As fall fast approaches, I noticed people online were getting really excited about Starbucks and other coffee shops putting Pumpkin Spice Latte back on their menu.
With the drink costing around $5.25 in the US and £4.50 in the UK, latte lovers can save a fair bit of money by learning how to make these drinks at home.
Since the secret to a good pumpkin spice latte is the pumpkin spice syrup, I’m going to give you the recipe for the syrup, followed by the recipe for the pumpkin spice latte itself.
Pumpkin Spice Syrup Recipe
To make the pumpkin spice syrup, you need to infuse pumpkin and autumn spices into a simple syrup (sugar dissolved in water).
The method below will make around 7 oz (200 ml) of syrup, enough for five lattes.
Ingredients:
- 2.4 cups (500 ml) water
- 12 oz (350 grams) granulated sugar
- A quarter of a small pumpkin (you want around 2.6 oz or 75 grams of flesh)
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) of vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) of ground cinnamon (or 6 cinnamon sticks)
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) of ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) of ground clove
- ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) of ground nutmeg
How To Make It:
Step 1:
Cut out a quarter of the pumpkin and scrape away any pulp and seeds. Roast in the oven skin side down on 350 Fahrenheit (180 celsius) for 35 minutes or until you can easily get a fork into it.
Remove the pumpkin flesh from its skin and blend it in a food processor. If you do not have a food processor then you can mash it with a fork.
Step 2:
Put the water and the granulated sugar in a saucepan and simmer it on medium low for about five minutes. You know it’s done when all the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is noticeably thicker than water but still very runny (closer to maple syrup than golden syrup).
Step 3:
Put the pureed pumpkin, spices and vanilla extract in the syrup, simmer for another ten minutes while stirring every now and then. The syrup will be quite thick and gritty at this point.
Step 4:
Let the syrup cool to the point where you will not burn yourself if it spills on you and then pour it through cheesecloth into a bowl.
The vast majority of the thick, gritty syrup will not pass through the cheesecloth, leaving you with a thin, glossy and beautifully orange-brown syrup at the end.
Notes On the Recipe
If you can get your hands on pureed pumpkin then you can use this instead of baking your own pumpkin. You want around 2.6 oz (75 grams) of pureed pumpkin for this recipe.
You will be surprised by how little of the final strained syrup you get for the amount of water and sugar that you use. More than 50% of the original syrup by weight gets strained out.
This is a good thing as it leaves you with a really smooth concentrated syrup that won’t make your latte gritty in the slightest.
Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe
This recipe creates a drink most similar to the one you get at Starbucks. You can find more details on how I tested this recipe in my article on how to make pumpkin spice latte.
This recipe is for one latte. You will need some way of frothing milk to do this.
Ingredients :
- 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
- 2 shots (60 ml espresso)
- 3 tbsp pumpkin spice syrup
- Whipped cream for topping
- Pinch of cinnamon to top
How To Make It:
Step 1:
Brew your double shot of espresso and put in a cup that can easily hold 10 oz (300 ml) of liquid
Step 2:
Put your milk in a saucepan and heat up as gently as you can. The milk should be no hotter than what you can comfortably touch with your finger. Then add your pumpkin spice syrup to the milk and let infuse for a couple of minutes
Step 3:
Froth the milk and then add it to the coffee. Stir the milk into the coffee (we are not making a layered drink here).
Step 4:
Top with cream and a pinch of cinnamon
