My favorite things about Autumn are red and gold leaves swirling around in the sky and crunching under my feet as I walk along in the crisp morning air, curling up with a cup of hot spiced cider and a good book in the evening when the world is finally done with me for the day, and the taste of my mom’s freshly baked pumpkin pie.
Last year I also fell in love with pumpkin spice lattes from Panera Bread. I’m not the type to breeze into the coffee shop every morning before work, so yesterday I thought, “I should just make my own pumpkin spice coffee.” I’m quite happy with the result. Here is a great recipe that I used as a guide:
Pumpkin Spice Mix
(enough for a 10-12 cup pot)
3 pieces of Crystallized Ginger,
(or 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
2 Tsp Cinnamon
3 Whole Allspice Berries
3 Whole Cloves
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
Since I’m a cheapo, I just bought a little jar of McCormick’s Pumpkin Pie Spice, which contains the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. I did buy the whole cloves, because there’s really no excuse for leaving them out.
I used Java Love whole bean coffee from The Organic Coffee Company as the base blend. The recipe I listed above recommends that you sprinkle the mix on top of your coffee grounds before you brew, but I was happier with the flavor on my second try, when I had mixed it all together and stored it overnight. I may have used more spices than the first time, too.
I topped my finished cup with a generous heaping of whip cream and sprinkled it with spices. Delicious.
