People that really know me, know that I hate winter, and before you say it, yes I know it's not winter yet (thank goodness!). I'm a southern girl, and a summer baby at that. I was born smack in the middle of June and have no doubt it was sweltering hot the day I was born. I have a theory that because I was born in summer that's my favorite season, and therefore I have zero tolerance for cold weather.
Winter is the most miserable season to me. It's often gloomy, I wake up freezing, and go throughout my day the same way. I hate fall almost as much as winter because the weather starts to turn down, and I know those freezing cold days are looming in the near future. I do look forward to a few things as the weather gets cooler though, and wouldn't you know it, they're both food related.
Making soup is the first cooler weather thing I look forward to. True you can eat soup year round, but it's just not the same when it's 100 degrees outside. The other and yummiest thing I look forward to is that come October there are an abundance of pumpkin spice flavored foods. Everything from cookies and bagels to my all time favorite coffee creamer. Flavored creamer is a must in my morning cup of coffee, and when Pumpkin Spice creamer finally hits stores I am a happy woman!
I'm not the least bit shy about admitting that I've already bought and consumed my first bottle, and after that I decided to kick things up a notch and make my own. I found a recipe via Pinterest that I used as inspiration. I did make a few adjustments and overall I liked the outcome.
The one thing I didn't love was that since the recipe uses pumpkin pie spice instead of a liquid for the pumpkin spice flavor you're left with the spices either floating around on top of your coffee or stuck to the sides of your mug. As for the flavor, it doesn't taste exactly like the store-bought Pumpkin Spice creamer, but it is tasty and couldn't be easier to make. If you're a person who avoids chemicals or preservatives this is a great recipe since you obviously control the ingredients and there's nothing in it that you can't pronounce.
Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 can (12 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 1/2 cups half and half (can use milk or a mixture of the two)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking Directions
- Add sweetened condensed milk and half and half (or milk/milk half and half mixture) to large measuring cup or small bowl with spout.
- Stir until completely incorporated.
- Add pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract.
- Stir to combine and pour into bottle or mason jar.
- Shake or stir before each use, sweetened condensed milk will settle to bottom of container.
- Will keep for 2 weeks.
