Saturday morning the Quipper took the Artist and the Engineer to a pumpkin patch. They came home with two large pumpkins this year. The Quipper and the Artist are cleaning them out because I do not like to put my hands in "pumpkin guts."
Each child is now the proud owner of a jack-o-lantern. The Artist designed hers, on the left. By next year, the Engineer will care enough to design his own too. 
Then the icky part! The Artist removed the seeds from the clingy guts. This is much faster when done with a colander, but I was busy reading blogs while she struggled through this the hard, ickiest way. 
Next, liberally butter (real butter) a baking tray. Get all the way to the corners. 
Then spread the seeds on it. They will be moist and they may stick together. That is fine. 
Now some fun -- sprinkle them with seasoning. Celery salt and hickory salt are my favorites. I have not been able to find hickory salt in the past decade or so, but I found some hickory smoke seasoning that is quite good too. Some people like to put Old Bay on the seeds. That is excellent too, but I don't have any on hand. Sprinkle it over the top then jiggle the tray a bit to help it spread around. You can use a spatula to flip some seeds, then sprinkle on some more. 
For the toasting, I don't have a recommended temperature or time. I put them in the oven on high (300-350ºF) if I am inpatient to eat some NOW. I let them go about 10 minutes then I take out the tray, jiggle the seeds around, flip them with the spatula, etc. I want to see how dried out they are. If there is still some moisture on them, put them back in the oven. Sunday afternoon I was impatient, and I think it took about 15 minutes altogether until they were completely dried out and lightly browned. Not every seed needs to be browned, just dry. At other times I am more patient and I'll do the same process at a lower temperature, say 250ºF for a longer time. 
The toasted seeds make a nice garnish on pumpkin soup. Or so I have been told. They don't last long enough for me know at my house!
4 comments:
Thanks Marie! We're carving our pumpkin today and I told the kids we would toast the seeds - then realised I didn't remember how to do it :)
If I could live off pumpkin seeds and pineapple, I probably would.
If seeds last 24 hours at our house, it's only because we were all sick. They go quicker than the candy does.
MarieN!
Can you eat them, or are they just for decoration?
Hi Scottius --They are quite tasty to eat!
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