Yeah, that's right. I took a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, commonly known as a PSL, and turned it into an ice cream recipe using our KitchenAid! This coffee & pumpkin spice dessert is beyond yummy. A perfect blend of coffee ice cream mixed with pumpkin ice cream made this the perfect homemade fall dessert recipe.
In the very first round of recipe testing, we used a full-on PSL. Then I realized the water from the espresso shot made it too icy. Round Two, however, was a MUCH greater success and I have to share with you the crazy delicious wild idea I had, and how I made it become a reality.
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🛒 Ingredients
- Pumpkin Spice Syrup from Starbucks
- Veranda Instant Coffee from Starbucks
- Whole Milk
- Heavy Cream
- Sugar
- Vanilla
📖 Instructions
Prepping
Make sure your Ice Cream attachment is in the freezer! They generally need to be in the freezer overnight.
Ice Cream Base
Get started by adding everything to a saucepan on medium heat. This will help dissolve the sugar and also the instant coffee. This should take about 3-5 minutes. It doesn't even need to come to a simmer.
Once dissolved, let the mixture cool down in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight if you'd like.
Churning
Set up your ice cream maker (bowl frozen overnight), and turn it onto the lowest setting. Slowly add the ice cream down the side of the bowl.
Let the ice cream churn for about 15 minutes, or until it looks like it's about to overflow.
Eat immediately OR add to a parchment paper lined loaf pan, or glass bowl and move to the freezer wrapped tightly in plastic.
For more scoopable ice cream, leave it in the freezer for 6-12 hrs and enjoy!
👩🏼🍳 Chef Tip
#1 We leave our ice cream bowl in the freezer at all times. That way, when I want to make ice cream, it's not a 2-day planned project. It's 30 minutes from conception to completion.
🍨 Equipment
We love making homemade ice cream and use our ice cream maker all the time with the kids. I'm not exaggerating when I say we make ice cream once a month for movie night, for friends, or just because it's Friday night and we want something to do.
If you have a KitchenAid mixer, I would recommend purchasing the Ice Cream Maker attachment. I personally have this and it's absolutely amazing!
If you don't, I've heard good things about Cuisinart's standalone ice cream maker. They're a little less expensive, but that obviously comes at the cost of yet another appliance to find space for somewhere in the kitchen.
Whichever route you go, these typically consist of a bowl that goes in the freezer that freezes your ice cream mixture while it churns, so my recipe should work just fine for any of them.
KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment
Tabletop Ice Cream Maker
📋 Testing
This recipe is very similar to our Vanilla Ice Cream recipe, with the addition of Starbucks instant coffee and PSL syrup. Unfortunately, you can't make it with just a standard Pumpkin Spice Latte. The espresso shot they include adds too much water to the mixture and when you churn it, it will freeze into ice crystals. Not ideal.
During the second round of recipe testing, we did figure out that you can literally go buy 4 pumps of PSL syrup from Starbucks. It will cost you a whole .86 cents as of 2022. That, mixed with 2 packages of Starbucks Veranda instant coffee powder will give you the exact same flavors you are looking for, and no water is needed!
Churning Your Ice Cream
Whether you have a KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment like mine or your own tabletop version of something similar, most must be placed in the freezer for 12-24 hours before use.
The biggest tip I will give you is don't shortcut the time in the freezer, and if you need to heat your ice cream base (like this recipe) make sure it's completely cold before you add it.
We aren't new to ice cream around here. If you are looking for a good old plain vanilla recipe to stash away, Check out our Vanilla Ice Cream recipe. It's my favorite for adding super fun mix-ins into cookie dough bits or Oreos.
Soft Serve vs Hand Scooped
For those of you who are impatient, congratulations on making it this far! You don't have to wait any longer and you can dig in and enjoy right away. It will be a perfect soft serve consistency but also, melt quickly.
If you have it in you to wait for a bit longer, I recommend putting it in the freezer. We lined a loaf pan with parchment paper and wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap. The final product was stunning.
🥡 Storing Your Leftovers
Similarly to what I just mentioned above, if you are planning on making a batch and keeping it around for a while you'll need to wrap it up tight. If you have a bowl with a lid that seals really well, perfect. If not, no worries. Just wrap that thing up with multiple layers of plastic wrap. Air will be the enemy.
If you are truly a think-ahead planner, save the next few ice cream tubs you finish off and reuse them for this!
📖 Recipe
Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Coffee Ice Cream
Equipment
- KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachement
- Loaf Pan optional
- Parchment Paper optional
Ingredients
- 4 Pumps Pumpkin Spice from Starbucks
- 2 Packs Veranda Instant Coffee from Starbucks
- 2 Cups Whole Milk
- 2 Cups Heavy Cream
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
Instructions
Prepping
- Make sure your Ice Cream attachment is in the freezer! They generally need to be in the freezer overnight.
Ice Cream Base
- Get started by adding everything to a saucepan on medium heat, to dissolve the sugar and also the instant coffee about 3-5 minutes
- Once dissolved, let the mixture cool down in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight if you'd like.
Churning
- Set up your ice cream maker, and turn it onto the lowest setting.
- Slowly add the ice cream down the side of the bowl.
- Let the ice cream churn for about 15 minutes, or until it looks like it's about to overflow.
- Eat immediately OR add to a parchment paper lined pan and move to the freezer wrapped tightly in plastic.
- For scoopable ice cream, leave it in the freezer for 6-12 hrs.
Video
Nutrition
Handy Tools
Want to take your cooking game to the next level? Here's a list of some of the tools I use every time I make this recipe that help make this a breeze!