Roasting Pumpkin Seeds

 The other day, 2/3 of my children carved their pumpkins.  It was ooey gooey fun!  The kids did the conceptualizing and scooped, and Daddy did the cutting.  My job was to separate the seeds from the pulp for roasting.

After I washed and dried the seeds, I separated them into two batches. 

With one, I made traditional roasted pumpkin seeds:
Mix 1.5 c pumpkin seeds with 2 T melted butter and toss with 1 t salt.  Spread in single layer on baking sheet, and roast at 350* for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Mmmm.  This was my personal best pumpkin seed roasting experience--I think it must have been because of the butter.

With the other, I made cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds.  I followed a recipe I found online (I think maybe from Allrecipes.com), with a bit of trepidation.  See, I was afraid if I added the sugar right away, it would burn before the seeds were completely roasted.  I used 1.5 cups of pumpkin seeds, 2 T melted butter, 1 t ground cinnamon, 1/2 t ground nutmeg, and a pinch of salt, and roasted at 350* for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I was right--it did.  Burn, that is, just in the last 2 minutes.  So, if I was to do it again, I would either just add the sugar for the last 10 minutes or so of roasting, or do as An Almost Unschooling Mom suggests and roast them without sugar, then pop the hot seeds into a plastic bag with some sugar and shake.  They were still pretty good, even with a little bit of a burnt flavor, and the house smelled heavenly while they were roasting :)

Do you have a favorite pumpkin seed recipe?