How To DIY Your Own Pumpkin Pie Spice This Season

Pumpkin spice is a pretty ubiquitous ingredient in the kinds of recipes that start appearing in August each year and don't die off until mid-January. Sure, you can use the store-bought spice blend. But if you don't already have it in the pantry, pumpkin pie spice couldn't be easier to DIY. A standard template involves combining six parts of cinnamon, two parts each of ginger and allspice, and one part each of nutmeg and ground clove. If you're making your own blend, though, you can tweak the amounts of the spices as you see fit. We asked Jerrelle Guy, a food blogger and author of "Black Girl Baking", and she told us she certainly puts her own spin on it.

While Guy does say "Premixed pumpkin pie spice is really convenient and usually works great," she enjoys making her own blend. She likes to start with the standard five-spice blend, but doesn't leave it at that. As she tells us, "I like playing around with different complementary spices and ingredients like crushed Sichuan peppercorns, vanilla sugar, ground star anise, espresso powder, or orange zest." Other bakers may add black pepper or cayenne to jazz up their own pumpkin spice blends, but adding to the mix isn't the only way to customize your pumpkin pie spice. You can also leave out any of the spices you don't really care for, as long as you don't touch the cinnamon. Cinnamon is non-negotiable. But if you want to drop one or two others (particularly the allspice or cloves), go right ahead.

Chances are, you're looking to mix up some pumpkin spice because you need it for a specific recipe. Perhaps it's an actual pumpkin pie, although we'd like to think you might also use it in our apple cider doughnuts or autumn harvest Chex mix. Since it's always easier to blend such things in bulk, you may find yourself with a lot of leftover spice mix. Might we suggest a few more ideas for using it before candy cane season is upon us? (Peppermint doesn't go so well with warm spices, though you could always use pumpkin pie spice in homemade eggnog or gingerbread if your leftovers last through the holiday season.)

Pumpkin spice can make overnight oats taste like something a lot more enjoyable than, well, oatmeal. It can also be used to season roasted pumpkin seeds (brine them in pumpkin beer first for an autumnal hat trick). Add this seasoning to the grounds when you're making coffee, then top your beverage with whipped cream and another sprinkling of spice. (Pumpkin pie-flavored hot chocolate is also an option if you're not into caffeine.) If seasonal booze is your thing, you can make like Ree Drummond and mix it into an apple cider margarita, or combine it with sugar to rim the glass of a pumpkin beer.