Every year Andrew and I have a little pumpkin carving competition. The Fall is our favorite season, but unfortunately up here in Boston it comes and goes so quickly, so we like to make the best out of every Fall activity.
Our pumpkin carving night is most likely accompanied by Dogfish Punkin Beers, or Cider Beers (aka something fallish). Tonight we went with some iced apple cider, rum and a nice big cinnamon stick.
One of the things I loved as a kid about making jack o' lanterns was carving off the top and reaching in to grab the seeds... that weird feeling and that wonderful pumpkin smell just makes me think 'fall'.
So right after Andrew and I cleaned out our pumpkins, we started prepping the roasted pumpkin seeds so they'd be ready to eat when we were done carving. We both love to experiment with flavors in the kitchen, so this time we tried three different options. Honestly, we 'guestimated' with the ingredients below, and they were delicious!
Maple Cinnamon Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup of Pumpkin Seeds
- 2 Tbsp of Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp of Nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp of Vanilla
- 1/2 tsp of Salt
- 2 Tbsp of Pure Maple Syrup
Vanilla Nutmeg Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup of Pumpkin Seeds
- 1/2 tsp of Vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp of White Sugar
- 1 tbsp of Brown Sugar
- 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp of salt
Maple Chili Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup of pumpkin seeds
- 2 tbsp of pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp of chili powder
- 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
- 1 tsp of salt
- optional: 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper (for added heat!)
1. Prepping the Pumpkin Seeds: Cut the top off of your pumpkin and reach your hands inside to pull the seeds out (yep! it feels weird but its awesome). Put all seeds into a large bowl (or we used a strainer) and rinse under cold water to get all of the extra stringy bits off. Pat dry with a paper towel.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
3. Line a baking pan with foil (or parchment paper). We used foil and folded it twice to make little 'dividers'. This way we used just one pan for all three flavors.
4. Next, mixing the seeds with the ingredients: Depending on how many of the flavors you'd like to try, you can distribute the seeds evenly in bowls. Or, you can take the fast/lazy route that we did and distribute the seeds onto the pan and just mix the ingredients there!
5. Measure out each of the ingredients above and mix with the pumpkin seeds. (as you can see, we just used our hands).
6. Place in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour. I will admit, these were baking while we were carving pumpkins, so they stayed in for a little over an hour and they were delicious!
7. Every 20-30 minutes take the pan out of the oven and mix the seeds with a wooden spoon then place back in the oven.
8. When they have a nice golden color take out of the oven (they should be dry but not burned) and set aside to cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!
Happy Fall!
