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Can you feel the crispness creeping into the air (maybe that’s just me hoping…)? It’s the time when we look forward all things fall, like rooting on the home team and watching football on Saturday. Leaves start to change colors, the weather turns cooler, and the big name coffee companies start the fall flavored lattes. Rather than going out for your favorite fall drinks, take 5 minutes and make your own Pumpkin Spice Syrup. Never pay $6.60 or even $8.80 for your fall fix.
Here’s how to make a simple syrup from pumpkin pie spices, at home! The secret? There’s absolutely no pumpkin in this syrup. It’s called pumpkin pie spice because it’s the spice you would use to spice a pumpkin pie!
Your first step is to make a “tea” from the spice mixture. Then we will heat the tea up again and mix with an equal measure of sugar to create the pumpkin spice syrup. I recommend bringing it to a boil to ensure you are starting with a sterile simple syrup before storing in the refrigerator.
Make the tea from ground spices wrapped up in cheesecloth. I doubled the cheese cloth 3 times (you want the taste and not the grit since this is a sugar syrup). Place the cheesecloth inside a large measuring cup (or a coffee mug) in a nest-like manner. Measure out the ground spices into a small bowl and then place into the center of the cheesecloth nestling the spices inside the mug.
Tip: If you don’t have cheesecloth you can use two coffee filters. It doesn’t work quite as well, but will get the job done.
You can double the measurements below to set aside some garnish for the top of your frothed milk or whipped cream, if that’s your sort of thing. It does give it an extra bit of flavor!
The result is a fantastic syrup that you can mix in lieu of your sugar in your morning coffee!
In total this will take about 5 minutes to make and should make enough for a number of cups of coffee. We store ours in a mason jar in the fridge.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp dried ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
Directions
- Place a folded over cheesecloth down in a mug (like a nest). I folded my cheesecloth over 3 times.
- Add all the spices down in the center of the cheesecloth.
- Pour 1 1/4 cup of boiling water over the ground spices inside the cheesecloth and let it steep stirring occasionally while it cools. After the mixture cools down, you can gather the sides of the cheesecloth and squeeze the liquid from the spice mixture. Note how much “tea” you have because this is how much sugar you will want to add to the boiling liquid.
- Bring the liquid back to a boil on the stove or in the microwave and add the same amount of sugar as you have liquid. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Let it cool and use or store in the refrigerator. Add to your favorite coffee drink. Dollop frothed milk or whipped cream and garnish with pumpkin pie spice mix.
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