpkin pie spice until smooth, scraping the sides as necessary. A tablespoon at a time, stir in the maple syrup or other sweetener until reaching the right sweetness for your taste.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
PUMPKIN Be sure to get 100% pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix which is already spiced and sugared. This dip is a great way to use up canned pumpkin. For example, one year I made a batch of Light & Fluffy Homemade Whole-Grain Bread & Buns, it has such pretty orange color, especially for fall and autumn feasts like Thanksgiving. But the bread only uses 1/3 cup of canned pumpkin so I used the rest to make Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Fruit Dip! That 1/3 cup wasn't missed ...
CREAM CHEESE For cream cheese, I nearly always choose the lower-fat neufchatel (how to pronounce neufchatel). It's a winner, there's no telling the difference. FYI to my taste, non-fat cream cheese is gummy and vile and is to be avoided at all cost! Could you use goat cheese or ricotta? Without a doubt! What about non-fat Greek yogurt? Yes, I think so, that would make a big difference for Weight Watchers since non-fat yogurt is a "free" food. See Weight Watchers Zero Point "Free" Food Lists for more info ...
PUMPKIN PIE SPICE is a common spice blend but it's so easy to mix your own, there's really no reason to shell out the money. For this recipe, I used 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ginger but my "official" pumpkin pie spice is here with other blends, DIY Spice Blends & Homemade Seasonings.
SWEETENER The original recipe called for 2 whole cups of powdered sugar, whoah, that would make this sweet-sweet-sweet and almost an icing. It also explains why the original recipe also called for thinning the dip a bit with orange juice. Margie recommended using less sugar so I started with just 1/4 cup of sugar and would have been happy to stop here but my taste testers asked for another 1/4 cup for a fruit dip that's slightly sweet but lets the pumpkin flavor itself come through. For maple syrup, honey, sorghum and other "wet" sweeteners, my taste buds declare "that's enough" at 6 tablespoons.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per 1/4 cup (assumes Neufchatel & 6 tablespoons maple syrup): 86 Calories; 3g Tot Fat; 2g Sat Fat; 10mg Cholesterol; 152mg Sodium; 13g Carb; 1g Fiber; 9g Sugar; 2g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 2 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 4 & Freestyle 3 & myWW green 3 & blue 3 & purple 3

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