| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 1 hr 15 min |
| Prep: | 15 min |
| Inactive: | 30 min |
| Cook: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 1 1/2 pounds |
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, plus additional for coating
- 7 ounces hulled pumpkin seeds (these are the green ones)
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound 6 ounces granulated sugar
- 12 ounces water
Instructions
- Place the oil and seeds into a 10-inch saute pan and set over medium-high heat. Toast the seeds while constantly moving the pan. You will smell their aroma and hear some of them begin to crackle when they are toasted, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the seeds to a small mixing bowl, add the cayenne, cinnamon and salt and stir to combine.
- Line a half sheet pan with a silicone baking mat.
- Place a 3-quart saucier inside a large cast iron skillet. Add the sugar and water to the saucepan, and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until it comes to a boil. Stop stirring, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Uncover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until the sugar is a light amber color, approximately 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the pumpkin seed mixture. This will greatly reduce the temperature of the sugar, so work quickly. Once evenly mixed, pour the mixture onto the prepared half sheet pan. Using an oiled spatula, spread thin. You will have to work quickly when pouring out and spreading the mixture in the pan. Cool completely, approximately 30 minutes, and then break into pieces. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 12 servings |
| Calories | 298 |
| Total Fat | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 54 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 52 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Sodium | 81 mg |
Reviews
I just made this tonight (10/30/23) for a Halloween party tomorrow and heeded the advice of adding the corn syrup. I followed all other directions and it turned out perfectly!!
I followed the directions to the letter and ended up with a crystallized sugary mess.
I learned that if you add a quarter cup of corn syrup to the pot the sugar won’t crystallize. The corn syrup blocks the sugar from forming chains and it can’t crystallize.
This recipe did not work at all for me. It didn’t get to the amber shown in his video though I cooked for 30 minutes (although I would have preferred to use a thermometer.) When I tried to pour into the sheet pan, it immediately crystallized. Funny since I have made brittle many times and for all of his warnings of what not to do, this is the one that failed.
You really need a candy thermometer for this. DONT stir until 230-240 degrees, than at this stage stir frequently. At 280, stir in the nuts. Right at 300, pull it off the heat and quickly stir in a half tsp of baking soda. Now spead it onto your prepared surface.
Total failure for me. Followed this exactly as it is written and watched the video. the entire mixture crystallized while it was still in the pan boiling to get the caramel color… it was a mess. I tried to salvage it, but in the end, it was all a huge block of sugar and the nuts didn’t even taste good afterward. What a waste of all those seeds, and it took forever to hull them from our pumpkins by hand… I am a pretty good cook and I don’t usually have an issue with a recipe going completely wrong… It was highly disappointing.
We, too, had the experience of kimmy and liquid, while I followed the directions to the letter, my brittle crystalized after cooling. I live in Denver and thought it may be altitude-related? Did it cool too quickly? not quickly enough? too thick? too thin? (just one ‘seed depth’ in thickness.
Alton, my man, you’ve been a mentor of mine for years and have never steered me wrong. Wondering what happened here?
Alton, my man, you’ve been a mentor of mine for years and have never steered me wrong. Wondering what happened here?
Never got the amber brown color in the 25 mins, so I kept boiling it as the recipe states “until it reaches amber brown color” and eventually it crystallized. In the trash. BOO!
Everything was going fine until it hardend in the pan. The outside edges turned out great, but in the middle of the pan (most of the pan, actually, the sugar crystallized and the texture and taste is just not the same. What went wrong?! Alton?! I will try making one more time.
I can’t stop eating it. I cut back on the cayenne but otherwise followed the instructions exactly. Mine turned a strange white color when I poured it out, but the taste is superb. The texture is a little beyond a brittle, so I’m going to call it Pumpkin Seed Candy. Next time I’m going to try cooking the sugar 20 minutes instead of 25, which might take the texture back down to a brittle. This recipe is definitely a keeper.