Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I have so much blogging to catch up on! Here's my newest experimentation. Caramelized delicious little pumpkin seeds. Slightly sweet with a delicious taste of fall (aka cinnamon) and a yummy crunch :) I tried a couple variations on the recipe and decided this was my favorite sweet variety.

Last weekend me and my roommate finally got around to carving pumpkins. Mid cleaning of the pumpkin, I realized I had never actually cleaned the pumpkin out myself, but my parents had always helped me or done it for me. I hate weird textures and it was absolutely a disgusting texture. Anyway, after finally sucking it up and cleaning out the (rather large) pumpkins we were going to carve, I needed to figure out what I was going to create! We figured we could carve things into both sides, yet the only thing I could think of was a cupcake. Yup, a cupcake into a pumpkin... so I went with it. Forever and a day later, I had a carved pumpkin and a ridiculous amount of pumpkin seeds left. 

I put way too much effort into this...

And with a big candle inside it looks pretty cute!

Flaming cherry on top? Sure why not. 

The recipe is super easy and pretty quick. 

Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 cups raw pumpkin seeds

1-2 tsp agave syrup (can substitute this for honey)

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Set oven to 300 degrees. Rinse, clean, and dry raw pumpkin seeds.

 In a large bowl, pour the agave syrup over the seeds and coat them evenly

Place all of the ingredients into the bowl with the seeds.

Mix everything until the seeds are evenly coated!

I got really carried away with taking pictures since I was actually baking during the day :)

Lay the seeds out onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and place in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you'll want to mix around the seeds a little, try and flip them over or at least try and separate some that are starting to stick together. The sugar will start to caramelize at this point. Return to the oven for another 11-13 minutes. Remove from the oven and start to separate some of the seeds. Let cool on the pan.

They'll clump together, so once the seeds are cool you'll be able to break some of the chunks. It's definitely worth it!

Enjoy! :)

Homemade Cinnamon-Sugar Baked Apple Chips

Crunchy, sweet, and healthy! (In moderation of course).. But this is definitely not something you can say about all potato chips. I went to Panera for lunch one day and ordered the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad and it was absolutely delicious. I didn't expect the apples to be baked. Anyway, I obsessed over them and just wanted more.

I didn't really want to buy them since they're pretty expensive and they always add some ingredients to make it last fresher longer, either way they aren't natural. I also found that some apple chips were fried. Like, really? Anyway, I decided to make them on my own, and it was so, so worth it! They take a little time (2 hours in the oven!) But if you make a lot it's awesome. Also, there's always going to be a time when you're home for a 2 hr period of time, you don't really need to check on them more than once, so you can go about your day as usual :)


Seriously, try them...

Baked Apple Chips

4 medium-sized apples

1 tsp truvia sweetener

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon


Set the oven to 200 degrees. Wash the apples thoroughly and then with a super-awesome apple corer, remove the core from each apple as seen below :)

Turn the apples on their side and slice off the top. (Save the bottom for last so you have something to hold on to while making small slices). Using a good knife, cut slices of apples and place into a large bowl. The slices should not be paper thin or else you'll get a chip with no substance!

Mmmmm yum. Next, sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar. I use Truvia since it's a natural sweetener. Feel free to use regular sugar, or more sugar, or no sugar, or more cinnamon.. (you get the idea). Toss it around and then neatly arrange the apples so they are not overlapping on either parchment paper or a silicon mat like I have below. 

I've also read that a lot of people use wire racks to bake them on. This also works. Place in the oven for an hour then check on them. You'll want to rearrange some chips and maybe flip a couple over to allow full removal of moisture. Some people say you can hold the oven open with a wooden spoon, but my fire detector is so sensitive (and down the hall) that it immediately started going off. It goes off just when pre-heating the oven... ridiculous. 

After two hours, remove the apple chips and let them sit out for 20 or so minutes. By this point, they should be nice and crisp! 

Don't they look delicious?! Store in an air-tight container such as a plastic bag for up to a week. 

Enjoy :)