Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Two Ways

Carving pumpkins has instantly become our favourite tradition now that Josie is old enough to join us. This year we bought two really big ones and Jesse carved a spooky face on one, and the Foo Fighters logo on the other and when we lit them up, Josie got so excited! Her favourite part was mucking in the pumpkin guts after she helped me scoop it all out. 
Jesse suggested we roast the seeds, which I personally had never done before. I have eaten many roasted pumpkin seeds in my life, it just wasn't a tradition we had growing up. Jesse just wanted the "original" flavour of salted seeds, where as I wanted to try something different so I made half the batch cinnamon and sugar. I was very impressed with how they turned out. Definitely will be my go to seasoning for next time.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
makes about 1 1/2 cups of each flavour

2 large pumpkins
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar

Cut the top of your pumpkins open and scoop out the pulp and seeds into a bowl. You can choose to do the seeds immediately after carving or place them in the fridge for the next day. Once your ready, place pumpkin guts into a large bowl a clean kitchen sink filled with cold water. Most of the seeds will float to the top making it way easier to sort through the pulp. After collecting all the seeds into a bowl, discard pulp and lay your seeds out flat and dab with a tea towel. They don't need to be super dry, just not wet. Careful to make sure they all come off your tea towel because they will stick!

Upon my Google research, I learned from many sources that it is easier to digest pumpkin seeds if you boil them first, so I did for ten minutes, and then dabbed them with my tea towel. You can opt out of this method, the seeds will still bake up crispy. 

Split the seeds in half if you choose to do sweet and salty, or keep them all together for one flavour. Add your olive oil to seeds in a bowl and mix until evenly coated. Sprinkle your seasoning (just salt, for salty. Cinnamon and sugar for sweet) on seeds and mix again.

On separate baking sheets, spread your seasoned seeds until they are one layer. Bake each sheet at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes, and then remove to stir. Timing may very for different ovens, so make sure to keep an eye on your seeds to prevent them from burning. Put them back in the oven for another ten minutes. Take a couple out to test. You may find the insides are starting to brown but the shells aren't. You can choose to turn down the heat or quickly set your oven to broil to crisp the shells, just because not to burn them! Our seeds took about 30 minutes instead of 20 because we like them extra crispy. It's all preference! 

Let cool on baking sheet before storing them in an air tight container for as long as you'd like. But, I promise, they won't last long.

xo Amber