Pumpkin Seeds Two Ways

Carving pumpkins is probably on everybody’s list of things to do before Halloween creeps up on us, and I absolutely love it.  I usually let Peyton pick out a design, and as I carve, she picks out the seeds. My favorite part of carving pumpkins is roasting the seeds. I swear, I could carve 20 pumpkins every year, just for the seeds. Over the years, we have tried a few seasoning combinations, and have narrowed down our favorites. Warning: these are addicting.

First, run water over your seeds in a strainer in the sink. This will help get any residual pumpkin guts off of them. I then separate the seeds into two groups. One will be salty, and the other will be sweet. Let’s start with the salty batch first.

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Take half of your seeds and boil them in water with sea salt. I like mine salty, so I go to town, but you can do this to your taste. This is the trick to getting the salt into the seeds.
3. Once the water has reached a rolling boil, let it boil for 1 minute, and remove from heat. Drain well.
4. Spray a baking sheet with Pam (I use the Olive Oil kind!), and add your seeds. Since I did two batches, I kept mine on half the sheet.
5. Spread them out the best you can, and coat them with additional sea salt. Again, I like to go crazy, but you can do this to taste.

I let those sit, and move on to the sweet batch. Here’s what you do:

1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add cinnamon and brown sugar, and mix well.
2. Add the remaining seeds, and mix, until seeds are coated.
3. Drain any remaining butter mixture – keeping it will cause the seeds to be too soggy and sticky!
4. Add those seeds to the pan, again, I kept mine on half, since they were baking at the same time as the salty batch! Then, sprinkle with a little more cinnamon.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and toss them around a bit, to make sure everything is baking evenly.
6. Then, I bake at 2 minute increments, until the seeds start to look nice and dry, and just a little golden.
7. Remove from heat, and enjoy!!

  If you have a favorite seed recipe, I would love to hear it!!