Pumpkin Spice Syrup

I love, love, love Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The price? Not so much. I used to buy the Pumpkin Spice creamer at the store which is an adequate substitute. However have you ever actually read the ingredients on a bottle of that stuff? Really, truly, absolutely it is not the greatest stuff to be drinking. Determined to still enjoy my pumpkin coffee at home, I decided to make my own syrup. I started playing around with different recipes that I found for the syrup online and found none of them exactly what I was after. Some were too sweet and some not flavored enough. Others didn't have a complex enough flavor profile to really hit the spot. Here is my current version of yummy pumpkin spice syrup.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup pumpkin puree { fresh is best }
1 cup water
2 generous teaspoons ground cinnamon { or one cinnamon stick }
1/4 scant teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 scant teaspoon ground cloves { or 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves }
1/8 scant teaspoon ground ginger

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan.
Bring up to just under a boil over medium heat stirring constantly.
Drop temperature to low and simmer for about 5 minutes while still stirring constantly.
While it is still hot, very carefully pour it through a strainer into a heat proof container.
Add to your coffee, tea, or cocoa. Or whatever you want to add it to.
This makes a little over 1 cup of syrup. 

The liquid will be very thick and viscous. I found that if you strain out all of the thickness and keep just the syrupy liquid there is very little flavor left. But if you don't strain it at least once then the syrup is just gritty and nasty. Straining it twice makes the syrup less thick if you want a thinner consistency but the pumpkin flavor is not a strong. I tried using cinnamon sticks and whole cloves but for some reason the syrup just didn't get as flavored as I wanted, but if you don't want it to be as spice infused you can use those. It will help keep it from being as thick. I’ve used more pumpkin but it doesn’t really add anymore pumpkin flavor in the end, it just makes it thicker. You can also double the batch if you want but I found that the fresher the syrup, the better the flavor. And the added bonus is how amazing the house smells while cooking it so I have no problem making a couple batches a week.