Tired of buying commercial Pumpkin Pie Spice blends with inferior ingredients and with questionable quality? Want to make your own palate-pleasing blend which makes a perfect gift for your cooking-oriented friends, too? Look no further, this Ultimate Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice is the unrivaled ingredient in your autumnal cooking and baking. From pumpkin pies to lattes, it lends a wonderful warm and spicy note that welcomes the fall season in the most delicious way. Read on to find out my extensive tests and how I came up with this particular blend!
How to make this Ultimate Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
As you might expect, preparing this Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice is super easy: just mix all ingredients well together, and that’s it!
However, to ensure the most homogenous result, you can press the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer like a tea strainer to easily remove all the lumps. Usually, I just break the lumps with the back of a spoon, which makes a good enough job.
Well, making the blend is easy, but you might have to spend some time to find good-quality ingredients. There are a few key points when choosing the ingredients. First, go for organic and irradiated spices. You definitely don’t want to increase the pesticide or herbicide load in your body — let alone possible radiation — so choosing high-quality organic ingredients and using some time to find those really pays off. You’ll find my favorite brands under the recipe box.
Secondly, when choosing cinnamon, don’t go for the regular cheap and inferior Cassia cinnamon, aka Chinese cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), but rather pick more elegant-flavored Ceylon cinnamon, aka true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) that is not toxic to your liver.
Yes, Cassia cinnamon contains 200 times more coumarin than Ceylon cinnamon. Coumarin is found in some plants, and it acts as a chemical defense against predators. As plants cannot run away, they wage a chemical ward against us. Many antinutrients are part of this chemical defense, such as oxalates (which I’m talking about in my keto-vegan books). However, there are many other substances that do harm to the eaters of these plants. Coumarin that is found in Cassia cinnamon is one of these substances and thus should be avoided. So, to put it shortly, pick up the Ceylon cinnamon and let it be a staple in your pantry!
Last but not least: the flavors in high-quality organic ingredients are just so much better, so that’s definitely another reason to go for high quality. Moreover, cheap stuff might be stored in non-optimal conditions, growing mold or gathering pollution, which definitely affects the taste.
That’s it, let’s take a look at how to prepare this simple yet mind-blowing spice combo:
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, that is, 1/4 cup (60 ml) organic Ceylon cinnamon…
…2 tablespoons organic ground ginger…
…1 1/2 teaspoons organic ground cloves…
…and 3/4 teaspoon organic ground nutmeg.
Mix until well combined.
You can break the possible lumps with the back of a spoon or press the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve or tea strainer.
Ready!
Transfer into a glass jar.
Add a label and some decorations if you wish. Look how pretty gift it makes!
Use in your fall-time treats, such as Pumpkin Spice Latte, Keto Pumpkin Spice Caramel Sauce or Fudge Balls, Keto Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough Balls, Keto Pumpkin Pie Spice Pecan Bites, Keto Pumpkin Bars, Keto Pumpkin White Chocolate Truffles, Keto Pumpkin Pie Martini, and naturally in your Keto or Low-Carb Pumpkin Pie. Scroll down to see how I use this Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice while traveling.
How I came up with this easy pumpkin pie spice blend recipe
If you have been following me, you are certainly aware that pumpkin pie spice is by far my all-time favorite seasoning mix. I use it basically year round, but naturally, even more during the fall time. The fall season is just not perfect without pumpkin pie spice!
For me, fall is made of colorful and falling leaves, chilly weather, the smell of the ripening apples — and everything seasoned with pumpkin pie spice. From my breakfast yogurt and pumpkin spice lattes to pumpkin bread, cakes, and muffins, pumpkin pie spice is the supreme seasoning to lend the warm, autumnal flavor — not to mention the ultimate fall time favorite: keto pumpkin pie!
As I live in Finland, obtaining commercial high-quality pumpkin pie spice has always been a bit tricky. Usually, I order my pumpkin pie spice blends directly from the US. Over the years, I have tried several brands and found that my favorite blend is Frontier Natural Products organic pumpkin pis spice. However, also this blend has Cassia cinnamon, i.e., Chinese cinnamon that is not the best possible cinnamon and has its problems like I told before.
Therefore, for years, my dream has been to reverse engineer the Frontier pumpkin pie spice and create my own blend using more beneficial Ceylon cinnamon. For some reason, I never took the time to develop my own blend, but finally, this fall, I thought now it’s about time.
So, as my goal was to get a spice mix close to the Frontier Natural Products pumpkin pie spice, I decided to use precisely the same four spices (and in the exact order) that the Frontier seasoning uses: cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. I knew that Ceylon cinnamon is milder in taste than the more aggressive-flavored Cassia cinnamon, so I was prepared to use more of it.
I made some calculations and educated guesses and prepared four small test batches with different ratios of those four spices.
Next, I made mug cakes with each experiment — and naturally with the Frontier pumpkin pie spice to have that as a reference.
After some extensive smell and taste tests (and actually trying each experiment in keto pumpkin spice latte), I concluded the first version was the best one. It was closest to the Frontier pumpkin pie spice, and it undoubtedly tasted the best.
However, I started hesitating if there was too much ginger in my version, so I prepared yet another experiment with a little less ginger.
After some testing and pondering, I concluded that the first version was anyway the best, and there was just the right amount of ginger to lend a spicy and warm note. The fifth version was, let’s admit it, a bit too lame. After all, I was surprised that the first version was the winner and that my calculations had worked so well. Marvelous!
Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:
The Ultimate Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
Tired of buying commercial Pumpkin Pie Spice blends with inferior ingredients and with questionable quality? Want to make your own palate-pleasing blend which makes a perfect gift for your cooking-oriented friends, too? Look no further, this Ultimate Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice is the unrivaled ingredient in your autumnal cooking and baking. From pumpkin pies to lattes, it lends a wonderful warm and spicy note that welcomes the fall season in the most delicious way. Read on to find out my extensive tests and how I came up with this particular blend!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup = 60 ml Ceylon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Press with the back of a spoon to break any lumps.
- Transfer into a glass jar. Close tightly and label accordingly.
- Enjoy in your autumnal treats or give as a gift.
Recommended Products
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Naturevibe Botanicals Organic Nutmeg Powder 8oz | Non-GMO and Gluten Free | Indian Spice | Adds Aroma and Flavor...[Packaging may vary] -
Simply Organic Ground Nutmeg, Certified Organic | 2.3 oz | Myristica fragrans Houtt. -
Frontier Natural Products Cloves, Ground, 1.92 Ounce -
Simply Organic Ground Cloves, Certified Organic | 2.82 oz | Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M. Perry -
Micro Ingredients Organic Ginger Powder, 1.5 Pounds (24 Ounces), Strong Flavor and Highly Aromatic, Best for Cooking, Baking, Tea & More, Non-GMO -
Simply Organic Ginger Root Ground Certified Organic, 1.64-Ounce Container -
Frontier Co-op Ceylon Cinnamon Powder, 1 Pound Bulk Bag, Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, Kosher, Non-irradiated, Sustainably Grown | Cinnamomum verum J. Presl -
Organic Ceylon Cinnamon Powder | Perfect for Baking, Cooking & Smoothies | 100% Raw from Sri Lanka | 16oz/453g Resealable Kraft Bag | by FGO -
Frontier Co-op Pumpkin Pie Spice, Certified Organic, Kosher, Non-irradiated | 1 lb. Bulk Bag
General prattling
This week, I traveled once again to beautiful Greece, where I’m currently located. Actually, most of the time I spend in Crete and Milos. The weather is fantastic, the landscape is breathtaking, and swimming in the sea is a pure pleasure as the water is so clean and warm.
Food is excellent — considering you find decent restaurants that serve local food rather than average tourist pleasing grub.
Before going to Greece, I was creating new recipes using our Ketokamu baking mix. I will post those to our Facebook group so that people have something new to try out. For example, I made these buns and chicken nuggets:
Last but not least, I took some baking mix here to Greece and made pancakes with it. As I had also taken my Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice with me, I naturally ate my pancakes with butter, erythritol crystals, and pumpkin pie spice.
Moreover, I added pumpkin pie spice to my morning yogurt…
…and to my creamy coffee to create a version of a pumpkin spice latte. Delicious!
Thank you for posting this, Elviira! I love a good pumpkin pie flavor, and have never been happy with our typical commercial blends. There is one thing I would do differently with yours, though, and that is substitute allspice for the cloves, or use half cloves, half allspice. Probably the latter. I looked up my mother’s pumpkin pie recipe, which has a beautifully balanced spice blend, and for a (most likely) 9″ pie the spicing was ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon and ⅛ teaspoon each of cloves, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. That recipe came from our third president’s (John Adams) family, and it is the one my grandmother chose after trying many different pumpkin pie recipes. I’ve always compared everything else to that flavor. I definitely want to make this, with that one change. I also have to say that I love the idea of using it to flavor yogurt.
Thank you, Susan! Allspice sounds fascinating, I might give a try for it as well.