Archive Recipe of the Week: Pumpkin Pie Spice

You don’t need me to tell you how to use the warm blend of sweet and sassy spices known as Pumpkin Pie Spice. You just have to stare hard at your Google machine this time of year and a million and one recipes for sweets containing pumpkin (including, of course, pumpkin pie) will come boiling to the surface. That’s why I decided to feature The Messy Apron Pumpkin Pie Spice as this week’s Archive Recipe of the Week (ARoW).

There’s definitely more than one way to combine spices into a mix and call it Pumpkin Pie Spice, and you can save yourself some time by buying a prepared Pumpkin Pie Spice from the spice rack of any supermarket. I like to make my own, however, largely because I tend to have all the ingredients that I use in The Messy Apron Pumpkin Pie Spice blend in my cupboard…in bulk. And what else am I going to do with many dozens of whole cloves and allspice berries anyway? 

 

I tend to start with whole spices when I can, at least in the case of nutmeg, cloves, and allspice (also cardamom when it comes up), because they really do keep their flavor longer than ground spices do. When it comes to nutmeg, I actually find the freshly-ground version to have such an entirely different, and much better, flavor that it would have to be a pretty extreme emergency for me to ever buy ground nutmeg. I grind a little of each spice at a time and maybe use some in this spice blend or maybe in something else (like this cake), trying to use up the little that I grind before it loses its superior flavor.

I first posted The Messy Apron Pumpkin Pie Spice along with the recipe for these frosted pumpkin cookies, but it would be useful in Grandmama’s Pumpkin Pie, and just about any of the sweets listed here. And, of course, in all those delicious pumpkin recipes everywhere else out there, too.

 

 

 

The Messy Apron Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice

1. Combine all the spices and mix well. Keep in an airtight container for a few months.

Makes a scant 3 tablespoons.