Pumpkin Spice Caramels
Classic chewy caramel squares get a pumpkin spice flavor profile. This is one of my favorite fall candies to make!
A lot of people think caramel is hard to make. If this is you, don’t worry, I used to feel totally dumbfounded by caramel too. I tried recipe after recipe but something always seemed to get screwed up. Eventually I discovered what I was doing wrong and since then I’ve realized that caramel is actually very easy as long as you follow some rules. Let’s talk about some of the problems with caramel:
Problem #1: When you start the caramel by putting the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a pan, a little OCD person inside of you says “look at how undistributed those ingredients are, stir it, STIR IT!!!!”
Tell that evil voice to shut up and do not stir it. Otherwise, this will be the death of your caramel before you even began, and your caramel will crystallize and get gritty. Even though the ingredients look undistributed, it will all eventually melt into a very homogenous sugar syrup, like this:
Problem #2: caramel requires patience + human beings are not patient = burned caramel
When you make caramel, you need to watch it. Caramel is a diva, you see. It’s going to take its sweet time getting brown at all, then when you turn your back to the stove for two seconds to get a spoon, it’s practically on fire (okay, I’m exaggerating a little). It’s in our nature to look for shortcuts and do things faster but keep the heat at medium and be patient with it.
After the sugar turns clear, it will start to develop a golden honey amber color, like this:
To make these caramels pumpkin-y, heat up some cream, pumpkin puree, butter, and spices in the microwave:
Give it a good stir and you’ll have a pumpkin cream mixture:
Standing back (it will bubble ferociously), add the pumpkin cream to your amber sugar syrup:
And this brings us to…
Problem #3: You don’t have the right tools.
You can follow all the necessary rules for making caramel but if you don’t start with the proper equipment, your journey to caramel will be rough.
- Use a heavy pan with a thick bottom. If you make your caramel in a super crappy, thin bottomed pan, the bottom layer of your caramel will likely scorch.
- Use an accurate thermometer. You need to cook this to the soft ball stage, to 248 degrees F. There’s no way you can guess that. Spend $20 and get a thermometer if you don’t have one. There are several brands that make some well rated thermometers in the $20 range.
- Use a good spatula that can scrape the bottom of the pan well. Okay, so you’re probably wondering how can you use a spatula if you’re not supposed to stir? After you’ve fortified the caramel with butter and cream, you can stir the caramel without risking crystallization.
Pumpkin Spice Caramels
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/16 tsp ground allspice
- 1/16 tsp ground ginger
- 1/16 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- good quality sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper.
- Place the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a saucepan (don’t stir it together) and cook over medium heat until amber colored (approximately 10 minutes). Again, don’t stir during this process (you risk crystallizing the caramel), just swirl it gently in the pan if you need to move it around a bit.
- In the meantime, heat the cream, pumpkin puree, butter, salt, and all the spices together until melted, either in a saucepan or in the microwave.
- Once the sugar syrup has turned to an amber color, slowly and carefully pour in the pumpkin cream mixture, being aware that the caramel will bubble up a lot (wear oven mitts if you’re concerned).
- Return the pan to medium heat and cook for about 15 more minutes until it reaches 248 on a thermometer (the soft ball stage), adding the vanilla extract right before it reaches 248. Pour into the parchment lined dish and refrigerate for a few hours until hard enough to cut into squares, then sprinkle the tops with a little bit of sea salt. Enjoy!
Notes
I’ve made this both with an electric stove and a gas stove, and as expected, cooking with a gas stove will go much quicker. Be sure to keep your eye on the caramel.
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.
189 Comments on “Pumpkin Spice Caramels”
I love my Kitchen Aid mixer the best!
My Oven Mitts, I was always burning myself til I bought those.
What neat new tools.
Since I’m not cooking much I guess for now my blender for protein drinks is at least what gets used everyday.
You know what? I can’t really choose a favorite kitchen tool….I mentioned my high-heat spatula in another msg, but I really love the cheese plane I got from my mom when she died. I love to use that and think of her so fondly. We both loved our cheese. I would choose cheese over chocolate if a doctor ever told me I had to choose one or the other for health reasons, yes I definitely would!!!!
I LOVE my high-heat spatula soooooo much I take it on vacation and even to my family’s house so I can use to cook. It does so many things, but there’s nothing greater than getting ALL the great food out of a non-stick pan. And you can stir fry anything and not worry about the high heat. Truly the best invention for kitchen life!!!! Now I just have to collect FIFTEEN of them! 😉
I have a draw-knife carved wooden spatula I picked up at a heritage festival many years ago. For some reason I reach for it more than any other spoon or spatula. It just works. Flipping, stirring, folding, scraping, … I will be very sad if it ever breaks.
My favorite kitchen tool would have to be the cheese shredder my husband found at a yard sale. It is the shredder and storage container all in one. It is brilliant and allows me to store freshly shredded cheese in the fridge easily (I hate store bought shredded cheese…its dry and that powder stuff they put all over it freaks me out a little).
I had a spatula blade break into what I was stirring…granted, it was a cream cheese and marshmallow creme mixture (whoopie pie filling!) that I should have been using a stronger tool for. I picked it out and used a wooden spoon instead. My favorite kitchen tool is still a wooden spoon. Stirring anything with sourdough starter calls for non-metallic utensils, and the wood is strong enough to withstand thick batter or not-quite-kneadable dough while not reacting.
I’m old fashioned I guess, but I love my wooden spoons. They can be used in any pan, accept a high temperature, and just work well for me.
Hey Joanne! <3 These look phenomenal! I'ma gonna need to to get myself a good candy thermometer so I can make these.
My favorite kitchen tool is my pancake spatula. I would be beside myself with grief if it ever broke. It's nylon, flexible, and super thin so it slides under the pancakes with no problem. I also use it for cookies, French toast, anything that has a delicate crust on it.
My favorite tool is my cuisinart mini-prep…. I use it all the time. I guess it would be more of a “power” tool!
I love me a good spatula – definitely an essential in the kitchen!
My Kitchen Aid, if that counts as a tool, if not, my measuring spoons that have 1/2 T and 2 t. 😉
I love my microplane! Whether I’m zesting citrus, adding nutmeg (my not so secret ingredient), or chocolate – it is my go to item. 🙂
I have these magnetic measuring spoons (each have a teaspoon & tablespoon end) that are indespensible! I throw them on the fridge & they are always within reach.
My favorite kitchen tool(s) are my spoon shaped spatulas!