Baked Pumpkin Seeds

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Halloween = Carving Pumpkins = Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Sometimes I wonder why we even bother to do the "seed thing" on Halloween when carving pumpkins. I mean seriously, is this the most tedious, gross, slimy, sticky, gooey task??? It takes forever to separate those lil fellas from the gunky orange goo insides of Mr. Jack.  I think I have found the trick to making the final treat bearable.  A big glass of wonderful red wine.  Oh yes :) It's the perfect compliment :)

The next step is to gather all of the slimy seeds up and place them in a bowl to do the first rinse off. Dump it all into a large bowl and fill it up with tepid water. Pick out any stringy stuff and chunks of flesh left behind from Mr. Jack. 



I do believe I see a chunk o pumpkin that needs to be removed!

Next... pour the seeds into a colander and drain.  Turn on your faucet to give the guys another shower for the final rinse off.

ahhhhhh

After the final rinse, unload the seeds onto paper towels or a kitchen towel to dry.

At this point you can do one of two things.

1. Fill a bowl with about 1 cup of very warm water and add 1/4 cup of salt. Make sure the salt is completely dissolved.  Once salt has dissolved, add another cup of cold water.  Then finally add the seeds.  You will want the seeds to sit in this salt water over night so the seeds can be infused with the slight flavor of salt.  Then rinse and pour out on cloth to dry.
2. If you skip this step or do it, once the seeds have been dried... put the seeds in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and throw some salt in. The salt amount is your choice. This is also the time you can add spices other than salt... garlic, cinnamon/sugar, Tabasco sauce, chili powder.  If you do this.. you need to split up your seeds and do separate bowls for each flavor of seeds. 

I had enough seeds to make 3 batches.  Which I did, but I kept it simple and just did salt and olive oil!  Plenty good!!



The seeds are in a salt water bath

Place the cookie sheets that are filled with oiled, salted, herbed, sugared seeds into a preheated 300° oven. It will take anywhere between 30 - 45 mn.  You need to stir up the seeds every 10 mn for an even cooked seed.  Keep watching!! Once they turn a nice brown color they can be pulled. You can test it by pulling a seed or two from the oven and giving it a try. They will be HOT... wait a couple of minutes. Its hard to do, but you must!! You know you have kept them in the oven too long when you hear popping, your seeds are turning into pumpkin popping snacks. Not good!