Perfect Pumpkin Seeds

By á-15956

Pre-heat oven to 325... This recipe is easy but VERY sensitive to baking. You HAVE to keep checking and sampling to get that perfect seed... Prep time really depends on how many seeds you are doing and how many you have to 'clean off'... We did a small batch once and they were not quite crisp enough for my liking, they did taste good so I am keeping the recipe for now... Good luck : )

Ingredients

• Fresh Pumpkin Seeds
• Sea Salt (fine)
• Olive Oil (about a teaspoon)

Preparation

Step 1

1. Cleaning the seeds. The annoying-but-necessary task is that you have to meticulously clean the seeds until there are no signs of pumpkin guts. After picking off the strands, give them a GOOD rinse with water in a colander.
2. Once clean add the pumpkin seeds to a medium-sized pot of water along with 1 tsp. salt. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes over low-medium heat. Apparently, this method helps make the pumpkin seeds easier to digest and produces a crispy outer shell during roasting.
3. Drain the seeds in a colander and dry lightly with a paper towel . The seeds will stick to the towel, but just rub them off with your fingers. Don’t worry, they don’t have to be bone dry – just a light pat down.
4. Spread seeds onto a baking sheet and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (about 1/2-1 tsp.) Massage oil into seeds and add a generous sprinkle of fine grain sea salt. Try to spread out the seeds as thin as possible with minor overlapping.
5. Roast seeds at 325F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Roast for another 8-10 minutes (if your oven temp is off, this could vary a lot!). During the last 5 minutes of roasting, remove a few seeds and crack open to make sure the inner seeds are not burning (you don’t want the inner seed brown). Cool a couple and pop them into your mouth to test. They are ready when the shell is super crispy and easy to bite through. The inner seed should have only a hint of golden color to it. Inner seed should not be brown.
6. Remove from oven, add a bit more of the fine grain sea salt, and dig in! There is no need to remove the outer shell; it is quite possibly the best part.