Last night, a bunch of creative friends met at the new flower farm, The Farmhouse on GreenBluff, for our annual dinner. Our friend, Alisa Lewis, founded The Creatives quite a few years ago and we’ve been gathering for dinner every year since.

This year our dinner was a beautiful charcuterie table with each of us bringing all of the ingredients. My contribution was Pumpkin Seed & Pecan Brittle which is loaded with nuts and extra crunchy, glass-like in fact, sweet and just slightly salty. It’s a great addition to a charcuterie board, as a topping for yogurt or ice cream, and extra delicious broken up into tiny bits and added between the layers of an iced pumpkin cake.

Pumpkin Seed & Pecan Brittle

• 1 1/2 cups pepitas (see notes)
• 1 cup pecan halves
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• flaked sea salt, for garnish

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Toast pepitas and pecans until lightly golden browned and set aside.

Add sugar and water to a medium-sized saucepan and stir to combine . (Do this BEFORE turning on the heat). Cook over medium-high heat (WITHOUT STIRRING) until sugar has begun to brown. This will take anywhere from 10-15 minutes depending on your stove. Cook until the sugar turns a caramel brown, but take care to make sure it doesn’t burn. Once it’s caramel brown in color, remove from heat and immediately stir in the nuts, giving just a few swirls to coat and then pour mixture onto the prepared sheet pan. Spread as thinly as possible, as quickly as possible, and then sprinkle with flaked sea salt. Allow to cool and then snap into pieces of your desired size.

Notes:

• Pepitas are the inner and most tender part of the pumpkin seed and are the absolute best to use when baking.
• The goal with this brittle is for it to be glass-like and very crunchy. To achieve this, it’s imperative to NOT stir the sugar mixture while it’s cooking. If you do this, it will become grainy and crumbly and will never turn into brittle.
• For brittle to achieve its crunchy state, the sugar needs to be heated to a very high temperature, without burning. If it isn’t heated to a high enough temperature, it won’t harden.