Pumpkin Spice Latte

With the cooler weather upon us, this is a perfect time of year for a pumpkin and spice flavored coffee drink. I'll just run down to Starbucks and get one!

Oh, the nearest Starbucks is 115 miles away! You may have one of the ubiquitous coffee houses nearer to you, but save yourself a few bucks and give this copycat recipe a try. I made this recipe twice and here are a few notes: 

I made this first using sugar and then Splenda. The recipe calls for 2T sugar, which was enough to send me on a sugar high shortly after drinking it. I preferred using 2 packets of Splenda.

The first time I made this, I put the steaming milk mixture in my blender. Knowing that the hot mixture would expand when I mixed it, I cracked the lid and put a towel over the top. It still exploded and wound up all over my counter. The next time I made it, I simply used a wire whisk to froth the milk mixture and it worked fine (and no blender or counters to wash)!

Pumpkin Spice Latte (makes 2 servings) PRINT RECIPE HERE
2 cups milk
2 T canned pumpkin
2 T sugar or sugar substitute
2 T vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup strong brewed hot coffee


In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin and sugar. Cook on medium heat, stirring, until mixture is steaming. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and spice. Whisk well with wire whisk. Pour into 2 large mugs. Add hot coffee on top. Top with whipped cream and dust with pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.