Drunken Pumpkin Seeds

These whiskey infused drunken pumpkin seeds are the solid way to use your pumpkin leftovers after carving your pumpkins.

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

Holiday gift giving can get all kinds of crazy. We have no issues with buying presents for family, and a few friends, but as our husband and we continue to grow our businesses, our lists of people to give gifts to keeps growing exponentially. Toss in our son's friends and teachers from school and sunday school, as well as friends from church- and it can quickly get out of hand. We love to give fun, individual gifts- but at some point it gets overwhelmingly expensive. So we're happy so share a few of our favorite handmade/homecooked gifts every year- and these Drunken Pumpkin Seeds are always a huge hit!

(We're using whiskey- which cooks off- but it's best to keep this for those 21+. The term “drunken” doesn't need to be anywhere around kids.)

We know pumpkin is usually a Halloween treat- but these seeds are good anytime during the year and make great gifts. You can buy pumpkin seeds in bulk in most heath food stores for a great price!

These pumpkin seeds are a bit different from other versions we have seen- we like ours to soak in the whiskey two hours to overnight before making them. This allows the rich, smoky-sweet flavor to develop before making these. They do wildly vary in cooking time in part because of the soaking. We live in Colorado where it is dry, so they tend to dry out a little faster in the oven. If you live somewhere humid, you might need longer time in your oven at a low temperature. This can burn since we're using sugar- so use your oven's lowest setting!

Also- we recommend any whiskey, bourbon or scotch that is NOT smoky or peated. The smoke aftertaste was a bit funky when we tried. You can use whichever brand you like, but jack daniels, bulleit, four roses, or most american whiskeys work- go for something with a honey finish and little to no smoke!

Ingredients

• 2 cups pumpkin seeds
• ½ cup whiskey
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp sea salt

Method

1. Add ingredients to a bowl, soak two hours.
2. Drain liquids off into a pan.
3. Pat seeds dry and arrange on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or place in a nonstick pan.
4. Let liquid mixture simmer on medium until it reduces in size and becomes a thick, sticky sauce.
5. Drizzle over pumpkin seeds.
6. Bake at 240 degrees (or as low as your oven will go) for 1- 1 1/2 hours, or until dry to the touch.