All Things Pumpkin Spice

Its our first rainy, cool day of fall. I've been thinking for a few weeks that I was ready to roast some pumpkin for baking with. I bought a big Chinese pumpkin/squash (南瓜）last night and got it in the oven first thing this morning. It roasted in an hour or two and I quickly pureed it and got started. I chose Pumpkin Butter first. It is perfect for biscuits, toast, and bagels. My son dipped apples in it today. I had to follow the pumpkin butter with bagels. I even tried a batch of bagels substituting 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree and adding 2 teaspoons of Turmeric Twist, my current favorite spice blend from iHerb. Its a sweet blend of turmeric, cinnamon, and other chai type spices. The savory blend is equally amazing. You could also do about 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.

While I had a Vitamix full of pumpkin puree I decided to task a kid with making pumpkin bread. And if they kids make it, you can guarantee it will have chocolate chips added in. By this point I decided we should go all in and make some pumpkin spice syrup so I could have a latte too. My house has had all the wonderful smells today. And I still have about 1 cup of puree I could make something else with. Granola maybe? I haven't decided. But for today, my work is done. Just wanted to leave you with some inspiration for your own pumpkin spice making and baking and fall creations.

Start with making Pumpkin Puree. My nearly 4 kg pumpkin cost less than 8 rmb.

Try some of these:
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Spice Granola
Pumpkin Spice Syrup for lattes or drizzling on about anything!
Pumpkin Butter 
Pumpkin Spiced Doughnut Muffins
Caramel Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Doughnuts
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bars
Pumpkin Creme Caramel

These are the Chinese 南瓜 (nan gua) which I have always used. Pumpkins as we'd know from the US are harder to find and often only in more rural areas in the fall, but these are available year round. They work great for pumpkin puree. 

Kitchen Gadget Love: Milk Frother

So a couple weeks ago I posted a recipe for a pumpkin spice syrup you could use in coffee or for lattes. Leave it to all of you to go above and beyond and find all kinds of other fun uses for it! If you want to hear about what others have done, check the comments on that post. This past week, I've been working on a couple other syrup and latte recipes that I'll be sharing soon. I think I mentioned I have an espresso machine, but I got to thinking about what I used before I got that. For Mother's Day several years ago, my husband got me one of these little milk frother things pictured below (different brand).

Its handheld and battery powered. I actually still have it. I think he picked it up at a Pacific Coffee in Hong Kong. It was fun to have to lightly froth milk to add to a strongly brewed coffee. I would just microwave the milk a bit until warm then use this! If you live near an Ikea, they carry them (Amazon also has the Ikea one: Ikea Milk Frother). They only cost Y9.90 in China so not sure how long it would last though! This might be a fun stocking stuffer idea for coffee drinkers!

I have also known some people who have had this type of milk frother (Norpro Glass Froth Master) . You add warm milk then press up and down to froth. I can't really say much else about these since I've never had one, but they look like they might would do a better job! Happy Latte making! 

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Gingerbread Syrup (for Lattes, etc!)

I've decided you girls and guys love anything to do with coffee and tea. If you were to look at the stats for posts on this blog, you'd probably laugh at how popular the recipes for coffee creamer, pumpkin spice syrup, peppermint mochas, and chai are compared to other things! I worked on this recipe for gingerbread syrup about a month ago, but I've been waiting to share it. I'd kind of thought I'd make it my Christmas gift to friends, but I went another route. So you get the recipe now! I took my cues for this recipe from a recipe for actual gingerbread. Some gingerbread recipes are as simple as ginger and cinnamon. I wanted more depth of flavor so I added cloves and nutmeg, too. Some gingerbread recipes even call for black pepper, but I decided to leave that out! I used mostly brown sugar to give it that more molasses-y flavor. I'd almost venture to say that I like this more than the pumpkin spice syrup. I also think this one is a little more versatile--if you added it to tea and milk it'd probably make a decent chai-style drink. I think it'd be great over pancakes or waffles, too! Be creative and enjoy!

Gingerbread Syrup
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbs grated ginger root, heaping
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Measure out all your spices into a small bowl or cup and set aside. Pour sugars and water into a small saucepan. Stir together over medium heat and allow sugars to dissolve. Whisk in ginger, vanilla and spices. Once you see liquid starting to bubble slightly around the edges of the pan, turn the heat to low. Allow syrup to simmer about 5 minutes, but don't let it actually boil too much. Remove from heat and allow to cool to lukewarm. Pour syrup through a mesh strainer or a cheesecloth. This will get out most of the spices and ginger bits that you may not want in your coffee but still leave you with a flavorful syrup! I keep mine in the fridge but I think you could keep it at room temperature as well for a couple weeks.

For a latte: I add a couple spoonfuls to a double shot of espresso and steamed milk. You could accomplish the same thing with a cup of strongly brewed coffee and warmed milk. 

Tip!! Do you have an bags for making your own tea bags with looseleaf tea? (wait, that may only be my husband!) Or maybe little tea strainers? If the holes are small enough, try putting your spices in it and then putting them in your syrup. You can just remove the strainer or bag of spices once you've simmered it and allowed it to cool.