Butter IS better!

Happy pre-Halloween weekend, everyone! It is a yearly tradition at our house to roast the pumpkin seeds we are able to rescue from the slimy guts of our carved jack-o-lanterns. Every year I make 2 or 3 different flavors, depending upon how many seeds we can harvest. Usually we make one batch of plain (olive oil and kosher salt), one batch of pumpkin pie flavor (vegetable oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, and allspice), and one batch of pizza flavor (spicy pizza-flavored seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil). I am always tweaking the seed recipes and each year they’re pretty good. But not quite perfect. I have never been able to figure out what’s keeping those little beauties from being all that they can be….UNTIL NOW!!!

This year, on a whim, I decided to substitute good ‘ole BUTTAH in for the oils I usually use. In my mind, roasting requires oil. Not sure why. In any case, I my mind was sooooo wrong: today I learned that using butter in place of olive or vegetable oil when roasting pumpkin seeds makes the seeds taste better and come out more crisp and flavorful!

Here are the glorious results of my experimentation:

This year’s batch of flavored roasted pumpkin seeds

 

Here’s a close-up of each flavor, along with the ingredients I used. They were all delicioso!

Kettle Corn Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups pumpkin seeds
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions: Bake at 300F  for 40-50 minutes.

 

 

 

Garlic Herb Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups pumpkin seeds
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tablespoon basil
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions: Bake at 300F for 40-50 minutes.

 

 

 

Plain (Butter & Salt) Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pumpkin seeds
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 tsp (or more) salt

Directions: Bake at 300F for 40-50 minutes.

 

 

 

 

I have to say that of all of these flavors, I liked the kettle corn flavor the best. The garlic-herb flavor was good, but I think I might have liked it better if I had sprinkled in some Parmesan cheese before baking. The plain is always good – hard to beat.

If you are roasting pumpkin seeds for the first time, keep in mind it’s best if you rinse them off in cold water, pat them dry a bit with paper towels, spread them out on cookie sheets lined with waxed paper, and let them dry for at least 6-8 hours. When I do this, it seems to make them more crisp. Don’t worry about getting every single string and glob of goo off of the seeds, though. I find that a few bits and pieces of pumpkin guts give the seeds a little more flavor. You don’t want too much goo, though, or the seeds will be hard to mix up with the flavors and roast.

Do any of you have favorite pumpkin seed recipes? I’m always looking for new flavors to try. From now on, though, I’ll be trying all of my new flavors mixed with BUTTER! Yum.