The smell of roasting pumpkin seeds is the second best part of carving Jack o’ Lanterns for Halloween… the first best thing is, of course, carving funny faces into a pumpkin.

While you probably have a family recipe for turning your pumpkin’s guts into a tasty treat, we have a few new ideas for you to test out.  You might even start a new Halloween tradition recipe!

Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Ingredients

• Pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• Salt
• Pumpkin pie spice

Directions

After letting the seeds dry in the oven at 250 for 4 hours with a light sprinkle of salt, boil 1 cup of sugar with a pinch of salt and a healthy sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.  On a cookie sheet covered with wax paper, evenly spread out the seeds.  Then, drizzle the warm syrup over the pan so it covers all the seeds.  Once it cools, it’ll be good and hard.  Crack it up into bite sized chunks, and enjoy!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Ingredients

• Pumpkin guts
• Lemon juice

Directions

With the seeds sorted from the gooey pumpkin meat, you have the beginnings of a great pumpkin puree.  None of that canned puree for you!  Steam the innards over boiling water for 30 minutes.  Using a food processor and a healthy squeeze of lemon juice, create a puree.  The lemon juice prevents freezer burn, so you can keep it longer.  This puree can be used for all sorts of fabulous breads, pies, shakes, soups, etc.  You can even serve the puree as a side dish with brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice.  Mmm!

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake
• 15 oz. pureed pumpkin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix these two ingredients together.  Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  This recipe yields 18 to 24 muffins depending on how much you spoon into each cup.  For a special treat, “frost” the muffins with a smidge of whipped cream cheese.  Yummy!

What are your favorite pumpkin recipes?  Please share in the comments!