That’s right! I am back with a second installment in my Starbucks @ Home Series, and this time I am tackling everyone’s fall favorite, the Pumpkin Spice Latte or #PSL for the hip among us! To be completely honest, I am not a big pumpkin spice latte fan, although I do generally enjoy pumpkin flavored things! When it comes to the actual Starbucks PSL, the drink is made with a pumpkin spiced syrup that is loaded with sugar and calories and too me is too sickeningly sweet. So, my variation is going to be much fewer calories because I am going to use a pumpkin spice coffee as my base. As always, I have a Keurig so that is what I use to brew my coffee, but you can use whatever means you have at your disposal!
What You’ll Need
A Reusable Starbucks Cup: I bought this simple reusable Starbucks cup earlier this year when Starbucks was running a reusable cup promotion. I believe the cup only cost me $1 and it looks exactly like a regular Starbucks cup!
A Pumpkin Spice Coffee K-Cup: There are loads of varieties of Pumpkin Spice Coffee that you can find this time of year, but since this is a seasonal drink I chose a more wallet friendly coffee brand this time.
Whipped Cream: Whipped Cream is actually going to be a staple in this recipe to help add sweetness without getting too much sugar. In a way, its acting as the creamer. If you don’t have whipped cream you could use creamer or milk I suppose, but make sure to add a bit more than you normally would!
Vanilla Extract: It really doesn’t matter to me if its pure or imitation extract, but you will need about a teaspoon of the stuff to help achieve that lovely spicy pumpkin flavor!
Sweetener: Although the whipped cream adds sweetness to the drink, you will still need a bit of something extra. As I mentioned earlier the Starbucks PSL is very sweet, so to pull this off you need to add some additional sweetener. I use stevia to sweeten my coffee, but feel free to use whatever you’d like!
Cinnamon and Nutmeg: You will need to use a pinch of cinnamon and a quarter pinch of nutmeg for this recipe. I know, those measurements are so precise! Basically you need a tiny bit of nutmeg (because it’s a very strong flavor) and 3-4 times as much cinnamon to help round it all out. Since we are making a drink and not a pie we are using such small amounts its hard to measure out!
Garnish: I garnish this drink with some whipped cream and some cinnamon! You could use pumpkin spice as well, but since the coffee is pumpkin flavored you pretty much have the flavor there already.
Let’s start brewing!
The first thing you will need to do is brew you coffee. K-Cups are super simple, but they do cost a bit more than regular coffee grounds. Obviously, you will just use whatever method of brewing your coffee you have available to you! While your coffee is brewing you need to prepare a few ingredients in your reusable cup first! Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and sweetener to your cup first and mix it together. This is going to act like the “syrup” in a PSL except significantly less sweet (unless you used a lot of sugar as sweetener). Once this is done you can add the brewed coffee and then copious amounts of whipped cream until your coffee is a nice light mocha color (approximately 1 cup whipped cream). Mix everything together until the whipped cream has fully dissolved in your coffee. Next add some more whipped cream on top and then garnish with some cinnamon!
Voila! Top your cup with its lid and take a sip! Delish, I know! And to think, this is so much simpler than standing in line on a cool autumn morning!
Has this recipe inspired you to start making your own coffee-house drinks at home? Have you tried my past recipe? Do you visit Starbucks or your local coffee-house as part of your daily commute to work? Or, perhaps you already brew your coffee at home? Let us know in the comments!
