Last day to carve pumpkins!!

Toast your seeds for a sweet and savory snack.

I'm a Northwest girl at heart, and where I'm from we carve pumpkins much earlier in the month. For my first time carving pumpkins in the Bay Area, I forgot to take the warmer weather into account. We carved on week two of October and by the third day the pumpkins were white and fuzzy with mold! Even though the jack-o-lanterns didn't work out, we were able to bake some really yummy seeds! Tonight, being the last night before Halloween, we are going to try carving once again. Good thing we are, because it reminded me to share this pumpkin seed recipe with you! Originally we were trying to follow this recipe, but it was getting late and we were missing a few pieces. Lagging about half the ingredients, this is what we did and they turned out perfect.

Ingredients

1 medium size pumpkin
8 stevia extract packets

1 tsp of granulated sugar for texture
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Red pepper flakes to taste
1 1/2 Tbsp. hazelnut oil

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Using which ever method you prefer, separate seeds from pumpkin flesh.This should yield about 1 cup. 

2. Spread pumpkin seeds over paper in an even layer. Bake until seeds are dry, which should take about 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

3. In a medium bowl, combine cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and red pepper flakes. In a non-stick pan, heat hazelnut oil over high heat. Add pumpkin seeds, stevia, and sugar and let cook until sugar starts to melt (about 45-60 seconds), stirring frequently. 

4. Add seeds to spice mixture and stir well. Return seeds to parchment paper for cooling. Once they are cool they may be kept in an air tight container for up to 1 week. That is, if they last that long.

             I hope you enjoy my recipe! It is super easy and fun to make with loved ones.

Cook, enjoy, pass it on.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!