Pumpkin Spice, Maple and the Flavors of Fall
As we approach our favorite season (it’s yours, too, right?) pumpkin spice-flavored products have once again flooded coffee shops, grocery stores and sidewalk cafés. According to Nielsen sales reports, annual sales of pumpkin spice-flavored foods and drinks grew 15 percent over the last 12 months, racking up an astounding $488 million in sales.
Pumpkin Rules Fall!
Pumpkin is clearly fall’s most popular flavor—and maybe even the most successful seasonal flavor of all time. It all began 15 years ago when Starbucks first tested its Pumpkin Spice Latté with swirling notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. When the coffee chain adds this signature drink to the menu, you know fall is right around the corner! Here’s how they do it, courtesy of Copycat.com!
The most popular pumpkin-flavored products (again according to Nielsen, and in this order) include pie filling, dog food (from Southern Bytes — that’s one that surprised us!), liquid coffee creamer, packaged coffee, ready-to-eat cereal, sweet breads, ice cream, yogurt and bread mix.
Favorite Pumpkin Spice Recipes
The pumpkin bread from Starbucks® is perfectly spiced and soooo moist, we find it hard to beat. Seven or eight slices of this pumpkin bread would cost you $20 or more if you purchased enough to make a whole loaf. Stephanie at CopyKat.com can show you how to make this delicious bread for a fraction of that – with simple ingredients and the usual suspects: cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground clove and vanilla extract.
Here’s another copycat recipe from All Recipes. We plan to make them both and see which one we like best!
While lots of pumpkin bread recipes call for canned pumpkin, this one from Real Simple contains genuine pumpkin puree. You’ll cream the sugars with the puree, add vanilla, oil, and eggs before making a streusel and pumpkin seed topping. The recipe makes three loaves and you can crumble the bread and add fresh fruit with whipped cream for a sweet-tasting pumpkin trifle.
From coffee and crumb cake, to Pop Tarts® and pasta, Chapstick® and chewing gum, this spice flavors desserts and drinks and the rest of Real Simple’s favorite pumpkin spice recipes, include Pumpkin Spice Martinis, cheesecake, cake, muffins and rice pudding!
Maple Recipes Fighting for Your Vote!
Last year, Cooking Light predicted that pumpkin-spice flavored items may end up being outsold by maple. Though pumpkin spice is here to stay, you may feel compelled by all the hype to give “the other” fall flavor a try.
Limiting maple syrup to the breakfast hour is selling it way short. The best maple syrup recipes feature the sweet stuff drizzled over pork, whisked into salad dressings, and melted into delicious pies. Take the Orange Maple Balsamic Salmon, for example from My Recipes, or the Fried Lobster Tails with Sweet Corn Waffles. Talk about decadent! And there are plenty of sides and desserts in this collection of 70 My Recipes’ favorites.
Heather Bates’s six-year-old son concocted this Taste of Home recipe for Glazed Apple Maple Blondies. Maybe he should have his own kids’ cooking show on the Food Network? The maple’s in the glaze, via a generous helping of syrup, and the result is pretty delicious – especially for a first grader!
We’ll Drink to That!
Try the super simple hot Maple Latté for a warmer-upper from Fox and Briar, or the cold Maple Pecan Latté from Jar of Lemons, to get your caffeine on this season. And for an adult beverage — Cookie and Kate’s Cinnamon Maple Whiskey Sour sounds good enough to eat, but you might want to use a straw.
And if you’re passing by the local Sonic on Founders Parkway, why not sample the Toasted S’mores Shake and let us know what you think?
Feeling Like Fall in Crystal Valley
It’s feeling a lot like fall in Crystal Valley, just look at these neighbors on Valley Parkway getting ready for the season’s scariest holiday! With brand new homes in one of the most popular master-planned communities in Castle Rock, and interest rates still so low, there’s never been a better time to buy home set in natural surroundings. Floor plans and elevations vary from Richmond American Homes, Kauffman Homes, Century Communities and D.R. Horton. Choose from ranch or two-story models — priced from the $300s.
