Caramelized Pumpkin Chunks Baked with Sugar
Quick, simple, healthy, appetizing, and budget-friendly! Pumpkin chunks baked with sugar turn caramelized, fragrant, beautiful, and very tasty. This method sweetens any pumpkin variety. A wholesome, lower-calorie dessert.
Updated : 19 February, 2026
Easy
About 20 min.
Ingredients
800 grams
Pumpkin
3 tablespoon
Sugar
1 grams
Vanillin
Table
Table of volume measurements:
- teaspoon - 5 ml
- dessert spoon - 10 ml
- tablespoon - 20 ml
- glass - 200 ml
Preparation
Step 1
How to bake pumpkin chunks with sugar in the oven? To make tasty caramelized pumpkin, choose a very fragrant, juicy pumpkin. The thicker the flesh layer, the better the result. Muscat-type pumpkins (such as butternut) work well because they have fewer seeds and thick flesh. If you have a whole pumpkin, cut off a piece of the needed weight.
Step 2
Mix the sugar with vanillin. If you don’t have vanillin, replace it with 1 tsp vanilla sugar, or you can replace all the sugar with vanilla sugar. This won’t ruin the pumpkin’s taste. But don’t add more than a pinch of vanillin - too much can taste bitter and spoil the dish.
Step 3
Remove the seeds from the pumpkin. Cut the prepared piece into large chunks, leaving the skin on. The skin helps protect the pumpkin from burning and sticking to the dish.
Step 4
Place the pumpkin skin-side down in an ovenproof baking dish. Pour clean drinking water into the bottom to a depth of about 1 cm (about 3/8 inch). This helps prevent sticking and drying out. In my case, the pumpkin also released juice while baking, but the water still helps steam and soften it faster. If you don’t want to add water to the dish, place a separate tray of water on the bottom rack of the oven.
Step 5
Sprinkle the pumpkin chunks evenly with the vanilla sugar mixture. Put the dish into an oven preheated to 240°C / 465°F. If your oven has a grill/broil mode, turn it on. Bake until the sugar dissolves and the pumpkin becomes tender - about 25 to 40 minutes, depending on the pumpkin variety and chunk thickness. Some raised edges may get browned spots. If you want to avoid that, cover the dish with foil.
Step 6
Remove the finished pumpkin from the oven, transfer to a plate, and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you like, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds or fresh berries and garnish with mint. Enjoy!
Author note
Share the recipe
