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Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pie

"This is a delicious creamy pie that is very easy to make, and does not need to be baked. The HERSHEY'S ® Cinnamon Chips give a wonderful flavor and fragrance to the pie."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and cream cheese work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 705 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Sprinkle the unflavored gelatin over the 1/4 cup water in a small bowl and let it stand 5 minutes to soften.

  2. Toast the chopped pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until fragrant. Set aside to cool.

  3. Heat the milk in a small saucepan over low heat until steaming. Add the whole 1 cup cinnamon chips and stir until melted and smooth.

  4. Add the softened gelatin to the warm chip mixture and stir over low heat for about 1 minute until fully dissolved. Let it cool slightly.

  5. Beat the cream cheese and brown sugar in a large bowl for about 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy.

  6. Beat in the cooled chip mixture until fully combined. Gently fold in the thawed whipped topping until no streaks remain.

  7. Fold the coarsely chopped cinnamon chips and the toasted pecans into the filling.

  8. Spoon the filling into the graham cracker crust and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours until set.

  9. Slice into 8 wedges and serve chilled.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + cream cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together705 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Cream cheese + pecanstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Cinnamon + pecanstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,647 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, milk, gelatin, cream cheese, sugar):

  1. Pecansthe original
  2. Almondabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Walnutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, milk, gelatin, cream cheese, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).