Pumpkin Spice Lattes for Dummies

It’s that time of year again, and pumpkin spice lattes are back in season. Instead of blowing your entire paycheck at Starbucks, try making one from home. Ike’s got two fabulous pumpkin spice latte recipes you can try. — Editor Jesse Denyer

By Ike Spry, Food Dude

Fall season is upon us, and what could epitomize it more than a pumpkin spice latte? Everybody loves them, and if you don’t, you’re probably lying to yourself. So, let us embrace our basic white girl, and let me show you two ways to make these delicious drinks, and save you the time and hassle of driving to Starbucks.

Pumpkin spice itself is pretty simple; it’s just cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. I will be using pumpkin in my recipes; feel free to use as much as you like. A good recipe for pumpkin spice would be 1 part cinnamon to ¼ part nutmeg and ginger, and ⅛ part cloves. Now you can rearrange the ratio if you would like, for it to be more floral, use more ginger and cloves. But I think this ratio is perfect. A recipe would be something like, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, and ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves (allrecipes.com). While this will give you the nostalgic feeling, I do recommend toasting and grinding these spices fresh yourself, but only if you have the time. Next, you will need the pumpkin; again you can use fresh, but it would have to be specifically pie pumpkins, as they are the sweetest and work the best. Otherwise, you can use canned pumpkin puree. If using homemade pumpkin, you’ll need to first scoop out the seeds and roast the pumpkin at 350, until fork tender (about 45 minutes). Then blend, process, or mash until smooth, and add water as needed.

For the first drink, I’ll be making a regular pumpkin spiced latte. For this you should use espresso. If you don’t have an espresso machine, use ground espresso. But first, use the desired pumpkin puree, and add sugar in a 2:1 ratio. It would look something like 1 cup of puree and one half cup of sugar. Then add the pumpkin spice mixture we made earlier about ½ tsp per cup–a little more if you like. Then heat the puree mixture in a saucepan on low for about 10 minutes. Blend or process together until smooth. For the latte, add ¼ cup of the puree mixture into a cup, along with 2 oz of espresso. Mix together and pour in about a cup of milk, and then top with either whipped cream or frothed milk and garnish with more pumpkin spice. 

Or, . . . you can try an iced-pumpkin-spiced latte with cold milk foam. This one is a little more adventurous, but could be a new favorite of yours, especially if you love iced coffee. The recipe is very similar to the latte. You’ll just let the espresso get to room temperature and add ice. For the milk of choice, I like oat or almond milk but feel free to use any kind you like. For the foam, I highly recommend using skim milk, as it foams up the best. Again, you can just use whipped cream. To make the foam, you can use a milk frother or milk frothing blender attachment. Or, you can experiment with using the blender, adding something like xanthan gum. This would make the foam more stable if you don’t have the right equipment. Also you can use a whipping siphon like they do a Starbucks, but most people don’t have one. If you do have one, just charge the skim milk with one charge. Another cool hack, if you have a whipping siphon, is to make a rapid cold brew. Cold brew usually takes a while to make, but with a whipping siphon and nitrous oxide, you can make the cold brew in about 30 minutes. 

Keep in mind these recipes are just a guideline. You don’t even need the puree, although I highly recommend it. You can experiment with other kinds of milk. I’d love to find out what works best for you. Leave me a note in the comments. If you have your lattes with extra pumps of sweetener, feel free to add something like maple syrup to the drinks. Anyways, try it out, and see if you like it. You might just save yourself some money and another trip to Starbucks.