Homemade Recipe For a Pumpkin Latte
Let’s make this recipe for a pumpkin latte! Made with real pumpkin, frothed milk, homemade espresso and whipped cream. Topped with pumpkin pie spice to bring the taste of fall to your home. It’s affordable and dairy free.
When fall season starts, I rush to the closest Starbucks coffee shop to purchase my first pumpkin latte. I generally order only one hot and one iced pumpkin latte per season.
After that, I utilize my kitchen and Betty Crocker skills to make my own pumpkin spice lattes. It saves me both time and money. The best part is that it requires no espresso machine and uses simple ingredients.
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Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe
It’s simple to make a latte at home. I have a great method for making one! It requires no special equipment and I still end up with the most delicious latte.
I like it better than Starbucks pumpkin spice latte because I can adjust the sweetness to my taste. And make it with non-dairy milk and coconut whipped cream. Which Isn’t offered at most coffee shops.
Ingredients For Pumpkin Latte
The key ingredient in this is the pure pumpkin puree. And for my dairy free version the oat milk really pushes this psl recipe over the top. You can use any dairy-free milk, but I find oat milk froths the best.
- Oat Milk: Use any type of milk like almond milk, coconut milk, or whole milk for a dairy option.
- Pure Pumpkin Purée: Make sure it’s real pumpkin purée (note it’s not the same as pumpkin pie filling which contains sugar and spices).
- Sugar: Brown sugar and white, or replace the sugars with maple syrup for a natural sweetener.
- Pumpkin pie spice: Use a premade one or follow recipe directions for pumpkin spice using cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
- Vanilla Extract: Use to flavour the drink.
- Espresso: Use espresso shots, my easy espresso substitute or double strength coffee.
- Whipped Cream: I use coconut whipped cream by making it with canned coconut cream or buying the premade cans.
It would be perfect topped with some dairy free caramel sauce.
Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Sauce
We can’t make a proper tasting PSL without first figuring out what the Buck’s uses in their syrup. The Starbucks pumpkin spice syrup is actually called a ‘pumpkin spice sauce’. It contains sugar, condensed skim milk, pumpkin purée, and less then 2% of each of the following: fruit and vegetable juice for colour, natural flavours, annatto, salt and potassium sorbate. For more information on how to make a Starbucks sauce, read this post for pumpkin spice syrup.
How to Make This Recipe for Pumpkin Latte
You will love the homemade version of this drink. We use real pumpkin puree to make our homemade pumpkin spice latte recipe. And cooking the syrup blends the spices together and brings out the pumpkin flavour.
Step 1: Cook the Pumpkin Syrup
- Add all the ingredients for the pumpkin syrup, except for the vanilla, into a small saucepan. Then cook it together over medium low heat for 2-3 minutes until nicely steaming. Remove from the heat and mix in the vanilla.
- A way to make the syrup without cooking, is to place them all in the blender and blend until well combined. If you have an immersion blender that would be even better.
Step 2: Make the Pumpkin Spice Latte
- Add half or 3-4 tablespoons of the pumpkin syrup to your coffee mug.
- Prepare your espresso shots or homemade espresso substitute and add it into your mug. Stir the espresso and pumpkin syrup together.
- Heat and froth 2/3 cups of oat milk and pour over the hot espresso and syrup. It’s a good idea to stir it some
Step 3: Garnish and Enjoy
- Top with some coconut whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon and nutmeg.
How to Froth The Milk
I like to heat my milk by placing it in a glass jar and microwaving for 1 minute to 1.5 minutes. Or the other option is to pour it into a small saucepan, and heat over medium low heat until it just steams. Because for frothing we don’t want to heat milk until it boils.
Froth with a handheld frother. Or use a French press/mason jar to froth your milk without a milk frother.
Substitutions & Tips
- Espresso or Espresso Substitute: ½ cup strong coffee brewed at double strength like what I make for this iced coffee recipe.
- Brown Sugar: Dark brown sugar, coconut sugar or use maple Syrup for a natural sweetener.
- Pumpkin pie Spice: I like to make my own with ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg and ⅛ teaspoon each ginger and ground cloves.
- Pumpkin Spice Syrup: You can use a premade one, however it’s hard to find a dairy free, milk based one, but this one doesn’t have any dairy. Make a whole recipe of pumpkin spice syrup and keep it to make other lattes like this Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte.
What To Do With Leftover Pumpkin Purée
The only challenge with this recipe is that we are left with a lot of pumpkin purée. I like to use it to make a whole recipe of my pumpkin spice syrup which takes a cup of pure pumpkin purée.
Or I store it in the freezer for up to a year. Divide it into portion sizes of your choosing and freeze in freezer bags.
And you can also store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Amazing Pumpkin Recipes
Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe
Ingredients
Pumpkin Latte:
- 2-4 TBSP or pumpkin spice syrup
- 2 espresso shots or 1/2 cup of espresso substitute*
- 1 cup oat milk heated and frothed
- Coconut whipped cream & extra pumpkin spice
Pumpkin Spice Sauce:
- 3 TBSP of Pumpkin purée
- 2 TBSP white sugar
- 2 TBSP packed brown sugar
- 5 TBSP oat milk Or any
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or use homemade pumpkin spice listed in notes
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ½ tsp vanilla
Instructions
For the Pumpkin Spice Sauce:
- Measure all ingredients, except vanilla, into a small saucepan and mix together. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from heat and mix in vanilla. Use half of or 2-4 TBSP for this recipe.
For the Pumpkin Latte
- Heat the milk in a small saucepan until just starting to steam then froth. Or heat for about 1.5 minutes in the microwave then froth* (instructions in notes).
- Prepare your espresso shots or espresso substitute** (instructions in notes).
- Add the espresso into the cup with the pumpkin syrup and stir them well to combine.
- Pour the frothed milk over top.
- Top with coconut whipped cream and some pumpkin pie spice.