Spiced Maple Pumpkin Seeds
Crispy oven-roasted pepitas coated in maple syrup and warm autumn spices — two of North America's most ancient indigenous foods combined into an irresistible seasonal snack.
- 2 cupsraw pepitas(hulled pumpkin seeds)
- 3 tbsppure maple syrup
- 1 tbspolive oil
- 1 tspcinnamon
- 0.5 tspground ginger
- 0.25 tspground allspice
- 0.25 tspcayenne pepper
- 0.75 tspkosher salt
- 1 tbspbrown sugar
Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks. If they lose crispness, re-toast at 300°F for 5 minutes.
- 1Preheat oven to 325°F and line baking sheet with parchment paper
- 2Toss pepitas with olive oil, maple syrup, and brown sugar
- 3Add cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cayenne, and salt; toss to coat evenly
- 4Spread in single layer on prepared baking sheet
- 5Bake 20-25 minutes, stirring every 8 minutes, until golden and fragrant
- 6Seeds will be wet when done but will crisp as they cool
- 7Let cool completely on pan - do not touch until cooled
- 8Break apart any clumps and transfer to serving bowls
Watch carefully in the last few minutes to prevent burning. The seeds will look wet but that's normal - they crisp as they cool. For extra crunch, add an egg white to the coating. Fresh seeds from a carved pumpkin can be used - clean thoroughly and dry overnight first.
Pumpkin seeds have been eaten in the Americas for longer than most of the world's staple foods have existed. Wikipedia confirms that Cucurbita pepo — the pumpkin species most familiar today — is among the oldest known domesticated plants, with evidence of cultivation dating to between 7,000 and 5,500 BCE in Mesoamerica. The University of Kansas's American Indian Health resource notes that indigenous peoples of North America were growing pumpkins over 9,000 years ago, preceding the cultivation of corn and beans. The oldest physical evidence comes from the cave of Guilá Naquitz in Oaxaca, Mexico. For the civilisations that cultivated them — including the Maya, Aztec, and numerous North American tribes — pumpkin seeds were both a food staple and a medicine. Native American peoples of the southwest roasted the seeds with spices and salt, and the Aztec tradition of grinding toasted seeds into rich sauces lives on in Mexican mole and pipián. The Spanish word pepitas — the hulled seeds of certain pumpkin varieties — entered English via the long tradition of Mexican seed cookery. Maple syrup, the other half of this recipe, is equally indigenous to the northeastern Americas. Algonquian and Iroquois peoples were the first to tap maple trees and reduce the sap into syrup, a practice that European colonists learned in the 17th century and which remains inseparable from the culinary identity of New England and eastern Canada. The pairing of spiced roasted pumpkin seeds with maple sweetness is a purely North American idea, joining two of the continent's oldest culinary traditions on a single baking sheet.