The Sugar Free Pumpkin Spice Recipe Fit For The Bathroom

First the recipe.

I have been using a couple recipes for this for the last couple years.  About 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon to a large mug of coffee, about 24 ounces.  It's added right as the coffee poured into the mug.

A Little Goes A Long Way.

This one will work well, it's adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, and this is one of the most widely quoted recipes  for Pumpkin Spice that I have found.  I usually either double or half the recipe depending on what I need it for - hence the "adapted".

To a jar you can seal the top of, add the following spices:

3 Tablespoons Cinnamon
2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Allspice
1/2 Teaspoon  Ground Cloves.

Stir the spices until mixed, seal jar, use as needed.


Now about that Bathroom I'm blathering on about.

I have used that spice mix in coffee, and dropped a little in some bread once or twice with differing results.

But it also works well for making soap.  In fact, I liked this stuff so much I will use it to make up a batch of soap with it.

I got the idea from my friend Craig in Atlanta.  He likes dark and bold soaps, and challenged me one day.  He suggested I make up a Coffee based soap.  We batted the idea back and forth and I came up with the idea, I think it was me anyway, to make a Pumpkin Spice Coffee Soap.

I was afraid of this stuff.  And I still have to make that only Coffee Scrub Soap.

Everyone said to make the soap outside, lye plus coffee makes some horrible stench that will drive you away.  You always add the lye to the liquid before adding that to the oils in that order.

So I did the math.

It turns out Coffee can be substituted for Water at a 1 to 1 ratio.  I made up a standard soap with a frozen coffee slug as the water, and mixed it out on my front porch.  I added it to the oil mix, and stirred it until trace.

Mixing in the normal 1 Tablespoon to the Pound of soap gave me something that looked like a gritty Brownie in size and shape.  I allowed it to cure for a month, and I had six bars and three testers.

I was shocked when I finally sampled this stuff. 

It smelled good.  The Coffee did make the lather look tan to brown, but it smelled spicy and did clean just as well as any other blend without staining the tub.  Using the Pumpkin Spice Mix as a grit was not too abrasive, and there was no burning like I was warned could happen with anything like Cinnamon against "tender" areas of the body.

The bonus was that the scent did not linger after rinsing.

I'll be making this again later, but this time just the Pumpkin Spice.  Making the Coffee into Ice Cubes takes up time, and I can make up a batch of soap in about a half hour.  It's a fun little diversion in the middle of the afternoon.

In case you're curious, here's what it looks like once it's packed into the molds with the soap recipe to the side.

Mind you, I didn't have a line of Suburban Soccer Moms waiting in their SUVs this time, because I promised to share the recipe for the spice mix - at the top.