Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend

[Farmfresh]

This subject came up on a journal thread and I thought it should also be posted where we can more easily access it as well. Every year we make pies and cookies at this time of the year and many of them call for a spice blend called Pumpkin Pie Spice, but what is that really? All it is is a blend of several kitchen spices that can be easily made yourself. I much prefer doing this because then I can adjust the spice to suit my families personal tastes. Here is a typical blend recipe.

Typical Pumpkin Pie Spice

* 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
* 1½ teaspoons ground allspice
* 1½ teaspoons ground cloves.
(some recipes also call for 1 teaspoon of mace which is a spice used very seldom in the US)

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Simply mix the spices together in a small bowl and take a little whiff. Yum. This can be jarred up for use in your recipes. It can also be modified to suit your family's taste. I find that we like a lot of cinnamon, about half of the ginger, light on the allspice, no cloves, and only a tiny speck (if any of the nutmeg). It makes a much lighter tasting blend that way.