Healthy Chocolate Pumpkin Candy with Pumpkin Pie Spice

The Easiest Homemade Fall Dessert

This chocolate pumpkin candy is so incredibly easy to make. Even the busiest of parents can spend five minutes in the kitchen to create this delightful Autumn treat.

You only need four simple ingredients and a pumpkin candy mold to make this no-fuss Fall dessert. This is pretty much a fail-proof recipe, so even those who are not used to baking and treat-making can easily produce this pumpkin spice-infused chocolate candy.

Another thing you are going to love about this homemade chocolate is that it is healthy! Sweetened with only raw honey, you don’t have to worry about these chocolate candies giving your kiddos a sugar rush.

And here’s what your kids are going to love about this pumpkin chocolate dessert: It’s so yummy 😋

My kids beg for this lightly spiced chocolate. And then they beg for more. And then they sneak even more when I’m not around (as evidenced by the finger-digging marks on the chocolates still chilling in the freezer in the pumpkin molds).

I have caught my toddler red-handed on more than one occasion hiding behind our kitchen island stuffing her face with these Fall themed chocolate candies 😏

And my 7-year-old has been requesting them every morning with her breakfast waffles, “on the side.” They have also been her go-to request for her school lunch dessert.

And that is just fine by me. Because I have no parental guilt over giving my children honey-sweetened chocolate for their dessert or even with their breakfast.

Who These Pumpkin Chocolates are Perfect for

Fall is my favorite season. I just love the cozy sweaters, the chilly but not-too-cold weather, the delicious aroma of cinnamon and cloves when I walk past the bakery at the grocery store.

And the Fall baking.

I wait all year long for Fall so that I can bake with warm spices and flavor everything with pumpkin.

Unfortunately for me, my kids don’t like pumpkin … or warm spices. Which, on the one hand, means I get all the pumpkin Fall treats to myself. But on the other hand, it also makes it challenging to find cozy Autumn recipes I can make for my family. And I so badly want them to enjoy the colorful, spicy wonders of Fall with me!

In fact, I am on a mission to create a naturally sweetened pumpkin pie my kids love – because it can’t go on the blog if they don’t. But alas, two pumpkin pies later and a couple pounds heavier, it is evident that pumpkin treats appeal only to me in this house (but I’m not giving up, so stay tuned).

And that is where these chocolate pumpkin candies come in. While they do not actually contain any pumpkin, they are flavored with pumpkin pie spice. I was really unsure as to whether my kids would like these little Autumn pumpkin treats.

But it was love at first bite 🙂

So if you also have a child who does not like pumpkin, these are the perfect “pumpkin” Fall treat to make. With these Fall chocolate treats, you can celebrate the season in edible bliss with your child without opening a can of pumpkin.

If you want to do some seasonal treat-making this Fall and your child’s taste buds are not cooperating, make some chocolate pumpkin candy.

Oh, by the way, if you need some more pumpkin-free Fall dessert ideas for your kids, try making some naturally sweetened chocolate covered caramel apples, no-bake caramel corn, or pumpkin and leaf-shaped cut out sugar cookies.

Ingredients

• Unsweetened Baker’s Chocolate: For the base of these candies I use baker’s chocolate because it melts and rehardens so smoothly. Make sure your baker’s chocolate is unsweetened.

• Butter: Butter helps with melting the chocolate and softens the intensity of the chocolate. I use Irish grass-fed or organic butter. Unsalted is best, but I’ve made it with salted as well and the kids didn’t mind.

• Raw Honey: Raw, unfiltered honey is wonderful for its antibacterial and antioxidant properties. It is also thicker than processed honey which means it adds more body and stability to naturally sweetened treats.

• Pumpkin Pie Spice: Just a smidge of pumpkin pie spice goes a long way in creating perfectly spiced chocolate pumpkin candy.

Instructions

Step 1

Place your candy mold on a small baking sheet to keep it on a flat surface during transfer.

Step 2

Add all ingredients to a small pot on the stove.

Step 3

Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until everything is melted and fully mixed.

Step 4

Turn off heat and spoon chocolate into pumpkin candy molds, filling each mold cup to the top.

Step 5

Place the baking sheet with the candy mold on it in the freezer for at least one hour.

Step 6

Once chocolates are hard, remove from candy mold and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Substitutions & Tips

• If you are able to get into a Hobby Lobby, that is where I purchased my pumpkin candy mold for about $1.50 (I should have gotten more than one). I recommend getting multiple molds to be able to make several batches at a time. If you can’t get them from Hobby Lobby, these pumpkin candy molds are reasonably priced and come in a set of two.

• I have tried making this substituting coconut oil in place of butter and it did not turn out well. The candies did not fully harden and the honey separated. Interestingly, I have made my regular homemade chocolate successfully with coconut oil in place of butter, but the ingredient ratios are different in that recipe. I will continue to experiment and update with any additional discoveries on how to make these dairy-free.

• If you want to preserve more of the health benefits of the raw honey, wait to add it to the chocolate mixture until after the stove has been turned off and the pot is removed from the heat. This way, the honey will not be exposed to quite as high of heat nor will it be exposed to heat for as long.

• Make sure your chocolate pumpkins are completely solid before removing them from the molds. If they are not completely solid, their design and shape will get ruined when you take them out.

• While you can store these in the fridge, I recommend keeping them in the freezer as they melt easily when handled. Keeping them colder helps them remain solid longer until they are consumed (which usually isn’t very long in my experience).