21 Best Recipes To Use Pumpkin Spice

As soon as there's a chill in the air and jack-o'-lanterns on people's doorsteps, it's pumpkin spice season again. While pumpkin spice often gets a lot of flack for being too trendy or basic, it's just a blend of spices that have been used in food for hundreds of years, including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice. We're all for this spice blend, and we've rounded up some of the best recipes to use pumpkin spice so you can enjoy it too.

There are plenty of other great dishes you can use it in, from drinks and sauces to cookies and granola. So, if you've got a big jar of pumpkin spice waiting to be used, you'll find some tasty ideas right here. Sweet recipes are the main event, but there is a savory recipe where pumpkin spice plays a part, and not even in a novelty way.

If you wait patiently for pumpkin spice season every year, why restrict yourself to the classic pumpkin pie when there are so many options to experiment with? It just doesn't make sense. Instead, check out these 21 recipes that use pumpkin spice and get yourself into the spirit of autumn.

French toast is up there with the best breakfasts, but it can be a lot of work standing over a hot stove and cooking up multiple slices of it, especially when cooking for a crowd. This pumpkin spice baked French toast takes the hassle out of it, as you just pop it in the oven so you can step aside while it bakes. It combines challah or brioche with a pumpkin custard mixture and, of course, pumpkin spice. It also calls for extra cinnamon and nutmeg, but you can just go heavier on the pumpkin spice. If you're looking for easy but delicious breakfast ideas, this fits the bill.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Baked French Toast

A pumpkin spice latte is one of the hallmarks of fall. Once it starts showing up on menus, you know cozy season is on its way. This copycat Starbucks PSL recipe is perfect for anyone who loves the big chain's version but wants to save money or doesn't have a branch nearby. While pumpkin spice contains no pumpkin, Starbucks puts pumpkin puree in its pumpkin spice latte. This is combined with whole milk, pumpkin spice, sugar, vanilla, and coffee. This recipe calls for instant coffee but you could use a shot of home brewed espresso.

Recipe: Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

If you like to cook with pumpkin, you might be looking for new ways to use up the seeds so they don't go to waste. These roasted pumpkin seeds are sweet, rather than the usual savory options, which makes a nice change. To make them, you combine cleaned pumpkin seeds with maple syrup, coconut oil, pumpkin spice, and salt, then roast them for 45 minutes, until crisp. This is a delicious seasonal snack using an ingredient that would otherwise go to waste.

Recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin spice's original use was for pies — but not pies like this one. Rather than the usual pumpkin filling, this one combines peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and maple syrup with pumpkin spice in the filling. The spice goes surprisingly well with peanut butter, even though it's an unconventional combo. The pie crust is made from crushed pretzels, which accentuates the sweet and salty filling. If you're in the market for a new fall dessert, this is one you should put on your list.

Recipe: Sweet And Salty Peanut Butter Pumpkin Spice Pie

Granola is delicious, but it can get a bit boring after a while. If you've tried one, you've tried them all. But, this healthy pumpkin spice granola is different. Granola often contains cinnamon or other sweet spices, so a pumpkin spice blend is the perfect flavoring here. But, what takes it to the next level is that it uses pumpkin puree to bring an extra earthy sweetness to it. This makes it taste different from your average granola. The recipe calls for pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, and dried cranberries alongside oats, but you can use any nuts, seeds, and dried fruits that you like.

Recipe: Healthy Pumpkin Spice Granola

Caramel sauce, but make it fall. This recipe starts out much like a regular caramel sauce, calling for sugar, water, butter, and heavy cream. However, it also includes pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. Anyone who's looking for a sauce to level up their fall desserts should consider this. It would be perfect drizzled over ice cream or poured onto an apple crumble or cobbler. It comes together quickly, so you have no excuse not to try it.

Recipe: Simple Pumpkin Caramel Sauce

Chocolate pudding or vanilla pudding are your conventional flavors, but why go for the obvious options when you could try pumpkin pudding? This uses cornstarch for thickening, like many other puddings do, but the addition of pumpkin puree brings extra thickness and a creamy texture to the dish. A blend of coconut milk and almond milk makes this pudding naturally dairy-free and vegan. And, of course, there's pumpkin spice in it, bringing even more warming fall flavors into the mix. While it takes a couple of hours to set, it's quick and simple enough to be an easy weeknight dessert.

Recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Pudding

Hershey's Kiss cookies are a classic, with individual Kisses baked into each cookie, giving them a chocolaty centre. However, this version gives them a fall-inspired twist. The cookie dough includes both pumpkin puree and a blend of sweet spices. While it calls for individual spices, it's also fine to use an equivalent quantity of a premade pumpkin spice blend. This recipe makes two dozen cookies, but you can freeze them if you don't think you'll get through them quickly enough.

Recipe: Pumpkin Hershey Kiss Cookies

As you might expect, most of the recipes on our list are sweet ones, but this pumpkin spice ramen is the exception. The spices in this blend are often associated with sweet treats, but they're also used in savory cooking, particularly when tempered by spices like cumin and coriander. As well as pumpkin puree, this recipe calls for cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and anise, plus fresh ginger. That said, you could use a pumpkin spice blend in place of these spices. The broth also contains coconut milk, which adds creaminess and goes with these spices nicely.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Ramen

Donuts always seem like an ordeal to make, but these ones are baked, using a cake donut batter rather than a yeasted dough, so they're extremely straightforward. They use pumpkin puree in the batter, which helps keep them nicely moist and imparts a classic pumpkin flavor. There is pumpkin spice in the batter, and then they're coated in cinnamon sugar while still warm. However, if you want a double dose of pumpkin spice, you can use it in the sugar coating, too. It's the kind of fall treat that would be perfect at a Halloween party, but you don't need an excuse to make these pumpkin donuts.

Recipe: Baked Pumpkin Donuts

If you're looking for a twist on your usual biscotti recipe, this might be it. This pumpkin biscotti recipe uses pumpkin puree and a blend of sweet spices that you'd usually find in pumpkin pie. Although they're listed individually, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves are all part of the spice blend we're here to celebrate. So, if you have some pumpkin pie spice in your pantry, you can use that instead. Notably, this recipe uses almond flour and coconut flour instead of all purpose, making it gluten free. These flours also bring a nutty sweetness that we love. It also happens to be vegan, so it's a brilliant choice if you're catering for people with allergies or dietary preferences.

Recipe: Best Pumpkin Biscotti

Sangria always seems summery, but there's no reason why you have to stop enjoying it once the cooler weather comes around. You can just switch things up a bit and make a fall-inspired sangria. While classic sangria uses Spanish red wine, this one calls for mead or port, which feels more fall appropriate. It involves making a homemade pumpkin syrup, which contains pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. Alongside this and the alcohol, it calls for oranges and lemons, pomegranate, and sparkling apple juice. It sounds like a bit of a mishmash, but it all comes together to make a delicious drink.

Recipe: Fall-Inspired Pumpkin Pomegranate Sangria

These pumpkin filled dessert crescent rolls are proof that you don't have to go to too much effort to make delicious desserts. They use convenient ingredients like canned crescent roll dough and canned pumpkin puree to make it all come together quickly. Folded inside the crescent roll dough is a pumpkin-pie-like filling. This is made from pumpkin spice, pumpkin puree, eggs, and sugar. Before baking, the rolls are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and, after baking, drizzled with a maple glaze. This makes them extra decadent, despite the bulk of the ingredients coming from a can.

Recipe: Pumpkin Filled Dessert Crescent Rolls

Whoopie pies might not be as trendy as they once were, but there's always a place for these tasty treats. These ones are getting the pumpkin treatment, with pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice in the batter. Once baked, this gives you warming, flavorful cookies that are sandwiched together with a cream cheese frosting. If you want to get even more pumpkin spice flavor in them, an extra teaspoon of the pumpkin spice blend in the icing won't go amiss. The tanginess of the cream cheese frosting nicely balances with those sweet, spiced cookies.

Recipe: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

If the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is your go-to Dairy Queen order, this one's for you. A Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is soft serve mixed with pumpkin spice, pumpkin puree, and vanilla wafers. You probably don't have a soft serve machine at home (but if you do, more power to you), so the texture of soft serve is replicated by blending regular vanilla ice cream with milk. This is blended with the pumpkin puree and spice mix, then finally, all that is blitzed with vanilla wafers. It's served with more vanilla wafers crumbled on top, plus you could add a dusting of pumpkin spice.

Recipe: Copycat Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard

Nutty and beautifully spiced, this pumpkin and pecan vanilla fudge is one of those recipes that you'll end up coming back to again and again. It makes a great gift and seems way more complicated to whip up than it really is. The base of this fudge is made from white chocolate melted with condensed milk. Pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and vanilla are added to that, giving it big fall energy. Once it's poured into a pan, it's topped with chopped pecans and then left to set. Few sweet treats come together so easily.

Recipe: Pumpkin And Pecan Vanilla Fudge

Pumpkin isn't exactly a typical ice cream flavor, but it works so well that we're not sure why it's not in supermarket freezers and gelaterias everywhere. You might occasionally see it as a seasonal special, but it isn't the norm, which is why you should try making this homemade pumpkin ice cream. Of course, alongside the pumpkin is pumpkin spice — and making it yourself at home means you can easily adjust the levels, adding more if you're a true pumpkin spice fiend or using less if you want to keep it subtle. The beauty of this ice cream is that you don't even need an ice cream maker. Just mix together the ingredients as directed and you're done.

Recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Ice Cream

Pumpkin bread is one of the seasonal recipes that we look forward to all year, and the more spiced it is the better. This recipe calls for cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger separately. But, since those are the main components in pumpkin spice, go ahead and use a blend if you have one. You can really tailor this recipe to your liking, as there are a range of optional mix-ins to choose from. If you like it plain, that's just fine, but you can mix chopped nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, shredded coconut, or candied ginger into the batter to level it up.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

After all these rich and decadent pumpkin spice recipes, you might be craving something simple and full of nutrients, like a smoothie. Luckily for you, we have a pumpkin pie smoothie recipe that's a great way to use pumpkin spice if you're not in the mood for dessert. It's made using a handful of ingredients: pumpkin puree, a banana (freeze it for an icier smoothie), maple syrup, milk, and (of course) pumpkin spice. Blend them all together and you've got a smoothie to see you through pumpkin season and beyond.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Scones already feel warming and homely, and given a pumpkin makeover, they're perfect for cozy season. They're made the same way most scones are: by rubbing chunks of cold butter into flour to give a lighter, flakier texture to the finished bakes, before mixing in the wet ingredients to make a dough. Canned pureed pumpkin gives the scones a sweet-yet-earthy flavor and a gorgeous orange color, while sweet spices bring warmth. This recipe uses cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg separately, but you could just as easily use your favorite pumpkin spice blend. They're drizzled with a simple icing, but you could take inspiration from the British and eat them with preserves — apple butter would be a particularly good choice.

Recipe: Pumpkin Scones

There are plenty of ways to add pumpkin spice to your breakfast or brunch, but this is among the simplest. This easy pumpkin pancake recipe gives you fluffy and slightly crisp pancakes with the addition of pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. The pumpkin gives them a moister texture and a pumpkin sweetness. However, if you're all about the spice and don't necessarily want the pumpkin, you could take your usual go-to pancake recipe and add 1 or 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice, depending on how strong you like it. You could also try making a compound butter with sugar and pumpkin spice to serve with pancakes.

Recipe: Easy Pumpkin Pancakes