It's beginning to feel a lot like fall: the weather is finally cooling down, leaves are browning, and pumpkin spice lattes are abundant.
Being a coffee fan, I caved about a year ago and bought pumpkin spice latte syrup. It made for a delicious replica of the coffee shop classic, but wouldn't it just be so much better with pumpkin pulp and spices instead of a sugary syrup?
After a little over twenty minutes in front of a stove and a couple of minutes with a hand mixer, cream, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar, we got to enjoy these:
The pumpkin puree made them thicker than your average pumpkin spice latte, so they didn't froth as well as the average latte. However, they were earthier, while still sweet, and I'd say more delicious than any pumpkin spice latte I've ever gotten in a coffee shop and certainly more delicious than any I've made at home with a syrup before.
I made twice the recipe below so that I could put the glass bottle full of extra latte in the fridge. They were also delicious cold the next day.
Pumpkin spice latte
Ingredients:
- 2 cups milk (preferably whole or 2%)
- 4 tablespoons pureed pumpkin
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon a combination of ground ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon (if you don't know how much to use of each, use equal parts)
- 3 shots espresso
Preparation:
- Combine milk, pumpkin, and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until steaming.
- Remove from heat. Add in vanilla and the various spices. Blend until foamy. (An immersion blender is easiest, but you can transfer to a regular, counter-top blender as well.) If you don't mind the pumpkin being a bit thicker, you can also simply whisk the mixture together until well combined.
- Pour mixture over espresso and serve.
Yields two servings.