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Cooking With Anadi
12K subscribers · cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger for winter drinks
It’s the holidays and we know what that means… lots of sweet treats!
I’ve honestly not heard of this spice until last week. When I did see it, I knew I just had to have it! I always love making my own spice blends - they’re just so easy, customizable and fresh!
Now that I’ve made this spice blend, I got inspired to use it in so many ways! You’ll see at the bottom of this post for some ideas! I give more details in my free guide, Make Cooking Fun!, my top 5 tips to explore your potential in the kitchen, how using what you have can really spark some creativity! Just taking two minutes to make this easy and warm spice blend will certainly get you wanting to try out new things! Try to find a dish that would fall into one of the four themes in my free Live to Cook one month challenge! If an apple pie is special to you, then this homemade spice blend will really give your apple pie an extra kick, and you’ll want to put your heart on that plate! You can get these guides by signing up to my newsletter, and that way you’ll never miss out when I share a new recipe!
To see how simple it is to make a comforting spice blend, be sure to watch the video! If you’re not already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell button so you’re notified whenever a new video recipe goes up! I love to share the videos with the written recipes so you’ve got all the tools you need for success! Let’s get blending!
Why Make This Apple Pie Spice
- Easy: You just measure out the ingredients in a bowl and mix!
- 4 ingredients: Yup, four spices is all we’ll need! You should be able to gather this all in a pinch!
- Money-saver: I’ve never actually seen this packaged at the store, but I don’t doubt it exists. However, I’m sure they charge way too much!
- Fresh: You’ll know how fresh this spice is based on when you purchased the individual spices involved to make the blend!
- Customizable: Take the ratios presented here as a guideline, but feel free to make some adjustments based on your preference!
What’s the Difference Between Apple Spice & Pumpkin Pie Spice?▼
This spice is used in apple pies and pumpkin pie spice is used in pumpkin pies!
Heh just kidding! While this is true that’s not the REAL difference;)
I find the difference between pumpkin pie spice and the apple spice is quite subtle - but there is a difference! Both spices are warm spices but the latter is more fragrant than pumpkin spice - pumpkin spice is warmer and more intense. If you refer to my DIY Pumpkin Spice recipe, you know that it contains allspice and clove whereas the apple spice does not contain these. On the other hand, apple spice has cardamom. Some versions of the spice exclude cardamom, but I don’t see why you would do that! I love to include cardamom in my Indiandesserts such as Rice Kheer (rice pudding) or Sooji Halwa (semolina pudding). It really adds so much flavor, so I hope you won’t skip this ingredient either!
Tools Needed
Ingredients
The FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD is at the bottom of this post for all ingredient quantities and to save the instructions for later. The recipe card will also let you scale the recipe if you want to make a big batch of this spice blend!
- Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon. You can use cinnamon sticks if you want your spice blend to be super fresh, and either use a coffee grinder or blender to grind it or use a mortar and pestle.
- Ginger: Ground ginger here.
- Nutmeg: Ground. You can use a microplane to grate whole nutmeg, as I like to do. I find it fresher than packaged ground nutmeg.
- Cardamom: If you don’t have ground green cardamom, you can grind it down whole green cardamom pods using a mortar and pestle.
How to Make Simple Apple Pie Spice
To make this recipe, all you need to do is mix all the spices together in a bowl or shake the ingredients together in an airtight jar.
Tips for the Most Flavorful Apple Spice!
- Use fresh spices: Ensure that your packaged ground spices aren’t too old. The fresher they are, the more potent they’ll make your spice.
- Grind your own spices: It adds a few more steps, but it’s even cheaper and will be so much more fragrant!
- Make a large batch: If this spice really inspires you to get baking, brewing, and more, then you’ll want to have a lot of it on hand! You can triple or even quadruple the recipe and store in a larger jar if you know that this will be the new pumpkin pie spice!
How Can I Use Homemade This Spice?▼
- Baked goods: Try it in brownies, pizookies, cookies and edible cookie dough, bread pudding, or cupcakes!
- Oatmeal: This would be such a nice garnish for overnight oats or stovetop oats! Feel free to add this in any hot cereal.
- Hot drinks: Garnish hot chocolates with it, such as my S’mores Hot Chocolate or Decadent White Hot Chocolate or switch up your Starbucks Cafe Mocha! In fact, you should certainly use this if you try to recreate Starbucks’ Apple Crisp Macchiato (it surprised me how good it is!)
- Cold drinks: My first time using this was to garnish my Eggnog Dalgona Latte!
- Pancakes: This would be so good with my Eggnog Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas! Feel free to also pair with crepes!
- Fruit: Top it over caramelized fruits such as bananas, apples or pears! This is a perfect winter treat!
Giving This as a Gift
Christmas is right around the corner, and if you’ve got a special baker in your life, then perhaps consider gifting your spice! I recommend you use a label maker to label the jar, and tie it with a nice ribbon! DIY gifts are always the most special, wouldn’t you agree!
How to Store▼
More Homemade Spice Blends!
- Panch Phoran - Indian 5 Spice
- Curry Powder
- Easy & Bold Blackening Spice
- Greatest Homemade Italian Seasoning
- Excellent Quick & Easy Homemade Taco Seasoning
- Perfect DIY Pumpkin Spice Recipe
- Amazing Homemade Cajun Seasoning
How to Use Apple Pie Spice
I said at the top that this blend inspired me, so here is where it actually goes. The obvious home is apple desserts: a teaspoon or two stirred through the filling of apple pies, apple crumbles and baked apples. The same works for pears, which take these warm spices just as happily. Beyond that it earns its keep at breakfast. A pinch in pancake batter gives you apple pancakes, it whisks into the egg mixture for french toast, it can be stirred through overnight oats the night before, or shaken over your morning oatmeal. A spoonful dropped into a pot of apple cider on the stove is the fastest way to make a house smell like autumn. It is not only for sweet things either: it belongs in savory dishes where you want warmth rather than heat, and roasted sweet potatoes tossed with a little oil and a generous pinch of this are quietly the secret ingredient at a winter table. These are the winter recipes the blend was made for.
Apple Pie Spice vs Pumpkin Pie Spice, and What to Substitute
The two blends are cousins and people swap them more often than not, but they are not identical. Most pumpkin pie spice leans on allspice and ground cloves for a deeper, almost medicinal warmth. This apple spice blend deliberately uses neither. It is cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ginger and green cardamom, and the cardamom is what makes it floral and bright rather than heavy, which is exactly what you want alongside apples. If you are missing something, ground mace or ground allspice will substitute for the nutmeg, and mixed spice can stand in for the cardamom, though you will lose some of that lift. And if a recipe calls for pumpkin spice and this homemade apple pie spice mix is what is in the cupboard, use it one for one. Nobody will complain.
Storing Your Homemade Apple Pie Spice
Ground spices lose their punch to air, light and heat, so the jar matters more than people think. Combine the four spices in a small bowl with a whisk, or simply shake them together in the jar, then keep the mixture in an airtight container somewhere dark: the back of the spice cabinet or a pantry shelf, not the shelf above the stove. Empty spice jars are perfect for this if you have any. Stored that way the blend holds its flavor for around six months, though it has never lasted that long in my kitchen. If it starts to form clumps, that is moisture getting in; break them up with a fork, check the lid is sealing, and never shake the spice straight over a steaming pot, which is usually how the moisture got there. As for the amount of spice a recipe wants, this is a potent blend, so start in teaspoons rather than tablespoons and taste as you go. You will not always find apple pie spice in grocery stores anyway, which is the best argument for keeping a jar of your own.
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!
Recipe by Anadi Misra
Make your own apple pie spice blend in minutes with simple pantry staples. This easy homemade recipe brings warm, cozy flavor to desserts all winter long.
No-cook
Rate this recipe ✦
2 min
Prep
2 min
Total
16
servings
makes ⅓ cup
easy
Level
Ingredients
Ingredients
Tap any quantity to scale
Instructions
- 1
To make this apple pie spice recipe, all you need to do is mix all the spices together in a plate or shake the ingredients together in an airtight jar.
To make this apple pie spice recipe, all you need to do is mix all the spices together in a plate or shake the ingredients together in an airtight jar.
Nutrition per serving
0
Calories
0g
Protein
0g
Carbs
0g
Fat
0g
Fiber
0g
Sugar
0mg
Sodium
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Tested & written in Anadi’s kitchen
Recipe history
- April 16, 2026 — Reworked and refreshed for the 2026 relaunch — new photography, restructured and standardized ingredients & instructions.
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