I am SO relieved Fall is here! I think I always carry fall in my heart to some degree, but now that it’s here officially I don’t have to hide it. 😉 The mornings are crisper, the air in the evenings carry a waft of wood from the few brave souls who have decided to put their fireplace to use before winter is even close, and coffee shops are carrying pumpkin and apple-spiced beverages.
Speaking of which, have you tried the new pumpkin cream cold brew from Starbucks? It’s amazing and my sister has openly blamed me for getting her hooked on it haha! So I promised her and a few others that I’d get to work on a recipe to save us all a little money. 🙂 Karina – this post is dedicated to you! 😀
Okay so look – all we really need is that topping, amiright? As for the cold brew, you can make your own by cold-steeping coffee to your desired strength in a mason jar, or even icing strong coffee OR buying a premade iced/cold brew. You can DEFINITELY even use hot coffee. The key here is the pumpkin cream.
I whipped up a quick single-serving batch of this cream with my little $7 frother and the measurements are below, but honestly the most important thing about this recipe is the ingredients. You can tweak according to taste, and you could even whip up a big batch in your mixer…and eat it with a spoon. Which is what started happening over here before I topped and stored the rest for later. If you mix it longer and faster it will turn into whipped cream which is perfect as a topping for EVERYTHING, but if you want to stick to the coffee topping, just wait until the cream is ripple-y and on its way to being stiff and STOP THERE – so you have a good enough consistency to sift out the grittiness of the pumpkin and get that smooth crema. You can leave the pumpkin fiber in if you prefer too, just a head’s up if you want this more like the coffee house version. 😉
Okay here we go! Let me know what you think!
The Pumpkin Crema (Single Serving):
Ingredients:
- 1/4 C heavy cream
- 1/2 TBSP plain canned pumpkin
- 1 TBSP pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- *tiny dash of sea salt
Method:
- Combine ingredients in mixing bowl and froth until ripples form and cream becomes fairly stiff (but before peaks form!). This doesn’t take long.
- Sift cream through strainer to get rid of pumpkin fibers.
- Spoon onto hot or iced coffee and sip without a straw for those first few tastes to create the best ratio of cream-to-coffee.
*tip: definitely recommend doubling, tripling, or quadrupling recipe for extra topping, and for swirling into your coffee!
**Also, if you like yours extra sweet or pumkin-y, tweak as desired. The ingredients are the key – I’ve done my best to create a balanced mix, but feel free to “eyeball” it and/or add more or less according to your taste. <3
Enjoy!
