Pumpkin Spice Latte

Method

1. 1Brew the coffee first. Make 120 ml of coffee by whatever method you have, and make it stronger than you would drink it black, because the milk will dilute it three to one. Cover the cup or pot so the coffee stays hot while you make the pumpkin milk.
2. 2Cook the pumpkin with the spices. Put the 4 tablespoons of pumpkin puree in a small saucepan (about 1.5 liters) with the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Set it over medium heat and stir without stopping for about 2 minutes, until the paste is steaming, smells strongly of spice and starts to catch on the bottom of the pan. Pumpkin is mild on its own, and this short cooking brings out its sweetness and makes the ground spices fragrant.
3. 3Add the maple syrup and the milk. Stir the 2 tablespoons of maple syrup into the paste, then turn the heat down to medium-low. Pour in the 360 ml of milk a little at a time, whisking as you go, until the paste has dissolved and the milk is an even pale orange with no lumps. Adding the milk gradually is what keeps the pumpkin from clumping.
4. 4Heat the milk without boiling it. Keep the saucepan over medium-low heat for 4 to 5 minutes, whisking often, until steam rises from the surface and small bubbles appear around the edge. Take it off the heat at that point: boiling milk scorches and spills over easily, and it can turn the pumpkin grainy. Stir in the vanilla extract, then whisk hard until a thin layer of foam covers the surface.
5. 5Pour and serve. Divide the hot coffee between two mugs of about 350 ml, 60 ml in each. Pour the pumpkin milk over the coffee and spoon the foam from the saucepan on top. Drink it right away. The pumpkin and spices sink as the latte stands, so give it a stir if it has been sitting.