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Easy Caramel Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies are the BEST pumpkin cookie recipe stuffed with chocolate caramel candy! Every bite is filled with gooey caramel, and they are easy to make. Perfect for the fall season and the holidays!
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All you need to know about this pumpkin caramel cookies recipe is that it’s the bomb. As in, the BOMB DOT COM – do people still say that?!
I mean, who can say no to a delicious pumpkin cookie stuffed with caramel chocolate candy? If there is someone, please let me know, and I will convince them. They are seriously the best.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- For this recipe, I took my easy pumpkin cookies that are soft and chewy and turned them into caramel stuffed cookies. It’s a very decadent upgrade.
- The cookies are UBER GOOEY when you bite into them. The combination of pumpkin, pumpkin spices, caramel, and chocolate is the best.
- They are freezer-friendly! When I make a batch, I toss them in the freezer as soon as possible to lessen the temptation to eat the entire batch.
- They are the best surprise-inside cookies. From the outside, they look so simple, but that first bite… it’s ooey-gooey caramel heaven.
Ingredients
Butter: Use softened unsalted butter. If using salted butter reduce salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
Pumpkin Puree: Not pumpkin pie mix!
Sugar: This recipe uses a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar. Light or dark brown may be used, be sure to pack it.
Egg: Because of all the wetness that the pumpkin gives the recipe, we’re just using one large egg yolk
Vanilla Extract: For flavoring
Baking Soda: This helps the cookies rise and spread.
Salt: Needed to balance the flavor because we started with unsalted butter.
Spices: You can use pumpkin pie spice or a combination of spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice).
All-purpose Flour: Be sure to measure it correctly!
Caramel Candies: You have options for what kind to use. You can use plain caramels, like Werther’s chewy or soft or Kraft caramel squares. Or use chocolate covered caramel, such as Rolos or Dove. Any of them work in this recipe.
How to Make Caramel Pumpkin Cookies
- Mix the butter, pumpkin, and both sugars in a bowl. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Mix in the egg yolk and vanilla. Add the baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice and mix until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl, so everything is thoroughly mixed.
- Slowly mix in the flour. Once a smooth dough forms, stop mixing.
- Scoop one tablespoon of dough to form each ball. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Chill the dough balls for 30 minutes or until they are soft but not sticky when you touch them.
- To make stuffed cookies, take a candy and place it between two balls of dough. Then, roll them together so the candy is completely covered and the ball is smooth.
- Roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and then place them back on the cookie sheet. Chill the dough balls again for at least one hour.
- Divide the chilled balls between two prepared cookie sheets and space them apart. Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes at 350°F or until the tops are no longer shiny and the bottoms are just turning golden brown. Cool the cookies on the sheets before removing them.
Tips for making Caramel Pumpkin Cookies
- Chilling: Don’t skip the chilling steps. When you first make the dough, it needs to firm up so you can easily work with the dough. As you stuff the dough balls, they will warm up, which is why you need the second chilling step. That will ensure the cookies don’t spread too much when you bake them.
- Cooling: It’s tempting to dive right in when the cookies are warm from the oven, but it’s better to let them cool. The caramel center will be molten, and the cookies need time to set up. If you remove them too soon, they can fall apart.
- Storage: These pumpkin caramel cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature. Or, store them in a freezer bag and freeze them for up to one month.
Whether you want to make Halloween stuffed cookies or need a batch of unique stuffed cookies for the fall, this pumpkin cookies with caramel recipe is a must-make. Enjoy!
More Fall and Holiday Cookies You’ll Love
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Caramel Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup (81g) pumpkin puree
- ¾ cup (150g) packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 ¾ cups (217g) all-purpose flour
For Filling and Rolling
- About 20 caramel candies (Werthers chewy or soft, Kraft, Rolos or Dove)
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Place butter, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in the bowl of a strand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (You can also use a hand mixer.) Mix until combined.
- Continue mixing and add the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Add the baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice and mix until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Slowly mix in flour until a smooth dough forms.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon sized balls onto a cookie sheet covered with wax or parchment paper. They don’t need to be far apart, this is for chilling. Chill 30 minutes or until you can easily touch them but they’re still soft enough to roll.
- Sandwich the caramel candies between two balls of dough and roll into a large ball.
- Stir together 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll each cookie dough ball in the cinnamon sugar and place back on the cookie sheet. Chill at least one more hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread cookies onto 2 lined cookie sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops are no longer shiny and the bottoms just start to turn brown. Let cool completely before removing.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to one month.
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Recipe Nutrition
Easy Caramel Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies are the BEST pumpkin cookie recipe stuffed with chocolate caramel candy! Perfect for the fall season and the holidays!
Can you freeze the dough and bake later? Should you thaw before baking or bake from frozen?
Yes and yes – but thaw only to chilled (not room temp)
These are great cookies! Only thing is the caramel sometimes seeps out of the sides when baking, even when I roll the balls together so the caramel is in between. Any tips to prevent that? Also, I am going to make these again and need to make them ahead of time for an event. You said they can be frozen, did you mean before or after baking? Typically cookies are frozen before baking but wasn’t sure if I could do that for these because of the caramel inside.
I haven’t frozen these before baking, but I freeze everything after! It should work to freeze them before, just make sure to thaw them to cold before baking. Just make sure the caramel is completely sealed in the dough – and that the dough is completely sealed, no cracks or anything.
Unfortunately the amount of cookies you get is off. I used a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop like recommended, and it only yields about 20 cookie balls for CHILLING. Once you get to the step to add the caramels and press two cookies together, you only get about 10 cookies out of the recipe. Very disappointing to not know until basically done with the cookies.
What size cookie scoop did you use? If you used a 1 tablespoon you should have gotten more than that.
What’s ground allspice ?
Thank you
It’s a fall/christmas spice, it’s often in gingerbread and pumpkin recipes. They have it in the spice aisle!
Yield isn’t accurate at all. Only made 12 cookies. Also the stickiest most horrible dough to work with ever. I had to use copious amounts of cooking spray to keep it from sticking to the scoop. 0/10 recipe. Horrible.
I’m sorry that happened. Did you use a cookie scoop?
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