Make your own....Pumpkin Spice Syrup!!

Okay. Yall.
This is gonna change your life :)

Anyone addicted to Pumpkin Spice Latte's? (those of us who are refer to them as PSL's. we're hip like that.)

Who's addicted to paying $4.50 for a small PSL? Not me!

Often times if I get a little free time it is usually spent perusing the internets for recipes. I love me some Google! On a whim I googled "Pumpkin spice syrup recipes". I only came across a couple, and they seemed endlessly complicated. So many ingredients! Tiny bit of this, tiny bit of that. I thought, surely there's an easier way! Also, turns out, the PSL syrup uses pumpkin "flavoring", not actual pumpkin. And they don't sell it, so no chance for direct comparison. I figured, I could get pretty close to the real thing, no?

Here we go: This only requires 4 ingredients: Water, sugar, canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix), and pumpkin pie spice. Well, maybe that's 3, some people don't really count water as an ingredient. Most of yall probably have you some canned pumpkin laying around by now, right?

Start with making a simple syrup. (All that is, is, equal parts of water and sugar boiled into a syrup.) For this recipe, I combined 1 1/2 cups water and 1 1/2 cups sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk it together as it warms up and completely dissolves. It will become clear.

Time to add the rest: 1/4 cup canned pumpkin and 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
Whisk it into the syrup and bring it juuuust to a boil, still over medium heat. You just want little bubbles, not a huge rolling boil. Let it boil for a minute or so, then turn off the heat and leave it be. Let it cool down a little. (Taste testing at this point is completely acceptable.)

The next few pics give you a couple options what to do next. You need to strain it, to get the solids and granules out. I didn't have any cheesecloth on me at the time, so I just used a fine-mesh sieve. It left some "stuff" in there, but it didn't really bother me.

Here you can see what got left behind.


Into the bottle and into the fridge she went. So far, tasting pretty dang outstanding.

The next morning, you can see how it separated a little. I just gave it a quick shake and used it in my coffee. I added about 1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) and a splash of half/half. (or you can use milk). No extra sugar needed unless you take your coffee extra sweet! I feel like it dissolved nicely.

Here's a better view of what didn't fit in my bottle.

Through the day, though, I started wondering if it would keep longer if I got ALL the (pumpkin) solids out of it. Worth a shot right? So I grabbed some cheesecloth while I was out. I consider this step OPTIONAL. If a little bit of the stuff in there doesn't bother you, or you just can't wait until you have a chance to pick up some cheesecloth, then just use a sieve. Also, if you do do this step, do it right away. I imagine warmish syrup will filter through a looooooot sooner than cold syrup.

I grabbed the bottle out of the fridge and poured it through here.

It is a painstakingly long process. I suggest leaving the kitchen and finding something else to do or you will go bonkers.

If you notice it's not dripping anymore, grab a spatula and gently scrape the bottom to move the solids to the sides. Here's what's left when it's done: a brown, albeit good smelling, mass of goop.

The result: much prettier amber colored pumpkin spice syrup.

I've used it too ways so far...adding some to my regular coffee, and making a latte...since I don't use espresso at home, I just made my coffee double strength (cut the water in half) and add that much amount of heated milk to the coffee and syrup. I do have a handy dandy milk frother to froth it up after adding all that, and it was FAB-U-LOUS!!!! Just add slowly until you figure out how much you like...you can't un-add it!

I imagine this would be good on pancakes as well. It looks like I'll be making a batch a week at this point! The whole process of making the syrup (minus the straining) took no time at all....I threw it on the stove while I was making dinner. If you did that, and had it strained before you go to bed, you can wake up to a PSL in the am!

(Note: I am all about sharing the love.....feel free to send this to anyone or post anywhere you like....please just link back here!)

Which syrup should we try to make at home next????