If you're anything like me, Autumn/Fall is your favourite time of the year! I love it - the chilly evenings which mean you can get all cosy inside, the gorgeous deep colours, the scarves and knitted jumpers which start to come out from hybernation and.... pumpkin spice lattes!! These coffees have become such a classic symbol of this season, but they also taste great and make a delicious afternoon pick-me-up too.
For me, there are just 2 problems with these drinks. First is that, for ethical reasons, I don't like to support Starbucks, and other cafes (especially here in Germany) have not really picked up on the pumpkin spice latte trend. And second, they cost a small fortune! Something like 5 euros for one drink... that's not something I can realistically keep up with in my daily life. However, I love PSL's, so I wanted to find a way to overcome these issues, to be able to enjoy these drinks the way I want to!
I have discovered a great and really easy way to make a pumpkin spice latte at home. It honestly tastes exactly like the starbucks drink - really delicious - and the great thing is that it's SO much cheaper, so you can have one whenever you want and not feel guilty. It's really not difficult either. If you already have a way to make coffee at home then all you really need to worry about is making the pumpkin spice syrup to add to it - and this recipe that I am about to share is super easy. It allows you to make a whole bottle of the syrup - enough for about 25 lattes for a fraction of the price! The other great thing is that you can adapt it to suit your tastes - if you prefer your PSL a little sweeter or less syrupy and more coffee, that's all perfectly fine.
Directions for the pumpkin spice syrup.
What you will need
1 1/4 cup (or 300 ml) pumpkin
1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Tbsp. ground cinnamon
Tsp. nutmeg
3 cloves
Bottle or jar to store the syrup
NB. If you want to take a very easy route and just get a can of pumpkin that's fine, otherwise I will include directions for preparing fresh pumpkin (which I think tastes a little nicer). Just a tip - from real pumpkins, I found that I got 600ml of pumpkin from a 1kg pumpkin, so you just need half of that (put the other half in a pie?!)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Prepare pumpkin.
Cut the pumpkin in half to open it up and scoop out all the seeds and gunk inside. (If you like you can clean off all the seeds and put them on a baking tray with a little salt, put them in the oven for a few minutes, makes a great snack!)
Place the pumpkin halves face down on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C. Then take the pumpkin out, turn them over so they are face up, and bake for another 30 minutes. I found that when the halves bake face down, the heat gets inside them and steams it, where as face up, the pumpkin gets more roasted, so it's good to do a mixture and switch them around. In any case, the pumpkin must be soft when you finally take them out.
3. Get to the flesh.
One you have let the pumpkin cool, you have to get rid of the skins and scrape out all of the flesh, which is the bit we want. We need 300mls of that flesh.
4. Make the syrup.
Put the pumpkin flesh in a saucepan, along with the water, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Mixing white and brown sugar gives a really nice flavour - the white is sweet, and the brown makes the real syrupy taste. Mix these ingredients all together and cook on a medium heat for about 20 minutes, until it becomes syrupy. Once it's finished, let it cool, and store it in a glass bottle or jar in the fridge.
Syrup is done!! Here is where you can get more personal and creative with yours. If you like your PSL to be very sweet, you might want to add some vanilla extract or maple syrup. If you like it more spicy you might consider adding chai syrup or cardamom. I actually really like just the simple pumpkin syrup as it gives a punchy pumpkin flavour, which I love.
Make the latte.
Next, make your coffee, as you normally would. I have a Nespresso machine, so I make a latte with that. A latte is just lots of hot milk, with a shot of coffee in it. If you don't have a coffee machine, you might want to consider getting a milk frother so you can also make your frothy milk easily with that, and just heat it up in the microwave or on the stove to make it hot! Percolaters are another good way of making espresso.
I then add about 4 spoons of my pumpkin syrup to my coffee, I find that this is a good balance for me, but again, it depends on your personal taste. The great thing is that you now have a whole bottle of syrup, so you can use as much as you want, and it should last you a while!
Labels: Life
