Time to Smash a Pumpkin

Michael butchered our home grown pumpkin yesterday.  He put pumpkin soup on the menu because the gourd was ripe and ready to eat.  I snagged the pumpkin seeds before he tossed them into the compost heap.   I know it's early but I wanted to make toasted pumpkin seeds.

This is a modest amount of pumpkin seeds from our five pound pumpkin.

 I thought it would be easy to find a recipe for toasted pumpkin seeds.  After a five minute internet search, I found about a dozen different recipes.  Directions varied from soaking the seeds overnight to boiling them first before roasting the seeds in the oven.  I wanted a simple but scrumptious recipe.  Therefore, I decided to make my own.

Pumpkin seeds need to be towel dried before mixing with butter and spices.

 After gutting the pumpkin, I sorted the seeds and removed the excess flesh.  I then rinsed the seeds in a mesh strainer and dumped them onto a sheet pan with paper towels.  After towel drying the seeds, I started work on the spice mixture.

Roasted pumpkin seeds taste great with butter, nutmeg, sugar, cinnamon and salt.

 When ever I make roasted nut snacks, I prefer a sweet but salty flavor.  A lot of the recipes had incorporated salt and some type of oil.  Very few cooking instructions included spices.  I felt that because  pumpkin is always associated with pie, I had to add cinnamon and a little nutmeg.

I combined melted butter, salt, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.  Meanwhile, I spread the seeds on a Silpat (silicone pad) in a half sheet baking pan.  The seeds were piled on the Silpat and the oven was set to 350 degrees.  I poured the butter mixture onto the seeds and mixed it with the seeds by hand.  Then I spread the seeds out onto the pan in a single layer.

Most recipes I viewed said to roast the seeds in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes.  I ended up toasting the seeds for twenty.  I would just keep on eye on the seeds and look for browning after fifteen minutes.  It probably depends on how wet your seeds are.

This is Diane's home grown toasted and tasty pumpkin seeds.

Let me tell you, Michael and I ate up all these seeds.  They were delicious.  The kids probably had one each.  Hopefully some day they will appreciate the sweet and savory seeds.


Diane's Toasted and Tasty Pumpkin Seeds

*per 1 cup of pumpkin seeds

1  tbs melted butter
1  tsp granulated sugar
1  tsp salt
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1.  Set oven to 350 degrees.  Rinse seeds and remove excess pumpkin flesh.  Drain in fine mesh colander.  Dry with paper towels.

2. Melt butter and place in a small bowl.  Add sugar, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Combine.

3.  Place seeds on parchment paper or silicone pad on sheet pan.  Pile seeds onto sheet pan.  Add butter mixture.  Throughly mix seeds with butter mixture by hand.  Spread seeds out into single layer.

4.  Place sheet pan in oven.  Check in fifteen minutes for browning of seeds and smell of cinnamon.  Remove and let cool.

Enjoy!