Pumpkin Martini

As you may have noticed - across all 3 of my food blogs - we’ve been leaning in to the fall flavors lately - especially pumpkin flavor.

With pumpkin season just around the corner, we’ve been busy developing, updating, and shooting all kinds of recipes for Thanksgiving dinners, and the holiday season in general.

It’s our favorite time of year - the crisp air, the cozy evenings in front of a fire... the excuse to use maple syrup in all the things... you know.

Anyway, today I’m sharing my pumpkin martini recipe!

It’s one of my favorite fall cocktails, featuring rich pumpkin flavor, a hit of maple syrup, and a pinch of pumpkin pie spice - the flavors of fall - all wrapped up in a creamy, delicious cocktail format.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a sucker for dessert cocktails - Fuzzy Peach Candy Cocktail, Candy Apple Martini, Jolly Rancher Martini, and Birthday Cake Martini, for example.

Yes, my taste in cocktails is exactly the same as it was at 18 (Note: that was legal drinking age in my hometown).

I will always prefer a sweet, fun drink over whatever boring vodka martini is supposed to be more “sophisticated” at my age, TBH. 🙂

Anyway, this decadent pumpkin pie martini fits the bill for “dessert in a glass” - it tastes like a piece of pumpkin pie!

This delicious drink is the perfect cocktail for your thanksgiving menu or holiday happy hour. Or, really, a perfect drink for any fall season cocktail hour, for that matter!

Ingredients

This pumpkin spice martini recipe uses really basic ingredients, as I wanted them to be pretty easily accessible, regardless of region or time of year.

Pumpkin liqueur and pumpkin spice liqueur can vary wildly between different brands, when you can find them at all... and the same goes for pumpkin spice syrup.

While they’re all common ingredients for various pumpkin cocktail recipes, I wanted to keep this spiced pumpkin martini recipe real simple and accessible!

Anyway, I use 5 ingredients, and there’s some room to play with some of them. A few notes:

Vodka

I generally use a good quality, plain vodka for this recipe.

Feel free to try different flavors, though - also good with vanilla vodka, caramel vodka or whipped cream vodka, when you have those on hand.

Pumpkin Purée

Use real pumpkin puree for this recipe - not pumpkin pie filling.

Puree is just pumpkin, while the pie filling has extra flavours, sweeteners, fillers, etc added.

Half and Half

Rather than using a cream liqueur, I generally use half and half when making this recipe.

When I don’t have any on hand, I’ll use either straight heavy cream, or 1 tablespoon heavy cream and 1 tablespoon almond milk or coconut milk.

Need a dairy free option? Use coconut cream!

The Remaining Ingredients

Maple Syrup - Actual maple syrup, NOT pancake syrup. Brown sugar also works, in a pinch.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Garnishes

As-is, I generally rim the glass with maple syrup and a sugar-pumpkin spice mix, and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

The said, there are other ways to garnish the rim of your glass - and your martini in general.

As far as rims go, crushed graham crackers can be used for a graham cracker rim, playing up the “pumpkin pie” theme.

Pecan Flour, Walnut Flour, or a cinnamon sugar rim are great options.

As for other garnishes, add a dollop of whipped cream, a sprinkle of nutmeg, a drizzle of caramel sauce... it’s all good!

After all, the perfect fall cocktail is the one customized to YOUR tastes!

Equipment

There’s really only 2 pieces of equipment you’ll need for this recipe:

Cocktail Shaker

Generally speaking, I use a stainless steel 2 Piece Martini Shaker Set when making these.

For some reason, I couldn’t find it when shooting the process shots... so I used a protein powder shaker. It’s all good!

Cocktail Glass

For this recipe, you’ll want a Martini Cocktail Glass, about 8 oz size.

These are bigger than regular martini glasses!

How to Make a Pumpkin Pie Martini

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is a pictorial overview.

Rim the Glass

First things first: rim your glass, if you’re going to.

In a small bowl, mix together a tablespoon or so of sugar with a teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, transfer to a shallow plate. Alternately, you can combine sugar with ground cinnamon.

Hold the rim of a martini glass upside over the small dish of maple syrup, twirling to coat the edge of the glass rim. Allow any excess syrup to drip off.

Twirl the coated rim of the glass in the sugar and pumpkin spice mixture until well coated. Set aside.

Note: You can place the glass in the freezer for an hour or so to get a nice frost on it. Pull the chilled martini glass from the freezer right before serving.

Measure ingredients into a shaker.

Add a cup of ice, shake a few times, strain into a prepared glass.

Pie Garnish Variation

If you want to really lean in on the idea of pumpkin pie - especially as a thanksgiving cocktail - change out the base recipe for the rim.

Mix the sugar and pumpkin pie spice as directed above, but add 2 tablespoon of very fine graham cracker crumbs or pecan flour.

Definitely go with the whipped cream on top, as well!

More Pumpkin Recipes

When fall is here, is there anything better than indulging in some pumpkin goodies? We’re down for all things pumpkin, whether for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or a random Tuesday!

Here are our favourite delicious recipes to use the gourd!

Baked Pumpkin Custard
Copycat Pumpkin Spice Latte
Easy Maple Pumpkin Spiced Muffins
Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes
How to Carve a Pumpkin Like a Pro
How to Make Pumpkin Mead
Maple Pumpkin Spice Bagels
Maple Walnut Spiced Pumpkin Buns
Pumpkin Spice Nanaimo Bars
Quick Pumpkin Bread
Traditional Pumpkin Mousse

... and from my other blogs:

Fluffy Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes
Gluten Free Maple Pumpkin Pie
Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread
Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Mini Doughnuts
Gluten-Free Sopaipillas Pasadas
Keto Pumpkin Fat Bombs
Keto Pumpkin Bars
Homemade Pumpkin Chai Latte
Pumpkin Chia Pudding

Share the Love!

Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!

Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense. Well, the published nonsense, anyway!

Finally, if you love this recipe, please consider leaving a star rating and/or a comment below, and maybe even sharing this post on social media!