Make autumn and winter smell like pumpkin spice!

If October were a vegetable, it would definitely be a pumpkin. This beautiful vegetable is at the peak of its season right now. Fields and markets have turned into expanses of the warmest shades - from light yellow to dark orange, so just looking at them gives a feeling of warmth and special comfort.

We pick them or buy them and bring them home to decorate our homes and create an autumn atmosphere in them. From them, we prepare the most fragrant thick soups, cakes full of aromas or eat them baked, with lots of spices like cinnamon, ginger, smoked paprika, thyme...

Kids love them for completely different reasons – hollow pumpkins with a lit candle inside are the ultimate symbol of Halloween, which, miraculously, is celebrated in October, or rather, on its last day, October 31. the evening before the feast of All Saints.

But the pumpkin season does not end in October. We can enjoy their wonderful taste, texture and colors all winter long, and they will go especially well with Christmas desserts. If we add to them the intoxicating and fragrant pumpkin spice - a ready-made mixture of spices that contains cinnamon, ginger, coriander, nutmeg and cloves, in addition to the fantastic taste, we will smell the whole house with warmth, calmness and a feeling of home.

But who says that we have to add pumpkin spice only to desserts that have pumpkin among the ingredients? On the contrary, this excellent mixture will also work perfectly as a spice for gingerbread, chocolate pudding, vanilla, and cinnamon rolls, and if you add it to the dough for butter cookies, you will get a completely new, warm and spicy creation that you can't wait to repeat.

The long history of pumpkin spice

Although many will think that this spice blend is also a part of the American Halloween trend that we have also accepted without hesitation, this is not true. Namely, pumpkin spice has its roots in the distant past. The first documented use of this blend was discovered in ancient Greece, somewhere around 1,000 years before Christ.

It was used for cakes, soups and drinks. They added it to a drink they called pumpkin soup, and they prepared it from boiled pumpkin, which they turned into a puree, adding milk or water, honey and spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. They also used it in savory dishes, such as baked pasta with pumpkin sauce.

Pumpkin spice today

Today, pumpkin spice is used in a wide variety of dishes and desserts. This popular aroma appears in desserts, bread, snacks, and coffee is often scented with it. It is also used in the cosmetics industry, so shampoos, body lotions, scented candles, lip sticks, peelings and many other products smell like it. After conquering both the Americas and a large part of Europe, it is increasingly popular in our country, and it is especially sought after in autumn and winter when we want to add extra warmth and comforting scents to our menus that will cheer us up and warm us up. May your autumn also smell like pumpkin spice!