Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
Learn how to make pumpkin pie spice in less than 5 minutes with just a few common spices. Perfect for fall cookies, breads, pies, and so much more!
Can I let you in on a big secret? You can make almost any spice blend you find at the grocery store yourself simply by using the individual spices you already have in your pantry.
Oh, and it’s usually cheaper to make your own spice blends, to boot.
For that reason, I prefer making my own pumpkin pie spice substitute rather than buying it at the store. I always have the individual spices on hand, and I like having the ability to scale the batch up or down depending on my needs.
The pumpkin pie spice recipe I’m sharing with you today requires just five basic common spices and takes all of a few minutes to whisk together.
Ingredients for This Recipe
When making any kind of spice blend, it’s important that all of the individual spices are still good. Give them a sniff, and if any have lost their scent or smell off, throw them out and buy a replacement.
Here’s an overview of what is in this recipe:
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Ground nutmeg
- Ground allspice
- Ground cloves
How to Make Pumpkin Pie Spice
To make this recipe, add the spices to a bowl and whisk until combined. You can use a spoon or small whisk to do this.
Once they’re well combined, you can store the homemade spice blend in an airtight container until you’re ready to use it.
How Much Pumpkin Pie Spice to Use
The amount you will want to use will vary depending on the recipe. If a recipe calls for just pumpkin pie spice, you can use this recipe as a 1:1 substitute.
If a pumpkin dessert or baked good calls for a blend of cinnamon and other spices, but you want to use pumpkin pie spice instead, you can total up the amount of spices and replace it with an equal amount of pumpkin pie spice.
For example, in my homemade pumpkin pie recipe I would recommend using about 2 and 1/2 teaspoons. For a recipe like my homemade pumpkin bread, I would use 1 and 1/2 to 2 teaspoons. It also depends on how much spice you prefer.
Storage Instructions
You may store the homemade pumpkin spice in an airtight container at room temperature. As long as the ground spices you used were still fresh, your homemade spice blend will last up to three years.
Recipe Tips
- Note that ground allspice is made from a certain type of dried berry. It’s not a blend of spices.
- You’re welcome to tweak the ingredient ratios after you’ve tried the homemade spice blend. I think the recipe is perfect as is, but you may prefer more or less cinnamon, nutmeg, and so forth.
- This homemade spice isn’t just for pie! You can add this blend to your morning cup of coffee, quick breads, bread puddings, and more.
- This recipe will make about 5 tablespoons. You can either cut the recipe in half to make less or double it if you plan to make quite a few pumpkin desserts this fall.
Recipes That Use Pumpkin Pie Spice!
Video Tutorial
Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk until well combined. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.
Thanks Danielle. Great idea and am going to try this. Pumpkin Pie Spice can be pricey so this is a nice inexpensive way to make with spices already in the cupboard.
Cindy
PS Congratulations on your new home!
Hope you enjoy it if you give it a try, Cindy! And thank you for the congratulations! I’m planning to put together a post about the new house soon 🙂
Love the idea and I appreciate it’s so economical. Thank you. Merry Christmas! Hallelujah.
Thanks I like to make my own !
I love making my own too! So much easier than running to the store when you run out 🙂
I go through pumpkin spice like NOBODY’S business this time of year and I love this homemade version, Danielle! Definitely gonna make a bulk batch of this!
Thanks, Sarah! I go through so much it’s almost embarrassing haha 😉
Yummy and Spicey! Just the way I like it.
It has to have the clove powder and the allspice l just don’t have that everything else l have thanks
Thank you so very much for posting this recipe. Pumpkin pie spice is not available in Australia. As an ex-pat American here one of the things I miss the most is Pumpkin Pie. We don’t get canned pumpkin either but I can use butternut squash to remedy that. Can’t wait to try it!
I’m so glad you found the post helpful, Kathy! I never realized pumpkin pie spice isn’t available other places until someone mentioned it to me the other day. I’d love to hear if you give it a try in one of your recipes 🙂
How much of this would you use if you were making a homemade pumpkin pie?
I would probably use about 2-2.5 teaspoons for a homemade pumpkin pie, depending on how much spice you prefer. I have a homemade pumpkin pie recipe on my site and I really love the blend of spices in it, here’s the recipe: http://www.livewellbakeoften.com/pumpkin-pie/.
Thank you !
Thank you so much for this recipe for Pumpkin Pie Spice. I started to buy it at the store the other day and saw the price which stopped me in my tracks! I have all the other spices and it won’t take but a second to whip up. You saved my day!
I’m glad you found my recipe and had everything to make it! I love to make my own at home, so much cheaper and easier 🙂
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE!!!! I add a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice & a little heavy whipping cream to my hot green tea every day. This recipe will save me a ton of money!!!
That sounds wonderful, Erica! I’ve been making my own for a while now, it’s just so much cheaper and you get a lot more.
I like to add cayenne or chili powder to my pumpkin pie spice to make spicy coffee or season meats and vegetables. Fantastic blend of flavors.
Outstanding idea!!!
Thank you
I can not believe that I don’t have ANY allspice. What would you suggest (other then going to the store to get some) to substitute?
This is perfect! Add 3/4 teaspoons to your double shot latte and it taste great!
I just recently tried a vegan pumpkin fudge recipe, and I made this pumpkin pie spice to put in it. Let me say, this pumpkin pie spice recipe, I think, is absolutely perfect. It is a perfect base, you don’t need to add anything to it, except for like the woman above said, where you might want to add a little chili powder or cayenne to make it a little spicy. This is the only way I’m going to make my pumpkin pie spice from now on. Thank you so much!
I’d like to add cardamom to your mix. How much would you suggest? Also, I love the idea of some cayenne. To the above recipe, would you suggest 1/4 teaspoon or more? I use a similar mix in my morning coffee and breakfast smoothie daily.
Great question! I would probably try about 1/2 teaspoon and then add more if you like. For the cayenne, I would probably stick with about 1/4 teaspoon for the mix.
Just made this spice for my buttermilk pumpkin pancakes and I love it. Thanks for the recipe.
As an American living overseas, I often find I can not make American recipes because I can not get something easily available on your grocery shelves. You don’t know how much I appreciate your including the spice recipe in your snickerdoodle recipe. Happy Halloween!
Thank you, Kathy! Hope you enjoy the snickerdoodles too!
Never bought the spice before so I’m so glad I stumbled across this first, i had everything in my spice cabinet to make this too! Thanks for posting!
I want to try this in some hot chocolate.
Thanks for rescuing me! Easy recipe and I’ll never buy pumpkin spice again!
Thanks Kathy,
I am making molasses cookies and just went to grab the pumpkin pie spice and I don’t have any. I Googled and your recipe came up almost first. I am making it right now.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I love making everything from scratch and this is so perfect! can’t wait to use it in all kinds of recipes. And I’m also making a batch to share with my daughter. Bless you.
This was good, thanks ?
Absolutely perfect. Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe- it is perfect! I made it only a few days ago and have already used it multiple times to flavor coffee, oatmeal, whipped cream, French toast…the list goes on and on! I can’t wait to try your other recipes!
Thank you for this recipe. I can’t use store bought pumpkin pie spice because I’m allergic to nutmeg. I substituted an extra 1/4 tsp f the ginger, allspice and cloves for the nutmeg. Cant wait to try it! Thank you!
THANK YOU!! You totally saved me a trip to the store & you saved me from buying pumpkin pie spice because I did have all of these ingred’s! You are a savior! ?
Now, I’m off to make your recipe of pumpkin snickerdoodles! Thx again & have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
~ Jen
I’m curious about the addition of allspice because, at least in France, all spice is none other than a blend of the other four spices in your recipe: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.!
Allspice is made from a certain type of dried berry. The flavor is cinnamon to the other spices you mentioned though so I imagine you can make an allspice substitute with them 🙂
Thank you soo much! I used this in a pumpkin pie smoothie recipe and it is delicious!!
Thank you for this recipe! This spice blend will be used quite a lot in my home cooking from now on as I actually always have and use the spices in it quite often in my cooking.
As a non American, I have often wondered what is it with pumpkin in America that is so famous all about, because we also have lots of pumpkin here in Australia. Well, it must be the pumpkin pie spice? the magic ingredient! We dont have it here so Im glad I now found it and I cant wait to try it on my first pumpkin pie?
Allspice is a combo of spices already called for here, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg…so why do all pumpkin spice recipes call for those 3 ingredients PLUS the allspice they make up? I cant find an allspice recipe that adds anything other than those 3 items. thanks!
Allspice is made from a specific type of dried berry, not a blend of spices. You can make an allspice substitute using the spices you mentioned to get a similar taste to allspice, but it is not the same as the actual spice.
You don’t have to limit yourself to just pumpkin. These spices go great with pureed sweet potatoes, carrots (baby food works great), and squash.
I have used all of them and they are delicious.
These are soooo yummy! I have a size #20 cookie scoop (about 3 Tbs) what would you recommend my bake time be ? 13 minutes??
Hi, Emily! Are you referring to another cookie recipe from my site?
Yummy spice!
OMg so good!!! I will be making this year around!!!