Whipped Maple Cream Cheese Spread with Walnuts
Make your own homemade maple cream cheese spread to serve on your favorite bagels and toast! It tastes just like the fancy stuff at the bagel shop but is made with super simple ingredients right at home.
If you love everything maple like I do, you’ll love this Maple Whipped Cream! It’s perfect for serving on Pumpkin Pie Pudding Cups or our favorite Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp.
What is Maple Cream Cheese?
This maple cream cheese recipe is a fluffy, whipped cream cheese flavored with real maple syrup and toasted walnuts. It’s the perfect topping for a toasted bagel or bread (but I love it on a slice of pumpkin cake or pancakes)!
Why you’ll love this maple cream cheese spread
Equipment
To make your own maple walnut cream cheese, you’ll need a medium mixing bowl and hand mixer (or a stand mixer with a whisk or paddle attachment). It can also be helpful to have a spatula to scoop it into your jar or dish.
Ingredients
- Cream cheese – For the best flavor, use full-fat cream cheese and let it come to room temperature.
- Pure maple syrup – Only use the good stuff! It’s the best. You just need a little.
- Walnuts – Toast them in the oven first to bring out their flavor, then chop them into very small pieces.
- Heavy cream – This is optional, but it makes the cream cheese mixture even fluffier.
- Ground cinnamon – This is entirely optional, but maple and cinnamon taste great together. This Tung Hing cinnamon has so much flavor! We’ve been sprinkling it on everything.
- A pinch of salt
How to toast the walnuts
For the best flavor, make sure you toast your walnuts and let them cool before adding them to the cream cheese spread. Be sure to watch them carefully to avoid burning.
- Spread the walnuts in an even layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes.
How to Make Maple Cream Cheese at Home
- Place the softened cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer.
- Add the maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt.
- Whip well until the mixture is fluffy and creamy (approximately 3-5 minutes).
- Add the chopped walnuts. Mix briefly until fully combined.
- Gradually drizzle in the heavy cream to soften the cream cheese mixture and make it even fluffier.
- Turn off the mixer and transfer the cream cheese to an airtight container for storage.
Storing
Store the cream cheese in an airtight container, like a mason jar, for approximately 1-2 weeks, depending on the freshness of your ingredients.
You can also freeze the leftover cream cheese in a freezer-safe container, but it’s so easy to make it fresh!
Tips & Variations
- Use infused syrup. Replace the pure maple syrup with my vanilla maple syrup or cinnamon maple syrup for even more flavor.
- Add an extract. You can easily drizzle in a teaspoon of vanilla extract or cinnamon extract for extra flavor.
- Ditch the nuts. This cream cheese is wonderful even without them! You can also substitute pecans for a really nice flavor.
- Add some Bourbon. This is a fun option for the holidays. Add 1-2 teaspoons of bourbon for a little Southern charm.
- Use a piping bag. I kind of like piping the cream cheese into the jar instead of scooping and scraping it. That’s entirely up to you!
- Add extra maple flavor. Feel free to use a little maple extract for an even stronger maple flavor.
- Keep it full fat. Although you can use reduced fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), I prefer the creaminess and tanginess of regular full fat cream cheese.
- Make a double batch. Does your family love cream cheese on their bagels? Make a double batch in a large bowl. It keeps well in the fridge!
- Adjust the cream. You can absolutely add more cream, if you’d like. I keep it pretty minimal, but you can easily add up to 1/4 cup. Just be sure not to overmix it or it’ll separate.
- Make it low carb. If you’re trying to avoid all sweeteners, try using a keto maple syrup replacement instead.
How to Use
My favorite way to serve this maple walnut cream cheese is to spread it onto a freshly toasted bagel or toast. It’s also the perfect finishing touch for these sourdough pumpkin muffins or served on pancakes!
It’s also wonderful served as a dip! Serve this maple cream cheese dip with sliced apples and graham crackers for a comforting treat.
FAQs
Although they’re quite similar, the classic cream cheese frosting often includes softened unsalted butter and powdered sugar in addition to the cream cheese and maple syrup. They’re whipped together until light and fluffy, and then the creamy frosting is used on spice cakes, muffins, and more.
This maple cream cheese is meant to be used as a bagel spread or to add to toast, although it has several other great uses as well.
One of the best things about this cream cheese spread is that it’s naturally sweetened! You just need about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup for an entire 8 oz block of cream cheese.
Although I haven’t tried this, you can definitely try substituting dairy-free cream cheese! You should have very similar results.
Related Recipes
- Maple Whipped Cream
- Bourbon Butterscotch Pie
- Dehydrated Cinnamon Apples (with maple cinnamon!)
- Rosemary Maple Air Fryer Walnuts
- Date and Walnut Scones
Whipped Maple Cream Cheese with Walnuts
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer (or electric mixer and mixing bowl)
- 1 Spatula
- 1 airtight container
Ingredients
- 8 oz full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 TBS maple syrup
- 2 TBS heavy cream
- 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch kosher salt
Instructions
- Place the softened cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer.
- Add the maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt.
- Whip well until the mixture is fluffy and creamy (approximately 3-5 minutes).
- Add the chopped walnuts. Mix briefly until fully combined.
- Gradually drizzle in the heavy cream to soften the cream cheese mixture and make it even fluffier.
- Turn off the mixer and transfer the cream cheese to an airtight container for storage.
