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Pumpkin Seed Brittle: A New Twist on an Old Classic

October 1, 2018

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Don’t throw away those pumpkin seeds from your jack-o-lanterns or your last recipe of pumpkin puree!  You can combine those delicious pumpkin seeds with a few simple ingredients to make a fall take on the the Christmas classic, peanut brittle.

It’s also really similar to a dessert that Costco sells, so if you’re addicted like I am, make this instead and save yourself a bit of money.  One batch whips up in about 20 minutes, not including time for hardening.

Spiced pumpkin seed brittle is a fun fall twist on classic peanut brittle. It's an easy dessert recipe that you can make for homemade gifts, cookie exchanges, Christmas baking, Thanksgiving, and more! #pumpkinseed #peanutbrittle #Thanksgiving #pumpkinrecipes #fallrecipes #dessert #sweettreats #cookieexchange

How to Make Perfect Pumpkin Brittle Every Time

Peanut brittle can be a tricky dessert to make.  Cook it for too little and you have a sticky mess on your hands.  Cook it for too long and it gets so hard that you worry you’ll chip a tooth eating it.  There are three ways to avoid this:

  1. Use a candy thermometer and wait until the mixture reaches exactly 300 degrees fahrenheit.
  2. Make friends with a glass of cold water.

Wait. . . what?!?

Spiced pumpkin seed brittle is a fun fall twist on classic peanut brittle. It's an easy dessert recipe that you can make for homemade gifts, cookie exchanges, Christmas baking, Thanksgiving, and more! #pumpkinseed #peanutbrittle #Thanksgiving #pumpkinrecipes #fallrecipes #dessert #sweettreats #cookieexchange

Perfect Candy Without a Gadget!

I hate having kitchen gadgets that I don’t use, so I don’t own a candy thermometer.  Instead, I dip a small amount of the sugar mixture that holds everything together into a cold glass of water every couple of minutes.  How the candy cools lets me know if I’ve cooked it for long enough.

Here’s a good video that shows the correct stage.

In my climate, that means boiling my sugar mixture for around 15 minutes.  However, this time can vary greatly depending on how fast your stove heats, altitude, and humidity.

Spiced pumpkin seed brittle is a fun fall twist on classic peanut brittle. It's an easy dessert recipe that you can make for homemade gifts, cookie exchanges, Christmas baking, Thanksgiving, and more! #pumpkinseed #peanutbrittle #Thanksgiving #pumpkinrecipes #fallrecipes #dessert #sweettreats #cookieexchange

An Easy Treat for Holiday Gifting

Once you get over the fear of messing up your pumpkin seed brittle, the recipe is very easy.  Pumpkin seed brittle makes a lovely addition to your fall or Christmas baking, a unique item in a cookie exchange, and makes a nice gift for your neighbours, church friends, or whoever you want to thank with a little something special.

Pumpkin Seed Brittle: A New Twist on an Old Classic

A fall twist on classic peanut brittle.

5 minPrep Time

15 minCook Time

20 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/3 cup coconut
  • 1/3 cup sesame seeds
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 2 tbsp. butter, softened
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • butter, for greasing

Instructions

  1. Grease a large baking sheet with some butter.
  2. In a medium saucepan combine sugar, water, salt, and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture starts to boil. Stir in pumpkin seeds, coconut, sesame seeds, and allspice.
  3. Cook and stir until temperature reaches exactly 300ºF or a bit of the mixture dipped into cold water reaches the hardball stage. This will take about 15 minutes.
  4. Immediately remove from heat and stir in butter and baking soda vigorously. Pour onto the greased baking sheet. Spread with spatula, until it almost fills up the baking sheet.
  5. Cool and break into pieces. Store in tin or another airtight container.

Nutrition

Calories

2756 cal

Fat

142 g

Carbs

319 g

Protein

82 g
Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info
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Spiced pumpkin seed brittle is a fun fall twist on classic peanut brittle. It's an easy dessert recipe that you can make for homemade gifts, cookie exchanges, Christmas baking, Thanksgiving, and more! #pumpkinseed #peanutbrittle #Thanksgiving #pumpkinrecipes #fallrecipes #dessert #sweettreats #cookieexchange

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

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Filed Under: Baking, Christmas, Halloween, Recipes Tagged: Baking, Christmas baking, cookie exchange, fall baking, gift exchange, homemade, pumpkin brittle, pumpkin seeds

About Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

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Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

P.S. First time gardener? You'll want to download the quick start gardening guide below!

Recent Posts

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Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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Oh friends, if any of my nice, curated photos sums Oh friends, if any of my nice, curated photos sums up how this last week went, I think it's this one.  Babies crying, trying to stay calm, outwardly looking like it's all under control, but feeling very overwhelmed.⁠
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This post isn't gardening related, so feel free to scroll by if you're here only for the gardening content.⁠
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Thankfully it's January, and I keep reminding myself that the Internet will not break if I don't keep to my self-imposed posting schedule.  But it doesn't make a week full of teething-and-not-sleeping baby any easier. ⁠
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Felicity slept through the night for the first time ever last Monday, then proceeded to punish us with frequent wakings and terrible sleep until Saturday.  And as tough as this is in regular times, in Covid times its extra frustrating because I don't have my village.⁠
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I can't just call up another Mama friend and go for coffee at her house.  I can't take my son out for a Mommy-and-Dominic date because everything he'd want to do isn't really much of an option.  There's no playgroup or play place to just drop in on.  And forget just taking everybody out to get groceries just for a change of scenery.⁠
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I know people have way more serious problems than this, and I hope I don't sound whiny and entitled, it's not my intention.  Please know that I'm very grateful for my family and job and that so far we've been healthy. ⁠
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A lot of you who follow me do so in part because you are also juggling life with very little people through this strange time.  I hope that in occasionally sharing my struggles, it makes you feel better about your struggles. (You're struggling too sometimes. . . right?)
Do you tend to plan out your garden to the nth deg Do you tend to plan out your garden to the nth degree, do you just wing it, or are you somewhere in-between?⁠
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I tend to plan it all out, and then when I actually get out in the field, so to speak, the plan changes a little bit. ⁠
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If you need a garden planner that's both pretty & practical, my garden planner is available in the ebooks section.  It's only $9 and has lots of upgrades from the previous planner.  Use code CANADA if you're Canadian to account for the exchange.⁠
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P.S. You can see exactly what you're getting in the video--no surprises. ⁠
P.P.S  I get my planner bound and printed at a printing place.  Lots of people just print their own and put the sheets in a binder.
Are you gardening in containers this year? When y Are you gardening in containers this year?  When you're shopping for vegetable seeds, look for varieties that have names with words like patio, tiny, small, etc.  While lots of vegetable varieties will do fine in a container, you'll have an easier time with ones that are specifically bred for that situation.⁠
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📸 by @blushbrandphotography
I'm living the pepper dream in this photo. While I'm living the pepper dream in this photo.  While these ones are a bit on the small side, who doesn't want ripe peppers in July in zone 3?!?! ⁠
⁠
Over the years I've gotten better at growing peppers, and I promise I'll spill my secrets in February when it's actually time to start them.  Until then, get yourself all or one of my four favourite varieties: ⁠
⁠
🌶️Carmen⁠
🌶️Escamillo⁠
🌶️Candy Stripe⁠
🌶️Hungarian Hot Wax⁠
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Do you have a favourite pepper variety?⁠
⁠
Have you flipped open a seed catalogue lately? It Have you flipped open a seed catalogue lately?  It's so easy to get completely overwhelmed, especially if you're new to gardening.  Why are there so many varieties of everything and which ones do I choose?⁠
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Here's how I try to narrow it down.⁠
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🌤️ Short growing season like me?  Try and prioritize varieties that have short dates to maturity.⁠
🥗 What do you or your family actually eat?  While I think you should always try a couple of new things, there's no sense in planting a giant garden filled with vegetables that you're not going to cook with. ⁠
🥒 Do you care whether your vegetables are heirlooms or hybrids?  Heirlooms are the kind that have been around for 50+ years and you can save seeds from.  Believe it or not, this year we're prioritizing hybrids for some of our garden.  The Hermit @mgsraney is obsessed with production this year, so anything that's going in "his" greenhouse better be able to produce a lot.  I'm using more heirlooms in my "glamour garden" as we call it, because I want things that are pretty and I can save seeds from.⁠
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What do you prioritize when you're picking out seeds?⁠
Last week we started thinking about our plans for Last week we started thinking about our plans for cut flower gardening, now this week we start thinking about plans for our vegetable gardens.  Unlike cut flowers, there's not as many vegetables that need to be started ridiculously early.  However, it's still fun to plan and dream and get your thoughts sorted.⁠
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I'm curious--what size of garden do you have to work with?  Are you on an acreage or farm, city backyard, or do you have a couple of pots on an apartment patio?⁠
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As for me, I have quite a mix.  I have my container garden on my backyard deck, the small cut flower garden in my yard, then vegetables in raised beds.  We also garden at my Mother-in-law's acreage, so there's a giant garden over there where we're figuring out how to grow food on a larger scale.  Then finally, sometimes my Mom grows things for me in her garden if I'm nervous that I'll ruin them in my own garden--call it a backup garden if you will.⁠
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📸 by @blushbrandphotography
I hope you've enjoyed this week of chatting about I hope you've enjoyed this week of chatting about the best flowers to plant in a cut flower garden.  There's so many options, these 5 that I talked about all week don't even come close.  If you need more help creating a small cut flower garden, I created this plan intended for a raised bed (but you can plant it in-ground too.⁠
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Head over to my insta links page on my profile, and you'll see the button to click on that will take you directly to it.⁠
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#cutflowergarden #cutflowers #raisedbedgarden #raisedbedgardening  #growyourown #greenthumb #raisedbeds #urbangarden #urbanfarm #squarefootgardening #slowflowers
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