Happy Halloween! It's the spookiest night of all tonight and I feel like we're properly starting into the cold, dark months from tomorrow. So what we really need is a nice sweet treat! Here in Germany you can usually get sugar roasted almonds and other nuts at Christmas markets and similar markets and fairs. With covid cancelling quite a few of these over the last couple of years, I had to find out how to make these at home. To give them a more autumnal touch, I decided to use pumpkin seeds instead of the classic almonds. This literally uses like 5 basic ingredients and all the equipment you need is a pan and a stove :)

Here's the ingredients you need:

Add the water, sugar and spices into your pan and heat until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Now add the pumpkin seeds to the sugar water and cook on high heat, stirring occasionally. You will notice the syrup thickening with time.

Meanwhile, prepare a baking tray with greaseproof paper. You will leave your roasted pumpkin seeds to cool and set on this.

After about 10 to 15 minutes, the syrup will have thickened considerably. At this point it's important you keep stirring the seeds continiously so they don't stick to the pan and burn or build one big lump. Your kitchen will already be smelling divine at this point! :)

Once the sugar starts to properly coat the pumpkin seeds and starts to set and get crumbly, your pumpkin seeds are ready to come out of the pan. Pour them onto the baking sheet and spread them out evenly to cool down and set completely.

Be sure to wait for the seeds to cool down before tasting as the hot sugar mixture is really just that - painfully hot! ;)

These also make for a perfect little foodie christmas gift for friends and family or a lovely little winter snack for when you have some friends over. Have you tried making your own sugar roasted nuts or seeds? How did you get on? Leave me a comment if you try this recipe and enjoy :)

Not even four weeks til Christmas now guys! I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that another year is almost over but I'm still very excited for the Christmas season. So the advent wreath is ready to go (just in time for the first advent Sunday today), the first Christmas movies have been consumed and the first batch of Christmas cookies has been baked. A really easy but super delicious recipe I made for the first time this year are these Swedish julkuchen that are basically just cookies covered in ALL the cinnamon! Classically they are made with round cookie cutters for a basic cookie shape but I felt like switching it up a bit and did a few different ones. Grab your aprons and get baking :)

Here's what you'll need:

In a big mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and egg.

In a different bowl mix together your dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder and salt.

Slowly add the flour mixture into your big mixing bowl until it's all combined well. You will have to get your hands in there to knead the dough to get everything mixed together and to form a smooth dough.

Divide your dough into two. Roll them into balls and cover those in cling film. Put in the fridge for at least 3 hours until it's gotten quite firm.

Now preheat your oven to 200°C.

Take out the first dough and roll it out until it's about 5mm thick. You want to roll it out quite thin, because your cookies will rise quite a bit when baking. Use any cookie cutters you like and add the cut cookies to a lined baking tray. Brush your cookies with the egg white then cover them in your sugar/cinnamon mixture! There's no such thing as too much at this step :)

Bake your cookies for about 10-12 minutes, then take them out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Continue to do this with the second batch of dough as well :)

Now there's only one thing left to do: cosy up with a plate of these and maybe a little mulled wine to get into the festive spirit! :)

Have you started on the Christmas baking yet? What are your favourite recipes? I have a list of a few more that I want to make this year and may share a few more recipes with you guys in December :) Make sure you leave me a comment if you make these and let me know how you got on! Happy baking guys, stay cosy :)