A (Ridiculously Easy!) Cinnamon Pie

A cinnamon cream pie that is SO decadent and delicious, and could not be easier to make! You can have this pie made in under 20 minutes!

I just love a dessert that's quick and easy to make, AND a show stopper, AND delicious. The trifecta!

I can't overstate how easy this pie is. I mean it! I can't!

I was inspired to make a cinnamon pie based on that one Psych episode. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about and if not, I'm about to do a terrible job describing it because it has been years since I saw it and this fixation began.

The gist is, Shawn and Gus go to solve a crime in a little town and in said town is a cute little diner that serves cinnamon pie. They go there and eat it all the time and talk about how amazing it is. (Do they solve the crime? Probably. But honestly all I remember is the pie.)

Which made me wonder at WHY when I love cinnamon and pie, this wasn't on my radar before. I needed to make a pie as delicious as the fictional pie in the fictional show.

So I tried a baked pie, I tried a sort of cinnamon cheesecake in a pie crust, I tried cinnamon crust and eventually I moved it to my back burner because nothing came even CLOSE to what I was wanting.

Until this summer! I tried a thick, creamy pudding pie with a whipped cream topping and it was everything I wanted! So good, and always feels quaint diner to me.

The cinnamon flavor makes this a great option for fall and winter holidays, but there's something about a cold pudding pie that is so satisfying in summer! Sooo, really, eat this any time of year. It's always good!

The Crust

In the spirit of keeping this the easiest pie ever, I highly recommend just getting a store bought crust! I use graham cracker crust here, but Oreo would be amazing (chocolate and cinnamon together is one of my all-time favorite combinations!), or if you wanted to add an extra step and bake a pie crust, you could do that too!

It's a very flexible pie. If it were in a beauty pageant, it would definitely win Ms. Congeniality because it gets along with everyone so well.

So, choose your crust depending on what kind of a feel you're going for and how much effort you want to put into it!

The Filling

The highlight of this pie is the filling! It has a to-die-for texture that reminds me of a French silk pie - light and creamy, with just the right amount of stiffness. Oh, and it is LOADED with cinnamon.

Here's what's in it:

• Heavy cream - Using heavy cream makes this pie super decadent and creamy!
• A box of instant vanilla pudding mix - Be sure to use instant pudding, NOT the cook and serve kind.
• Cinnamon - 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon for the whole pie!
• Cool whip - Using a container of cool whip makes this SO easy. You'll use half for the filling and the other half for the whipped topping. No need to measure - just eyeball it!

To make the filling, you'll beat the heavy creamy, pudding mix, and cinnamon together for a couple of minutes until thickened, then fold in half the cool whip. Spread it out in your pie crust and the filling is done!

The remaining half of the cool whip container gets spread out over the filling. I like to leave about 1 inch of the pie filling uncovered around the crust, just so it's not completely hidden.

If you're using chocolate shavings (which you should! because they're fun and decorative and also so delicious!), you can add them to the top now. Then, refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving so the filling has time to firm up!

Substitutions

Okay, again, this is a really flexible and forgiving pie. You can doctor it up in so many ways!

• The pie crust - swap out the graham cracker crust for Oreo, or for a regular baked pie shell.
• The pudding flavor - I love this with vanilla pudding, but cheesecake, white chocolate, even regular chocolate could all be delicious! If you try a different pudding flavor, let me know how it turns out!
• The cool whip - Some people are not cool whip people, and that's okay! You can whip up a cup of heavy cream with 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla and proceed with the recipe as written.