Pumpkin Spice Lattes, in the Slow Cooker

Last night was my turn to host my stamp club (rubber stamping: card-making, scrapbooking...). 

I was thrilled to get November as my month, because as soon as I heard the date just one thing popped into my head:  Pumpkin Spice Lattes in the crock pot. 

You know my crocks...they love a good party.

I had never made this recipe before, but I've been eyeballing it for years, just waiting for the appropriate time.  Thanksgiving seems like a good time, but in all actuality, I'm usually too busy to worry about fun drinks on Thanksgiving.  Roasting the turkey, and making the carrots, potatoes, salad, bread, cranberry sauce, along with all the other details of hosting are pretty much a "full-plate" for me, (if you'll pardon the pun).  So I always do ice water with lemon, store-bought sparkling cider, and coffee on Thanksgiving.  Besides, who needs all the extra milk and pumpkin on a day that is already pretty darn calorie-loaded? 

But a little party like my stamp club night...perfect.  It's just enough of a fun and fancy treat.  Along with the pumpkin lattes I served a veggie tray, beef stick and cheese, artichoke spinach dip (store bought at Costco, and kept warm in my 2 qt crock) GF crackers, apples, and some chocolate covered super-fruits: blueberries, cranberries and cherries.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe I used comes from Stephanie O'Dea.  It's on her website HERE and also in her first book Make it Fast, Cook it Slow.  *(11/7/13 UPDATE: On Stephanie's blog she notes the importance of using 2% or lower % milk to avoid curdling (new info to me!) and this is key...don't let the milk boil.  Keep an eye on your crock if it tends to get hot enough to boil.  I also noticed that this drink re-heats WAY better the next day in a pan on the stovetop (while stirring), and not in the microwave--it tends to burn and create a really nasty "skin" on the surface if re-heated in the microwave.  I made a WAY bigger batch than Stephanie's recipe, and changed ingredients to eliminate the refined sugar.  I also reduced the spices and vanilla pretty significantly.  Stephanie's called for 2 T (!) of vanilla, for a recipe that only serves only two people!  Seemed like way too much vanilla and spice to me...  So here's my version, made for a crowd. 

Pumpkin Spice Latte

This recipe uses a lot of milk, so if you are serving about a 1 cup amount it would probably serve 16 people.  I served about 8 people, and it looked like the crock was still full!  I have tons leftover in the fridge...in fact I'm sipping a cup right this very minute!  Along with a piece of gluten free toast, covered with butter and honey...sigh.  Life is sweet.

10 cups milk of your choice (I used organic dairy milk, but I bet almond milk would be lovely too...)
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just plain pumpkin)
3/4 c. pure maple syrup
1 T. vanilla
4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
6 cups strong coffee (I just brewed 6 cups in my keurig--you might want decaf if you party is late in the evening...some people can not have caffeine that late in the day...)
2 sticks of cinnamon.

(*SEE 11/7/13 UPDATE IN BOLD ABOVE...)  Combine pumpkin, maple syrup, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and about 2 cups of milk in a blender. Blend until smooth.  Add the pumpkin mixture, coffee, and the rest of the milk into a 6 qt crock pot.  Float two cinnamon sticks on top.

Cook on high for 2 hrs, then turn down to "warm". 

Remove cinnamon sticks.   Stir before serving, maybe even (carefully!) put an immersion blender  in there for a few seconds (making sure you got the cinnamon sticks out first, of course!).  The pumpkin tends to settle on the bottom and the spices float to the top, so you want to get it all mixed up again. 

Caution when serving; this will be very hot!  Mine was about 160-170 degrees coming out of the crock pot, so I let it sit a minute in the cups til it came down around 130 degrees before serving it, which is the "sweet spot" as far as coffee temp goes...in my humble opinion. 

This latte is slightly sweet, spicy and very "real" tasting, unlike a lot of coffee-shop pumpkin lattes that are flavored with pumpkin "flavoring" instead of real pumpkin.  Using the maple syrup, and eliminating the refined sugar makes for a really "clean" finish--none of that nasty sugar aftertaste.  This beats any coffee-shop latte hands down, any day of the week, and twice on Sundays!

Pumpkin it up dudes.

 Two Christmas cards I made last night...