ROASTING YOUR OWN SALTED SUNFLOWER SEEDS

I love sunflower seeds.  But only if they are salted.  So the thought of roasting my own never sounded that great to me. 

Until I learned the correct way to do it.

I was so excited when my sister, Maureen, came over and announced she had a gift for me.  She handed me a bag and inside I found this!

I was so happy.  Some of you may be saying "what in the world is that!"

It's a dried sunflower.  You see, Maureen grows sunflowers almost every year in her garden and this year she was kind enough to dry one and give it to me.

This is what it looks like close up.  Can you see the tops of all the sunflower seeds in there?  A lot of the time, birds get to these and you miss out. 

It's very easy to get the seeds off.  Just run your fingers along the seeds and they will fall out.  Start at the outside though or it won't work to well.

See, they fall right out.  They will be some what softer then the ones you may be used to.  Remember they are not roasted yet.

You can get a better view of the seeds now.

You won't be able to get all the seeds out because towards the center they are not fully developed yet.  I stop getting them when they start to come out pretty thin.  You can tell the seed inside the shell is not developed yet.

Since I was making salted roasted seeds I used Kosher salt.  It melts easier.  If you don't want your seeds salted you don't need to add this.

I put 1/2 cup of salt in a bowl and filled it up with water.  Next time, I will either use more salt or not as much water.  I like my seeds pretty salty.

Stir the salt until it dissolves and add your seeds that you have rinsed and cleaned.

The seeds float to the top so I put a bit of waxed paper down on top of them and then a plate to hold them under the water.

Let them sit for at least 8 hours.  You can leave them in there longer if you like but it will take at least 8 hours for them to start soaking up the salt water all the way through. 

I left mine in for about 20 hours.  I stirred them around a few times to make sure they all got in the water good.

When they are finished soaking, do not rinse them off!  Just drain them and pat dry with a paper towel a little bit.  Then put them on a cookie sheet in a single layer.

At this point, I sprinkled a little bit more salt on them.  Yes, I love salt!

Roast them at 300 degrees for 30 mins.  Move them around 1/2 way through.  You don't want them to burn.  Check to see if they are done.  I put mine back for 10 more minutes as the inside seeds were still a little soft.

Once they are done, they will be nice and dry and crispy.  Just like the ones you buy at the store.  Only these will have much more flavor!

I put these in a cello bag and tied a ribbon on it and put a little sunflower on it.  I'm giving these to Trinity.  Maybe next year, she will want to plant lots of flowers so we can make tons more.