Harvest Seed Brittle A.k.a. Pumpkin Seed Brittle

This is the candy recipe people beat my door down for--and my stand-by holiday gift. You can customize it to fit you own tastes with many different mix-ins, but my favorite is pumpkin seeds. Don't be afraid of the candy-making process to try this one. It's really simple.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Yields: 1 cookie-sheet's worth

Ingredients

• 2  cups sugar
• 1  cup light corn syrup
• 1  cup water
• 2  cups  pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 2  teaspoons baking soda (lump free)
• 4  tablespoons unsalted butter

• Other great combos

•  pistachios, and
•  dried cranberries (beautiful!)
•  sunflower seeds, and
•  raisins
•  almonds, and
•  candied ginger

Directions

1. Stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a candy thermometer, over high heat until sugar dissolves. Cook to 270 (it will take a while to get there, but you don't really need to stir it at this point. Just every now and again.).
2. When the mixture hits 270, add the pumpkin seeds (or other seeds) and start stirring. Keep stirring until you reach 290 (hard crack stage.) The temperature will fall but will rebound pretty quickly. Some of the seeds will pop, and they and the syrup will get amber-colored and develop a lovely toasty smell.
3. Turn off the heat when it reaches 290, and add the baking soda and butter. Stir furiously while the mixture foams up (only a few seconds.)
4. Quickly pour it into the prepared parchment paper and smooth it out with the spatula.
5. Either let cool completely and break into pieces, or let semi-harden and cut into strips/triangles with a pizza cutter.