Seventh Day of Pumpkin Holiday Cookies, Pumpkin Caramels

This recipe from Food Network Kitchen seemed like a perfect addition to the pumpkin holiday trays and they do look cute in their waxed paper wrappers, but I doubt if I would ever make them again. They just don't taste like pumpkin, even though they contain 2/3 of a cup.

You cook the sugars together as you would for any candy; but after it reaches the firm ball stage, add the pumpkin and cook again without stirring to soft ball stage. This is where things get a little scary. The caramel turns very dark because the bottom layer is burning solidly to the pan. Remarkable the candy has no burn taste, but the pan appears ruined. I left mine to soak overnight with some dishwasher machine soap and the entire "burn layer" was floating on the top in the morning. (This is not mentioned in the recipe.)

After all this I actually like the caramels and can't resist popping them in my mouth at every opportunity.

Even though the recipe called for wrapping them individually in waxed paper, I didn't think it was necessary until Andrew came back from the kitchen reporting the caramels were gluing themselves to each other. Ok, ok - out came the waxed paper. Stored like this they don't stick and are easy on the fillings, too.