There are some recipes, that as much as I enjoy them, are just seasonal recipes for me.  I make them once a year and that’s it.

Like pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin pie is yummy stuff but I only make one when Thanksgiving rolls around, which I suspect is pretty typical for most people.

The recipe I’ve been using the last few years for pumpkin pie calls for 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice blend.  And you know what?  I’m just way too practical to buy a jar of pumpkin pie spice just so I can use it once a year.  There’s no point when I already have the spices I need sitting right in my cupboard already!

Sometimes I see other recipes for quick breads or cookies that call for pumpkin pie spice blend too so I suppose it’s not entirely true to say I might never want to use pumpkin pie spice blend except for my annual pumpkin pie. But on those random occasions when I might want it for some other recipe, it’s still just as easy to grab a few other spices and just quickly create the blend myself.

In the early days of this blog, I did a post on how I make the equivalent of one teaspoon at a time of a DIY pumpkin pie spice blend.  But because the pie recipe I’m using most often now calls for a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, I decided to tweak my blend a little bit to increase it.  I love that it’s a simple and easy way to use the “all purpose” spices I already have sitting on my shelf to make what I need. A simple mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves will do the trick!

As a bonus, I’ve included the recipe for a quick pumpkin pie in the recipe notes above too!

And when it comes to baking pies, I like to use pie crust shields to keep the edges of my pie crusts from burning, and I have a set that comes in pieces like this set of pie crust shields.  But I may have to get updated because they are also available as a one piece pie crust shield which looks super easy to use, and they make silicone pie crust shields now too!