These Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds roast on the stovetop in minutes! My recipe is coated in pumpkin spice and sugar for a fun seasonal treat everyone will enjoy.
Simple & Sweet Pumpkin Seeds
If carving pumpkins is on your agenda this week, DON’T throw away your pumpkin seeds! Instead, save them and make cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds. These are quick, so festive, and absolutely irresistible! You may even find yourself buying a few extra pumpkins just to make them 😉
Pumpkin seeds are such a fun fall snack, and they’re especially fun to make with kids after carving your Jack O’Lantern! My recipe is perfectly crisp, buttery, and spiced. To really amp up the flavor, swap the cinnamon for pumpkin spice; it gives the seeds a special note that reminds me a bit of my candied pecans.
Give this recipe a try, and you’ll be sorry you ever tossed your seeds in the past!
What you’ll love:
- Made with only a few ingredients.
- No oven needed!
- Reduces waste–just use pumpkin seeds from your Jack O’Lanterns!
- Last for weeks in a sealed container.
What You Need
Just a handful of ingredients come together to make these sweet pumpkin seeds:
- Butter. We will toast the seeds in unsalted butter before adding the seasoning. If you only have salted butter, that is fine–just reduce the salt to taste.
- Pumpkin seeds. Make sure you clean off most of the pumpkin from the seeds, though a little bit of leftover pumpkin can be good for adding extra flavor. Also make sure you don’t just set them in a bowl under running water and walk away; these seeds float, and they will happily float out of the bowl and down the sink drain (ask me how I know!).
- Sugar. I like to use both granulated and brown sugar to give my pumpkin seeds extra flavor.
- Pumpkin pie spice. While you could just use cinnamon, I love using pumpkin spice for some extra fall flavor. Make a batch of my homemade pumpkin pie spice if you’re running low!
SAM’S TIP: Be careful when drying your pumpkin seeds–they are sticky and tend to stick to paper towels.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Them
- Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet.
- Whisk together sugars, pumpkin spice, and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.
- Add your pumpkin seeds to the melted butter and cook for about 15 minutes or until the seeds puff.
- Add the remaining butter and stir to coat, then add your sugar mixture.
- Stir to coat, then spread your seeds onto a lined cookie sheet to cool before enjoying.
SAM’S TIP: This recipe can easily be scaled up or scaled down; just keep in mind that if you have a lot of seeds, you’ll want to cook them in batches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! In fact, they have more fiber and nutrients than the shelled seeds (often sold as pepitas in grocery stores). Because of the fiber, I don’t recommend eating a ton of them in one sitting, and as with most fiber-rich foods, you’ll want to make sure to drink plenty of water after eating to help your body process the fiber more easily.
While you could (this is how I make my roasted pumpkin seeds), I found that roasting this recipe made the seeds too sticky and chewy, and none of them quite puffed up like I wanted them to. I much prefer the stovetop method here!
Store your pumpkin seeds in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep this way for several weeks.
I hope you love this slightly different take on your typical pumpkin spice treat!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Tablespoons unsalted butter divided (21g)
- 1 ½ cups fresh pumpkin seeds rinsed and dried (185g)
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice can substitute cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a medium-sized heavy-bottomed (preferably cast iron) skillet.
- Meanwhile, in a separate bowl whisk together sugars, pumpkin spice, and salt. Set aside.
- Once butter has melted in your skillet, add pumpkin seeds.
- Cook, stirring frequently, until all seeds have puffed (you can actually see the thin skin around them shrink and the seeds puff out), about 15 minutes. Seeds will be beginning to turn golden brown.
- Add reserved half Tablespoon of butter and melt, coating seeds in thin layer of butter.
- Add sugar mixture and stir well, until all seeds are coated.
- Transfer seeds to a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and allow to cool before enjoying.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Anon
Making something this good should be illegal. I boiled them in salt water like your other recipe said and then used cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg along with the sugar(s). This recipe has been added to my Halloween traditions. Thanks for sharing it!
Sam
So happy to hear it was such a hit! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out for you, I appreciate it!
Alaina @ A Not So Quiet Kitchen
My kiddos love pumpkin seeds and I think they would gobble these up with a quickness! And I just bought my first couple pumpkins of the year yesterday! Saving this recipe for sure!