Mormon Pumpkin Spice “Latte”

I loved (love) coffee. I miss it some days. The most difficult of those days come during Pumpkin Spice Latte Season. I’ve been jonesin’, man. EVERYONE has them. Everywhere I turn I see them. This is not helpful. So I found a recipe online for a pumpkin spice latte sans coffee. Here is the recipe:

1 cup of pumpkin puree, 4 cups of milk, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. You combine them all in a saucepan, use a whisk to make sure they’re all mixed up, and you simmer (not boil) over medium heat.

That’s it. BAM. Easy peasy. So a couple things about this:

• It’s sweet. It doesn’t have the bitter taste of coffee to offset it.
• It’s pumpkiny. Again, without coffee you can really taste the pumpkin. Not just in flavor, though. There are some little teeny pieces of pumpkin pulp.
• The original recipe didn’t call for Ready Whip, but I put some on because, well, yum. Once it melted, it turned into that frothy goodness that you find with a “normal” latte. Did I say yum yet?

None of those things bothered me. In fact, I like it sweet and pulpy. I’m a big fan of all things pumpkin.

This is what happens when you REALLY want to open a can and your husband took the can opener to work. Just sayin’.

The final product…almost, I guess. This was before the whip cream.

My Daughter is a Pancake Fiend

She is. She could eat them every day for every meal, I suspect. I am a fan, as well, however I am not as passionate as she is. We make them all the time because it’s one of the few things her picky little 3 year old self will eat enough of. Sometimes we even have them for dinner because it’s quick , easy, and I always have the ingredients on hand. I did not take pictures. Partly because I didn’t really think about it until it was too late, but also because…well, they’re pancakes and pretty much look like pancakes. Next time I make them, I’ll try to take some pictures and add them here. I probably won’t. 😉

I did not come up with this recipe on my own, although I couldn’t tell you at this point where I got it.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

 

So, the original recipe says to mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl, then pour the wet mix into the dry mix and beat it until it’s smooth. I usually do this, but this last time I apparently hadn’t had enough caffeine when I started making them and, not thinking, just poured it all into one bowl from the start. It didn’t seem to make a difference and it was nice only having one bowl to clean. So do whatever you want. It also says to pour the batter onto your griddle or pan 1/4 cup at a time. I do 1/3 cup and it makes decent size pancakes. I always double this recipe and we get 12-14 pancakes out of it.  We have added cinnamon, chocolate chips, or blueberries. You can customize your own special flava.

Make sure you come back and let me know if you try them, especially if you add something or do something different.

Happy Tuesday!