If you haven’t had it yet, the McDonald’s Holiday Pie is a delicious handheld pie filled with creamy vanilla custard that tastes like a sugar cookie! It’s my favorite dessert item on their menu, and my homemade version is even better!
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McDonald’s Holiday Pie
Years ago, my sister was raving about these pies, demanding that I take her to the drive thru to get one. I’d heard of McDonald’s apple pies, but never their holiday pies. Intrigued, I caved, and took her on a late night drive thru run.
As you can tell, I became a big fan! Between the colorful sprinkles, creamy middle and sugar cookie inspired filing, it was hard not to love these pies. The only issue is, the chain only releases these pies for a super limited time. So, what was a food blogger to do?
Make my own, of course! And dare I say, as much as I thoroughly enjoy the drive thru treat, my homemade recipe is even better. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!
Are these exclusively Christmas pies?
Sadly, McDonald’s only makes these desserts during Christmas. However, we’re not McDonald’s!
While this sugar cookie treat is a wonderful holiday dessert, all you need to do is change the color of the sprinkles to match whatever you’re celebrating. I love making them with rainbow sprinkles for birthday parties, and pink sprinkles for Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients
The pies themselves will need the following ingredients:
- Pie Crusts: I like to use my homemade pie crust recipe, but you can also use store bought pie crust.
- Cream Cheese
- Instant Vanilla Pudding
- Dry Yellow or White Cake Mix: the cake mix is optional but helps with the sugar cookie flavor!
- Milk
- Vanilla Extract
Optional egg wash ingredients:
- Large Egg
- Water
For the glaze, you’ll need:
- Powdered Sugar
- Milk
- Christmas Sprinkles
How to Make McDonald’s Holiday Pies
You can use your oven or air fryer to make these festive treats!
Preheat. If using an oven, preheat it to 400 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk the ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the vanilla pudding, cake mix, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. Set aside.
Mix it all up. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese until it’s light and fluffy. Then, add the pudding mix to the cream cheese and blend it all together until it’s fully combined.
Prepare the pie crust. Gently unroll each pie crust and cut off the rounded edges to make one large square. Then, cut each square in half to create a large rectangle.
Fill the pie crust. Spoon the creamy filling into the center of each square and fold the dough over. Seal the edges by neatly pressing a fork along each side.
Make the egg wash. In a small bowl, beat the egg and water together until well combined. Brush the egg wash over the tops of each pie. This step ensure that your pies will turn out golden brown!
OVEN: Transfer pies to the prepared baking sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
AIR FRYER: Spray your air fryer with cooking spray. I recommend using one that’s butter flavored to compliment the pie crust. Then, place in 2 pies at a time. Air fry at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining pies.
Make the glaze. In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk. You want a thick glaze, but may need to add another tablespoon of milk to get it to a perfect drizzle-able consistency.
Serve. Drizzle each holiday pie with glaze and sprinkle your heart away. Enjoy!
Whether you’re leaving them out for Santa or making a batch just for fun, these copycat McDonald’s Holiday Pies are going to have everyone grinning from ear to ear.
Need more fun, festive Christmas recipes? Try making a stack of Grinch pancakes. Of course, reindeer poop is always my kid’s favorite pick! And you really can’t go wrong with M&M Christmas Cookies!
McDonald’s Holiday Pie
Ingredients
- 4 9- inch uncooked pie crusts
- 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1 3.4 ounce instant vanilla pudding
- ¼ cup yellow or white cake mix, dry mix
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional Egg Wash:
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 to 4 tablespoons milk
- Christmas sprinkles
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Instructions
- If using an oven, preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together vanilla pudding, cake mix, milk and vanilla until smooth. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the pudding mix to the cream cheese and blend together until well combined.
- Gently unroll each pie crust and cut off the rounded edges making one large square. Cut each square in half to create a large rectangle. Spoon the filling into the center of each square and fold the dough over. Seal the edges by pressing a fork along each side.
- Beat egg and water in a small bowl. Brush over the tops of each pie. This will ensure your pies turn out golden brown!
- OVEN: Transfer pies to prepared baking sheet. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until golden browned.
- AIR FRYER: Spray your air fryer with cooking spray and place in 2 pies at a time. Air fry at 350°F for 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining pies.
- In a small bowl mix together the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk. You want a very thick glaze but may need to add another tablespoon of milk to get it to a drizzle-able consistency.
- Drizzle each pie with glaze and sprinkle with sprinkles. Serve!
Nutrition
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I trie the pie at mickey ds so I had to go home and try it they came out great i am going to bake some for new years eve party I am going to have will let you all know how they came out
Just made these tonight and they are fabulous! How do we store them after they are baked? Are we fine to just keep in an airtight container or do they need refrigerated?
Thank you in advance!
Hi Taylor! Store them in an airtight container in the fridge!
I made these for Christmas Eve and everyone raved about them! Do you know if they would work with sugar free pudding? That’s all I have on me at the moment. Thank you!
Yes! Sugar free pudding should work just fine! 🙂
Made this this morning with the kids! We switched out pie crust for crescents and they turned out amazing! Only had two that blew out but they were definitely packed more than the others lol. They were soooo delicious! Thank you so much for sharing! It’s been years since a McDonald’s in my area has carried them so I’m so glad to be able to have them year round!
I used puff pastry this time. Make sure crimp the edges really well, had several blow outs.
Puff pastry is notoriously more difficult to seal the edges, pie crust should not have blow outs like puff pastry. However, puff pastry is extra delicious, so hopefully they were still tasty!
Hello Jessica I m was wondering if u can freeze them after you bake them thank you
Yes! Just wrap them tightly with saran wrap and then a layer of foil (or in a freezer friendly ziplock bag) and freeze!
Just wondering if you can use the cook and serve pudding instead? Foolishly sent my husband to the store and he bought that accidentally (:
Oh No! It won’t really set up correctly in this recipe. You could still try cooking it and then letting it cool and then mixing it in, but I think it might be a little soupy and the incorrect texture. 🙁
I made this today because the area I moved to didn’t put out Holiday Pies this season. This definitely cured my craving! Instead of doing the glaze I was lazy and just sprinkled powdered sugar on top, and for the sprinkles I shook some right onto the pie crust and pressed them in with a rolling pin.(before adding filling of course) The filling was delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!
Can this be made into a regular pie instead of the squares?
Sadly the filling would not hold up or slice if made as a regular pie.
I was so excited to try this recipe, but I did not care for it.
These look delicious! Can the pies be assembled the night before and baked the next day?
Yes, it should work ok! Just make sure to cover them well with Saran Wrap or foil and refrigerate them until you are ready to bake them.
Can I sub oatmilk for this?
Yes, oat milk will work just fine!
Thanks so much for this! I lost my son a few years ago and holiday pies were one of our things every year. He would text me as soon as they were out. 🙂 I haven’t seen them since 2019 in my area. Excited to have an upgraded version of his favorite.
Holly, I”m so sorry for your loss but I am glad this brought back a good memory!
Are you supposed to make the pudding or just use the dry mix?
Use the dry mix!
Omg so glad this had a comment section cuz I was wondering the same thing! Thanks!
I usually don’t comment on recipes, but I have been addicted to McDonald’s holiday pies and decided to try this recipe for our Christmas dessert. I was amazed at how easy and how delicious it was. It tasted better than the holiday pies. The only change I made was that I used puff pastry instead of pie crust. Amazing recipe thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
That is what I was going to ask what if you use puff pastry.
Glad you got your Holiday Pie fix. 😉
Made this tonight because my McDonald’s still doesn’t have this pie and I LOVE it every year. This was SUPER similar and hit the spot. The crust is a little different, but the flavor was all there and I’m not about to try making my own. I cooked mine in air fryer.