I mean, I didn’t test it on my brothers, so I can’t officially call it idiot proof. But I’m not 100% positive they can even roast pumpkin seeds…yes, I’m talking about you, Creighton, Trevor, Kai and most definitely Red. Wait, I know for sure Red can’t roast pumpkin seeds. Honestly, I don’t know if Red knows how to turn the oven on….pampered. SIDE NOTE: Red is off in Austria snowboarding at the moment just livin up the European lifestyle. I don’t know about you guys, but when I was 15 I was sitting in a classroom praying for the bell to ring at 3:05 pm, only to then walk home, do homework, eat dinner and veg out on the latest episode of Gilmore Girls…OH BUT! Speaking of Gilmore Girls, did you guys hear that they might be bringing NEW episodes to Netflix?!?!? I mean, I mean…my excitement is through the roof!! I watch almost zero TV, but I would watch this the second it came out! Random side note OVER. Point is, I have an easy recipe for you that highlights the season’s best little, itty bitty ingredients – pumpkin seeds! YES, roasted in their shell with lots and lots of salt. It’s the only way to roast pumpkin seeds…salt + olive oil = amazingness! This simple method will never fail you.
So here’s my thinking behind these cute little clusters. We are literally only days away from Halloween, so my guess is that now is the time we are all starting to think about carving up those pumpkins. Am I right?? I hope so, because you really need those seeds, you just HAVE to make these! They are so simple, but still seriously delish. Basically, just combine the seeds with loads of chocolate (use your favorite, milk or dark – either will be awesome), caramel, toasted pecans and salt…ok, I used kind of a lot of salt, but again, you can’t make them without salt. You just can’t.
Also, salt + chocolate = YES. Whoever came up with this combo is a genius and I applaud you. And truly, that’s all there is to these. They have all the flavors of classic turtle cookies, but with the awesome addition of roasted pumpkin seeds. Seams so simple, but I promise, the roasted pumpkin seeds make all the difference. OK, and I maybe added a lot of chocolate too, but come on, there can never be too much chocolate!
In an effort to keep this recipe as easy as possible I just used store-bought caramels, but please feel free to use homemade caramel if you are feeling it. I have to admit that sometimes the thought of making caramel really just sounds, well… not so fun. Yeah, there I said it. Caramel is not the most fun thing to make. Caramel sauce is easy, but like hard caramels or caramels that hold their shape but are chewy? They are a little tricky and I’ll be the first to admit it. No shame in taking just a little help from the store every now and then, right?!? RIGHT. OR if you wanted to make a healthy version of these you could make this EASY date caramel and replace the milk chocolate with dark chocolate. Then look out, completely healthy and guilt free recipe… and in NO time. Then you can say, TAKE THAT Halloween candy. <–Totally trying this out this week! Either way, these little clusters are good and quickly becoming my new favorite fall snack. OH and how cute would these be to have floating around the house during the holidays for people to nibble on?!?!? Yup, doing that too.
I’d make a lot of these Chocolate Covered Roasted Pumpkin Seed Turtle Clusters though, they seemed to disappear incredibly FAST!
