Honey Pecan Cream Cheese

Honey Pecan Cream Cheese is a delightfully simple well flavoured recipe. Using textures to create layers, the combination of ingredients comes together effortlessly. Choose to serve it as a dip, spread or cheese! Cream cheese honey pecan is a winning combination that you will end up making again and again.

Recipes like my Honey Walnut Cream Cheese, Chive and Onion Cream Cheese, Christmas Nuts and Candied Spiced Pecans give us sweet and savory yum!

My Halloween Dip, Thanksgiving Dip and Christmas Dip are designed to be effortless entertaining options.

🤍 Recipe Highlights

I have summarised the reasons why I think you will love this recipe in the points below, you will hopefully want to make the recipe time and time again!

• Super quick!
• Super easy!
• Ingredients that are simple and easy to get your hands on. No driving all over town to speciality stores, your local grocery store will stock all of the ingredients needed for the recipe.
• Multiple serving suggestions: I mention this a couple of times in the post. Some people will want to use this as a spread for their bagel. Some will want to use it as a dip. Both are totally fine. You do you and the taste will be delicious no matter which option you choose.
• Versatile: whilst I present the recipe as a block of cream cheese, decked with layers, I also want to show you that you can take a spoon and push and stir all of those ingredients together so it can be a traditional spread as well. This is a photo to show you what I am talking about.
• Bagels, bagels, everything but the bagels! Sorry, haha, I had to. You know how a bagel is just not the same unless it is smeared with a thick layer of some type of cheese? Skip the boring stuff and get your knife into a bowl of this, it is so tasty and you are going to love it!

🥗 Ingredients

The photo below is to show you the ingredients needed to make the recipe. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements.

As you can see, the recipe calls for:

• Cream cheese: we need an 8 oz, 250 gram block of this. Thick and creamy, it lends itself to sweet and savory recipes. You can use a tub if you really want or if it is just the 2 of you for date night. However, for parties, I think the block presents better and you have more surface area for the toppings. Everywhere sells this from Walmart to Tesco, Woolies and Coles, you will easily be able to get your hands on it.
• Honey: sweet and sticky, I love using this ingredient in the kitchen! For this recipe we drizzle it over the top of the cheese and it provides flavour and texture as well as allowing the other ingredients (chopped pecans and crushed nuts) to stick to it.
• Pecans: I recommend either purchasing chopped ones (bits and pieces) or whole ones which you pop into a glass jug or mug and use kitchen scissors to roughly chop. (This is what I do).
• Crushed nuts: I am referring to crushed peanuts here. They are sold in the cooking aisle with the dried fruits and might be labelled 'granulated nuts'. They offer great texture, convenience and are great from anything like ice cream through to using as a salad ingredient.
• Crackers: I use robust round crackers. This is because we want to 'spread' the dip onto the crackers. Even these break if the portion of cream cheese is too thick. So anything thinner (water crackers) is not the best choice for pairing. They will work, but you will likely encounter many broken bits.

Tasty Tip: Don't feel that you have to use the exact same crackers as me. You can use your favourite bagel ( 😂ha!). Nah, what I mean is that you can spread this on a bagel, use it as a dip with crackers or chips. The choice is yours!

🍳 Instructions

Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. Start by grabbing the cream cheese out of the fridge, removing the cardboard packing and unpeeling the foil wrapping.

• Plate the cream cheese (Photo 1)
• Drizzle with honey (Photo 2)
• Add crushed nuts (Photo 3)
• Add chopped pecans (Photo 4)

👩‍🍳 How to Make Honey Pecan Cream Cheese

Once you have plated the cream cheese on a serving board, begin to top it by layering the remaining ingredients. The honey is the 'glue' that allows everything to stick to it. Don't be worried if it starts to slide down the sides of the cheese block.

The crushed nuts are the layer that goes on top of the honey for additional texture, then sprinkle the chopped pecans on top so that their pretty brown skin can be a highlight as the top layer.

As I mentioned with the crackers, you can use your favourite. Be it a water cracker, rye cracker, Graham cracker or bagel, pick your pairing and go for it! ( ❤ ).

🍽 Serving Suggestions

To serve the cheese, you have a couple of options. You can present it like I have as a block of cream cheese with layers. Or you can make it as such, then transfer to a bowl, use a knife to roughly chop it and then a soup spoon to stir it so that it becomes a spread.

I like to pop the leftover and additional ingredients such as the chopped pecans in small bowls around the edge of the serving board so that people can grab a cracker and fully load it.

The combination of crunchy cracker, soft but firm cream cheese, sweet sticky honey and robust nuts works so well that you will need to make it again and again and again!

And again, if you want to stir this as it is together, to make it more of a 'spread' as opposed to a 'dip', that is no worries. Here is the photo of what that will look like my friend.

👍 How to Guide

How to Store

If you want to make this dip and store the leftovers, ensure you use an air tight container that can be sealed.

You can store leftovers to combine them as this will allow you to use them as a 'spread'. Use the spread for bagels, toast, crostini, sandwiches and wraps.

😉 Substitutions and Variations

Here are the sub ins and outs that you might like to try when making the recipe.

• You can use another nut, such as walnuts or pistachios if you like. Use kitchen scissors to roughly chop and you are set.
• If you want to use cranberry sauce (or jam) instead of the honey, you can!
• You can use maple syrup as a replacement to the honey if you want to.
• Add some chopped apricots if you want to incorporate a dried fruit into the recipe.
• Instead of crackers or bagels, use the cream cheese as a spread for croissants or crescent rolls.

💡 Tasty Tips

Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share so that you get the recipe right from the get go:

• Don't worry if when peeling the foil layer off the cream cheese a little of it sticks to the foil. This will make the shape of the rectangle less 'perfect', but it tastes all the same and is no biggie 😉.
• You might be tempted to use a spreadable tub instead of block of cream cheese as 'same, same' but I urge you to use the block instead if serving to guests as a dip, it takes the presentation up several notches. However, if you are going to serve it like the 2nd idea as a 'spread' the quantity is the same across the 2, so be my guest.
• When layering the nuts onto the honey, some of the honey will naturally slide due to the weight of the nuts. This is totally fine. A gentle touch can reduce this, but the honey sliding down the sides of the cream cheese block also has a pretty delicious and 'yum' affect.
• Provide a cheese knife when serving if you are going to serve it like the block of cream cheese. This will allow the eaters to cut into it and keep things from getting too messy.
• If you are more of a bread bowl dip person try the Brie Bread Bowl, Spinach Cob Loaf Dip or the Bacon And Cheese Cob Loaf 😉👌.

🤓 Frequently Asked Questions

How many calories are in honey pecan cream cheese?

There is 112kcal calories in a serving of honey pecan cream cheese.

Portion size serving, for cracker or bagel will vary depending on size and pairing calorie count.

Is honey pecan cream cheese gluten free?

The combination of cream cheese, honey, crushed nuts and pecans is gluten free. However, many breads including some bagels and crackers are not. If you want to use this as a gluten free recipe, ensure you are checking the labels of the serving pairing to make sure it is gluten free.

Is it OK to eat plain cream cheese?

Cream cheese is totally ok to eat straight from the packet, plain so to speak.

For more variety, you can choose to add a sauce, fresh herbs, a condiment, or many other tasty ingredients.

How do you eat plain cream cheese?

Plain cream cheese can be used as a pasta sauce, pizza sauce, in cheesecakes (both baked and no baked), as a spread, dip or topping.

Bagels, sandwiches, wraps and crackers are all good ways to spread and use cream cheese as a dip or spread.

😍 More Easy Dip and Cheese Recipes

If you love cooking with cream cheese or using it as an ingredient for your dips and spreads, here are some more ideas that I think you will enjoy:

• Baked Brie With Red Pepper Jelly
• Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Dip
• Baked Brie with Garlic
• Easy Cream Cheese Spinach Dip
• Chili Cream Cheese Dip
• Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
• Savory Cream Cheese Onion Dip
• Cream Cheese Caramel Apple Dip
• Cream Cheese Bacon Dip
• Microwave Brie

You can also find all of my dips and spreads recipes in the one (dunk worthy spot 😂!). Or try my Olive Platter or Grazing Platter if you need to feed a crowd.

Adrianne

PIN and save the recipe for later

Hunger still got you? You can SUBSCRIBE to receive the latest recipes, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook.