Today I was craving a pumpkin spice latte in the worst way, but didn’t feel like driving to a Starbucks to get one. I knew I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry so I decided to look for some homemade pumpkin spice latte recipes. The first recipe I made early this afternoon and it was good, but I felt compelled to try another recipe. I am drinking the second one right now as I type up this post and I think this one is the winner (at least in my opinion).
Pumpkin Spice Latte 1
Printable recipe here.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup very strong coffee (4 Tbsp coffee grounds to 1 cup hot water)
- 2 Tbsp vanilla
- 4 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 heaping spoonfuls of pumpkin
Directions:
1. Pour all of the ingredients into a pot and heat over medium-high heat until steaming hot, whisking with a wire whisk until the ingredients are incorporated and a little frothy (or you can cheat like me and put some of the milk in a frother if you have one)
2. Pour into mugs and top with fresh whipped cream & cinnamon. Enjoy!
Makes 2 servings.
Pumpkin Spice Latte 2 (My favorite of the two)
Printable recipe here.
Ingredients
For the pumpkin spice syrup:
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 cinnamon sticks or 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves (used my mortar and pestle to ground up whole cloves)
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 Tbsp canned pumpkin
**Update: I love a strong pumpkin spice taste in my latte and felt it could be made stronger, so I did so, by doubling all spices in my latest batch of the syrup and it’s perfect now.
Ingredients for pumpkin spice latte:
- 2 – 4 Tbsp very strongly brewed coffee
- 6 -8 oz skim milk, very hot (I used my steamer to heat mine up)
- 2 Tbsp pumpkin spice syrup (to taste)
- Whipped cream, optional
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
Directions:
1. To make the syrup, combine sugar and water in a small pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture is completely clear.
2. Whisk in the remaining ingredients and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Do not allow the mixture to come to a boil.
3. Allow the mixture to cool for 10 – 15 minutes.
4. Strain syrup through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer into a large jar or bottle of your choice.
5. Keep the syrup in the fridge. It should last for weeks.
6. To make the latte, combine the strongly-brewed coffee or espresso with the milk, and stir in the pumpkin spice syrup to taste.
7. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Enjoy! This recipe makes a single serving, but I doubled the recipe tonight as my husband wanted one too!
In case you are wondering where I found the labels (like the one I used for the simple syrup), they are simply dissolvable canning labels.
And of course I couldn’t let all the canned pumpkin I had left over go to waste, so I put it in an ice cube tray to freeze and save for the next time I run out of the pumpkin spice syrup. I figured out that each portion in the ice cube tray is 1 tablespoon so the next time I want to make the syrup, I can just pop out three frozen cubes of pumpkin.
I found a recipe which leaves in the spices, however I am not so fond of the texture! I’ll have to try the simple syrup idea.
After saying that, I strained my cup and it is much better!
Yeah, for me the straining was an essential part. I also read that people that used ground cinnamon rather than cinnamon sticks found their drinks to be gritty.