I was looking around on one of my favorite websites the other day, Tastespotting, and came across this recipe from Recipe Girl for a copy cat Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Since I am trapped in this zoo of a place I live all the time and I never get out to see the outside world and experience such places like Starbucks, I thought this recipe must be the best thing since sliced bread. Did you know that they actually did not start slicing bread until 1928? A man named Otto Fredrick Rohwedder made the machine that could do it. It would have been done in 1912, but the prototype was destroyed in a fire. I know this because my ADD brain just took me on a little history lesson.

Ok, back the real reason I am writing this. I hear all my friends, who have a life and get to get out of their house and go to fancy places like Starbucks, talking about these pumpkin latte’s and how great they are. Blah, blah, blah, is all I really hear. While I sit here in my pajamas while the dogs are barking, the kids are running wild and my husband has left me in this madness once again to go to that place he calls “work,” thinking about what it must be like to get dressed up and go into the big city with my girlfriends and order fancy tall coffee’s at Starbucks and have 2 hours of uninterrupted conversation. It must be like a little piece of heaven…

Ok, really, this time I am getting right to the recipe. This is straight from the Recipe Girl blog, I didn’t change a thing. If you want step by step pictures, you can use the link above to view hers.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Do It Yourself version of Starbuck’s delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte…

• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened canned pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot brewed, strong coffee
• 2 tablespoons half & half cream
• 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar, or more to taste
• whipped cream, optional
• ground nutmeg

In a glass measuring cup or microwave-safe bowl, whisk together milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, spice and vanilla. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes- watch closely and remove it from the microwave when the milk is hot and frothy.

Pour the pumpkin milk into a tall mug or glass. Add hot coffee. Pour in the cream. Add a teaspoon of sugar. Stir, and taste. Add more sugar, if desired.

Optional, but oh so good… add whipped cream on top and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Serve immediately!

*Feel free to lighten up the recipe by using nonfat milk and fat-free half & half. It won’t be as rich, but it will still give you that yummy pumpkin latte flavor.

*If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice in your collection of spices, make your own! Mix equal parts of cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg- and measure from there.