Spiced Pumpkin Caramel Sauce

A jar of deep orange-amber sauce on a blue patterned plate.

This pumpkin caramel sauce is spiced with warm spices rounded out by vanilla. Intensely flavored with both pumpkin puree and deep caramel, this sauce is the essence of fall and is delicious poured over ice cream, served with cheesecake, or added to your coffee.

Course Dessert Sauces

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Total Time 15

Servings 1/2 cups, about 12 servings

Calories 88kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Ingredients

7 oz granulated sugar 1 cup or 196 grams
1/4-1/2 cup water just to dissolve the sugar before caramelizing
½ teaspoon kosher salt I use Morton's
½ cup heavy cream 4 oz or 112 grams
½ cup pumpkin puree 4 oz or 112 grams
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or your preferred mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves
1 ½ teaspoons unsalted butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Put the sugar, water, and salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir to combine.
Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Put the lid on and allow to boil for 2 minutes to wash down any sugar crystals from the sides of the pan.
Remove the lid and continue boiling without stirring until the sugar begins to go from clear to honey-colored. At this point, you can swirl the pan to make sure the sugar caramelizes evenly.
Wcatch carefully, and when the sugar reaches the color you prefer, anywhere from deep honey color to a deep amber, immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour in the heavy cream.
Add the pumpkin puree and spices, and whisk very well (still off the heat) to combine evenly.
Return to the heat and boil for just about 15 seconds.
Pour the caramel through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, and add the butter and vanilla.
Whisk to combine.
Let cool and store in a jar in the fridge for up to 10 days.
Ddepending on how you will use it, you may reheat the sauce or not.

Notes

The pumpkin caramel will be very thick straight from the fridge. This makes it ideal to top a cheesecake. You really should do this.

Rewarm in the microwave for a few seconds and stir well to bring the sauce back to a pourable consistency.

Variations

You can leave out the pumpkin puree altogether and increase the cream to 3/4 cup. Then you'll have a lovely pumpkin spice caramel without pumpkin in it.
Swap out all cinnamon or all ginger for the pumpkin spice.
Add some coffee extract or instant coffee to the sauce when you add the spices.

Nutrition