Pumpkin Seed Toffee

We don’t get trick-or-treaters at our house. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing—maybe children are getting wise to the fact that I’m immune to their supposed charms?—but it does give me a chance to make whatever candy I want and not have to worry about snooty neighborhood moms thinking I’m sticking razor blades in the cookies or anything. (Does anyone even try weird crap like that anymore? Did anyone ever? Snopes says yes, but I’m still skeptical.)

And since I’d rather make my own confections than buy a bag of fun-size Snickers any day, I can sit around my house putting skeleton-themed hoodies on the cats and gorging myself on my latest favorite creation: chocolate pumpkin seed toffee.


Like caramel sauce, toffee is essentially molten sugar, but this time, it’s mixed in with loads of butter and taken off heat before it can fully caramelize. The resulting texture is voluptuously crunchy, dissolving between your teeth almost faster than you can chomp.

And believe me, I’ve tried—I used to mow through boxes of buttercrunch toffee made by family friends each Christmas. One piece after another, sometimes not even bothering to leave the walk-in pantry; I’m not sure anyone else in the house even got a piece.

Now, like Jack Skellington, I’m taking toffee away from its typical holiday habitat and giving it to the good citizens of Halloweentown. My toffee addiction meets my roasted pumpkin seed obsession, and it’s almost more incredible than the great marriage of peanut butter and chocolate.

The following is based on a peanut toffee recipe from Gourmet, switched up with pumpkin seeds and a little spicy heat. The toffee won’t stick in your teeth like peanut brittle, thanks to the massive quantity of butter therein—but there’s ample chewiness provided by the seeds.

You can give it away if you want, or you can just tell everyone there are razor blades hidden in the shards and keep it all to yourself. I certainly won’t trade it for any of your weak Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.