Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte

Name: Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Argentine
Ingredients: 400 ml milk; 3 tablespoons pumpkin purée; 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (or 2 tablespoons sugar); 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice, plus a little more for dusting; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 shots of espresso (60 ml) or 120 ml of strong coffee; To serve (optional): whipped cream

⏱ 15 min in total🔪 5 min prep🍳 10 min cooking🍽 2 servingsEasy

Homemade pumpkin spice latte with foam, whipped cream and cinnamon

This is the homemade version of the spiced latte that Starbucks launched in 2003, which turned pumpkin spice into the flavor of autumn. The spice blend contains no pumpkin—here is why—but this version does: a few tablespoons of purée give it body and color, just like the sauce in the coffee shop version since 2015. The other difference is the sugar: the coffee shop version is very sweet, and this one is sweetened with a bit of condensed milk, which can be adjusted to taste. Strong coffee, hot milk that doesn't reach a boil, and a bit of foam.

🔎 What is pumpkin spice? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.

Ingredients

Measurements

🍽 2 servings

400 ml milk
3 tablespoons pumpkin purée
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (or 2 tablespoons sugar)
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice, plus a little more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 shots of espresso (60 ml) or 120 ml of strong coffee
To serve (optional): whipped cream

Method

1
In a small saucepan (pot), heat the pumpkin purée with the condensed milk and the pumpkin spice over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring. Heating the spices with the pumpkin before adding the milk awakens their aroma. If you don't have purée, bake half a pumpkin as in the pumpkin pie recipe: leftovers can be frozen in portions.
2
Add the milk and heat over medium heat, whisking, until it steams and small bubbles appear at the edge, without letting it boil. Boiled milk forms a skin and loses sweetness (why it is better not to overdo it).
3
Remove from heat, add the vanilla, and froth with a hand whisk, an immersion blender (hand blender), or a milk frother until it has a layer of foam. The immersion blender also finishes smoothing out the purée.
4
If you prefer a texture without any fiber, strain the milk before serving.
5
Divide the coffee into two large mugs and top with the spiced milk. The coffee must be strong: the milk and pumpkin dilute it, and with a mild one, it gets lost.
6
Finish with whipped cream, if you like, and a pinch of pumpkin spice on top. Taste it before adding more sweetener: the idea is to be able to taste the coffee.