Easy Homemade Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Sauce

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · pumpkin puree, condensed milk and warm spices in syrup

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Fall really is in full swing right now! How many of you are enjoying pumpkin spice lattes?

I gotta say over the past three days I’ve had 4! I’ve had 2 from Starbucks and two from home (you may want to see my Pumpkin Spice Latte if you want to make it too!). Not to mention that I’ve been having my fair share of pumpkin recipes to celebrate the month of October, as I’ve shared on my YouTube channel! I’ve not celebrated pumpkin much until now, and with this theme my eyes have truly opened!

If you need some kitchen inspiration, then check out my free guide Make Cooking Fun!, my 5 top tips to explore your potential in the kitchen! Working with what you have can certainly inspire you spark some creativity. If you make this simple Starbucks pumpkin sauce recipe, I guarantee this will channel your hidden barista, and you’ll want to try all of the Starbucks pumpkin drinks! That’s exactly what this is for! This pumpkin sauce recipe for coffee definitely makes a generous amount, so feel free to delve into using this in plenty of exciting ways! Check out further down in the post for some ideas!

If you’re a pumpkin lover then you definitely need this pumpkin pie sauce recipe in your life! To accompany your favorite pumpkin recipes, this sauce will go a long way! Make something with your pumpkin sauce as part of the heart on a plate theme in the Live to Cook challenge! You can get your free goodies by signing up for my newsletter, and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram so I can see and share your tasty pumpkin goodness!

To fully grasp the concepts of this pumpkin spice sauce recipe, I definitely recommend you check out the video! I’d appreciate if you subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already and hit the bell button to get notified when new videos are released! I love to make video recipes along with the written ones so you’ve got a visual representation of what’s happening! Let’s get cooking!

How to Use Pumpkin Sauce

Of course the staple way to use this sauce is in the Pumpkin Spice Latte! However, you can use it as a sweetener in any recipe that calls for some pumpkin goodness! Here are some ideas:

• Skillet Protein Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Protein Packed Edible Pumpkin Cookie Dough
• Protein S’mores Dessert Pizza
• Pumpkin Puree Stove-top Oats
• Healthy & Easy Protein Pumpkin Oatmeal
• Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes
• Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
• Pumpkin Banana Bread Pudding
• Add a hint of pumpkin to transform your Cafe Mocha, White Chocolate Mocha, or Tim Horton’s French Vanilla
• Hot chocolates like Decadent White Hot Chocolate or S’mores Hot Chocolate
• Yogurt
• Ice cream
• Tie with a bow to give as a gift!

Tools Needed

• Saucepan
• Whisk
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Wooden spoon

Starbucks Pumpkin Sauce Ingredients

Time to review what’s needed for this pumpkin pie sauce. We’ll only need a handful of ingredients that are pantry staples, so I’m sure you’ll be all good! Scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD to save the recipe for later and to see ingredient quantities. If you want to make more or less sauce, then all the individual ingredient quantities will automatically be adjusted for you in the recipe card!

• Pumpkin puree: Please make sure it’s pumpkin puree and NOT pumpkin pie filling! There is a big difference! In the ingredient list of pumpkin puree, you’ll see it contains one thing: 100% pure pumpkin. On the other hand, the pumpkin pie filling is sweetened and contains lots of other things that will ruin the sauce! If you really want to make this sauce entirely from scratch, you could even make your own pumpkin puree!
• Condensed milk: Not to be confused with evaporated milk. The condensed milk I’m using here is sweetened. If yours isn’t, you’ll need to add more sugar. You could also make your own sweetened condensed milk by following my recipe here, and it’s lactose-free if you’re sensitive to lactose!
• Table sugar: Just regular white sugar here is all you need.
• Water: We’ll add water to dissolve the sugar.
• Pumpkin spice: You can follow my Perfect DIY Pumpkin Spice recipe or you can use a store-bought one if you’d like. I recommend homemade, however!
• Vanilla extract: This will further enhance the amazing spices in the Pumpkin Spice and the pumpkin puree.

How to Make Starbucks Pumpkin Sauce

In a saucepan, add the water and sugar and turn on the heat. Whisk well and warm the mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Once dissolved, add the pumpkin puree, condensed milk, pumpkin spice and vanilla extract. Heat for 1-2 minutes and then turn off the heat.

Pour out the pumpkin syrup into a mason jar for storage in the refrigerator.

Tips for an Amazing Starbucks Pumpkin Sauce

• The syrup only needs to be warmed through until the sugar is dissolved and the condensed milk, vanilla, pumpkin and spices are mixed thoroughly.
• Use sweetened condensed milk to control the amount of type of sugar to add to your sauce.
• Use to sweeten tea, coffee or top on desserts for a sweet pumpkin flavored kick.

Other Dessert Topping Recipes!

• Simple Caramel Sauce
• Coffee Whiskey Caramel Sauce
• Quick Vanilla Syrup For Coffee
• Cafe Mocha Chocolate Syrup
• Vegan Nutella
• Cream Cheese Glaze for Pancakes
• How to Make the Best Whipped Cream at Home

What Goes Into Pumpkin Pie Spice: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cloves

This recipe asks for 2 to 3 teaspoons of pumpkin spice, and that single line is carrying more weight than it looks like it is. A homemade pumpkin spice blend is cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice, and the balance between those five is what separates a sauce that tastes like fall from one that tastes like cinnamon and sugar. Cinnamon leads, but the nutmeg is what gives it that warm, faintly sweet backbone, the ginger supplies the small bite at the end, and the cloves are the loud one that you want present but never in charge. If you would rather buy a jar, look for pumpkin pie spice, which is the same blend sold under a different name. Apple pie spice is the closest substitute on the shelf but it leans harder on cinnamon and usually skips the allspice, so it reads a little flatter here. Making your own pumpkin spice is genuinely worth the five minutes, and it is the version I recommend.

The other ingredient that rewards a bit of care is the pumpkin puree. Turn the can around and read the label before it goes into your cart: real pumpkin puree lists one ingredient, pumpkin, and nothing else. Pumpkin pie filling is a completely different product that arrives pre-sweetened and pre-spiced, and dropping a third of a cup of it into a pan that already has half a cup of sugar and 300 ml of sweetened condensed milk in it will give you something closer to syrup than sauce. If you cannot find plain pumpkin puree, butternut squash puree swaps in at the same ratio with a mild difference in flavor, and sweet potato puree also works though it comes in slightly sweeter.

Serving Quantity, Whole Milk, and Building the PSL

The recipe card lists 16 servings, and because everything in the pan is a measured liquid you can work out what that means in practice: half a cup of water, half a cup of sugar, a third of a cup of pumpkin puree and 300 ml of condensed milk come to roughly 615 ml of finished sauce, which divides out to a little over two tablespoons per serving. That is arithmetic on the yield rather than a number the recipe states, so treat it as a starting point and adjust to taste. There is no whole milk in the sauce itself; the creaminess is coming entirely from the sweetened condensed milk. Whole milk is what you reach for at the other end, when you are actually building the drink, and it steams into the thickest foam of the dairy options for exactly the reason you would expect.

For nutritional information, look at the recipe card at the bottom of this post rather than anything I could tell you here. Those figures are always an estimate, they shift with the brand of condensed milk you buy and with how generously you pour, and a homemade version of a coffee-shop sauce is worth making for the control it gives you rather than for any claim about the numbers.