Sure, you can buy an expensive blend at your grocery or specialty foods store, but you can almost as easily create your own pumpkin pie spice mix at home. This page will show you what you need to know about choosing the right spices, preparing them, and mixing them. Just read the steps below to learn how to make pumpkin pie spice that you can use for pies and a variety of other dishes.

• One advantage to preparing your own blend of spices instead of purchasing them pre-mixed is that you get to control the proportions of the ingredients. Not a big nutmeg fan? Lower the amount in the recipe, or omit it altogether. Love cinnamon? Add an extra dose. You can choose the amounts, and create a mix that you truly love. For optimal flavor, purchase your spices whole and then grind them up at home.

Some of your spices, such as cinnamon and cloves, may be purchased in their whole form and then freshly ground at home. There are several methods that may be used to grind spices:

1. Spice grinder
2. Mortar and pestle
3. Small coffee grinder
4. Black pepper grinder (like the kind used on some dining tables)

Here is the basic recipe for your pumpkin pie spice mix:

• 4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon groung nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 1/2 tablespoon ground allspice

• You may alter the amounts to suit your taste

You may use this spice mix in:

1. Pumpkin pie
2. Pumpkin bread
3. Sweet potato pie
4. Candied sweet potatoes
5. Oatmeal cookies
6. Pumpkin cookies
7. Persimmon Cookies