Pumpkin & Homemade Creamer!

I know jealousy isn't a good thing.  Ha!  But I'll say it,  I have been jealous of my American friends who have pumpkins, canned or the real thing!!  I had not seen hide nor hair of a pumpkin......until yesterday!!  I had to examine.  Go back and examine some more.  Then have Jerry punch a Spanish word into his trusty IPhone to see if it was really pumpkin.  And it was!!  It isn't the cute little sugar pumpkins and they had hacked them up a bit, but it was pumpkin!!  They were small so I took two.  Of course, Jerry said "You're getting 2?!"  Why yes, of course!  Who knows if or when I'll see this stuff again.  And even if it doesn't taste the same, we're not out that much money!!


I got home and as soon as I had a chance I popped them in the oven!!  Actually, I took the wrap off and dug my finger in it a bit to get a little taste.  Sure enough!  It was sweet and tasted like pumpkin!!  I tried to google it to find out what kind it was, but had no luck.  Oh well!  It works for me!!

Here is my pumpkin puree process!!

 Cut it up!  Scoop at the seeds and stringy stuff.

Place insides facing down on a foiled and greased pan.  Cover with another piece of foil and bake at 350 until it is tender when pierced with a fork.

Place in a food processor until smooth and there you have pumpkin puree!

I was ecstatic when a friend share that she had found a blog with several different coffee creamer recipes.  From cinnamon strudel to chocolate almond to Peppermint Mocha, which I need to try for Jerry as that's his preferred holiday drink.  I was like a little kid on Christmas morning!!  Finally I could have flavored coffee creamer again!  One of those things on my "I Miss About America" list!!  And it's easy too!!
Here is the blog where I found the recipes.  I've searched around a bit for other recipe ideas, but most I have found use sweetened condensed milk.  I'm not a big fan of the flavor of sweetened condensed milk, but I might try it sometime to see if the other ingredients would tone the flavor down a bit.

Here are the 2 creamer recipes I tried.

Cinnamon Strudel Creamer

1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons maple syrup (Any form of syrup is hard to come by here....or expensive, so I used a homemade version using Mapelene flavoring)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Whisk together milk, cream, maple syrup and cinnamon in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the mixture begins to steam, remove from the heat. Stir in extracts. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator.

AND

Pumpkin Spice

1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
4 tablespoons maple syrup (used my faux syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together milk, cream, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When mixture begins to steam, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator.
The creamers will last up to 10 days in the fridge.

They were both yummy!!  I noticed that the flavor got better after a day or two.  Also, I was talking on the phone while making the pumpkin spice and it started boiling.  Oops!  It just made it thicker, but the flavor is still good.  Also, I don't have a fine mesh sieve (I am now on the hunt for one) and tried cheese cloth, but it really didn't work that well.  My creamer was running down the outsides of the jar!  Don't want to waste the good stuff!

 I didn't strain the pumpkin, but I think it needed it if you like a smooth coffee texture.

And voila!  There you have homemade flavored coffee creamer!!  Give it a try!  And enjoy!