Homemade Pumpkin Spice Blend

A homemade pumpkin pie spice for everything from pie, coffee & beyond. Familiar enough to taste like fall. Interesting enough to make you wonder what’s in it.

I don’t need to convince you that pumpkin spice belongs in fall baking. You already know. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves… that familiar warm, sweet, slightly peppery perfume that somehow makes everything taste like October.

Even though it’s an American staple, it has successfully found its way to German supermarket shelves in recent years. Which is nice! But I usually want a pumpkin spice blend that tastes a little more like my kitchen.

Still familiar, still unmistakably pumpkin spice, but just a little more fragrant, balanced, and with enough cardamom to make you wonder why they don’t put in more of it in the first place.

What’s Pumpkin Spice Anyway?

I call this pumpkin spice because I use it for considerably more than pie, but pumpkin pie spice is the more traditional name, and the one you’ll often see on commercial spice jars. Whatever you call it, we’re talking about the same basic family of cinnamon, ginger, and warm aromatic spices.

Even though the name is pretty straightforward, there’s a little history hiding in that jar.

Pumpkins are indigenous to North America, so the idea of seasoning pumpkin with a particular blend of warm spices is distinctly American. The spices themselves, of course, are much older and came from all over the world. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and mace all have histories that long predate pumpkin spice. But pumpkin and those warm baking spices? That’s a very American combination.

And people were doing it surprisingly early. One of the earliest published examples can be found in Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery, published in 1796, the first known cookbook written by an American and published in the United States. It contains two “pompkin” recipes: one seasoned with mace, nutmeg, and ginger, and another with allspice and ginger. So while nobody was measuring a standardized pumpkin spice blend from a jar yet, the basic idea was already there.

The modern commercial blend is considerably younger. By 1930, Thompson & Taylor was advertising a “Mixed Pumpkin Pie Spice,” and McCormick dates its own pumpkin pie spice to 1934. So the blend we know today is a fairly modern convenience built on a much older American baking tradition.

Which, to me, makes the whole pumpkin-spice-everything phenomenon considerably more charming.

What Actually Belongs in Pumpkin Pie Spice?

Most classic pumpkin pie spice blends revolve around cinnamon and ginger, with nutmeg, allspice, or cloves playing supporting roles.

And then there’s mace and cardamom, which are less commonly found in pumpkin spice blends but absolutely belong, in my opinion. They’re the spices that take this from familiar to a little more interesting.

So treat cinnamon and ginger as the base. Where you take it from there is up to you. My favorite blend balances all of these spices.

Why Make Your Own?

Store-bought pumpkin spice is designed to be broadly recognizable. But when you make your own, you can make it:

• more ginger-forward
• more cinnamon-heavy
• mace-forward
• clove-heavy
• or cardamom-floral

It’s up to you! My formula is simply a suggestion. I hope you’ll use it to find your favorite blend.

Plus: It’s usually cheaper to make your own, which, in this day and age, definitely deserves to be mentioned.

My Favorite Pumpkin Spice Blend

spice notes:

How to Make Pumpkin Pie Spice

Step 01

Mix Spices Well

Combine all the spices in a small, deep bowl. Use a small wire whisk to thoroughly mix the spices until well combined.

Step 02

Store Airtight

Transfer the spice mix to a clean spice jar. Seal well and label. Store in a cool, dry, and dark spot.
That’s all!

What to Do with Pumpkin Spice

You can use this beautifully warm spice mix in any recipe that calls for pumpkin spice or pumpkin pie spice, like:

You don’t have to wait for pumpkin season though! Give other fall favorites a cozy pumpkin-spice twist:

How to Store Pumpkin Pie Spice

Store your pumpkin spice blend in a small airtight jar in a cool, dark cupboard, away from heat, sunlight and steam.

Ground spices don’t usually spoil, but they lose their aroma if left sitting in the jar for a very long time. I prefer making relatively small batches and refreshing it as needed rather than keeping one jar around for years.
Pro Tip: Label the jar with the date you mixed it.

If you find that your pumpkin spice has lost some of its “oomph” you can still use it. Just add a little more of it than called for.

If you made a batch of homemade pumpkin pie spice…