How to Make a Pumpkin Latte

(A recipe for lazy people.)

Have you noticed every blog has posted a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte copycat recipe lately? This one is different. I promise! It's so good that I've been making a regular one with my breakfast each day and another decaf pumpkin latte every evening. At work, I shared the recipe with two patients last week!

When those pumpkin latte recipes started popping up, I couldn't wait to try them. They all had the same problem though - too much time and effort. Ummm, I want a pumpkin spice latte recipe that I can actually pull off before work in the morning, when my brain is still mostly asleep. Have you seen what some of these other recipe creators expect you to do? Boil down 3 cups of sugar until you have a simple (yeah right) syrup, shave fresh cinnamon from the stick you got from the farmer's market this morning, and have a unicorn spit into the mixture.

Who has time for all that?

Easy Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe (for LAZY people!)
   Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup milk (I use 2%)
• 3 tablespoons canned pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I use homemade vanilla, which I highly recommend for all your vanilla needs. It's so good! It's also about 99% vodka.)
• 1 tablespoon caramel syrup (I use Torani. If you don't have this, white and/or brown sugar works too.) 
• 3 cups strong coffee
• pumpkin pie spice

Directions

Blend everything except the coffee and pumpkin pie spice in the blender. If you have a Vitamix, Blendtec, or other high power blender, you can just let the mixture whirl away until it heats itself (about 2 minutes in my Vitamix). If not, you can pop it into the microwave briefly, or just leave it as is. You don't add very much milk, so it won't cool your piping hot coffee more than a couple of degrees. Divide the pumpkin mixture between 2 large mugs (4 if you're using little cute ones like these.) Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. Add coffee to each mug.

Yum!

If you're feeling especially fancy, you can top this with whipped cream or sweetened, frothed milk. Ooh, and chocolate shavings! No unicorn spit though.

And don't make the same mistake I did. For my first batch, I thought I'd skimp on the sugar/caramel syrup to save calories. Pumpkin Spice Lattes need to be sweet! It's like the difference between making a scrumptious pumpkin pie and a big ol' healthy pile of steamed pumpkin.

This has been a NaNoWriMo repost...I really should be working on my novel instead of writing this.

Yes, it's the same novel from before. Why-ever do you ask?