On the Menu: Pumpkin spice, the flavor of fall, finally showing up all over town

Okay, I admit it. I caved.

The Sunday morning air was a little chilly, and my wife and I had just finished our Sunday shopping. Subliminally, the bounty of burnt orange on every endcap must have seeped into my stomach’s psyche. Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights. Planters Pumpkin Spice Almonds. Chobani Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer.

As she finished bagging, I slipped away to the Starbucks kiosk. There it was on the marquee, like a rite of fall: pumpkin spice.

I could not resist. To ring in the new season, even if ‘autumn’ in the 912 is only about ten degrees colder than our endless summers, I treated myself to a grande pumpkin spice frappuwhatsit.

Say what you want, it tastes like fall.

Thankfully, Starbs is far from the only place in town that has put pumpkin back in their respective menu mixes, so between now and when that wintery peppermint muck supplants the de rigeur fall flavor, feast on the following.

Auspicious Baking Co.'s Pumpkin Square

Within hours of the social media post heralding the return of Auspicious Baking Co.’s pumpkin square, we were in our car on a beeline to 7360 Skidaway Road in Sandfly. Truly, none of us needs a special reason to satisfy our collective cravings at one of Savannah’s signature bakery, but this cake is worth multiple trips as long as Katie Bryant and Mark Ekstrom’s crew is making it.

The slices are a generous steal ($4), and this year’s batches look even taller. Amazingly moist but also dense, the bar is the perfect pumpkin color, flavored with purée and spiced with a “ginger-forward” house blend, per Bryant.

Back in 2017, during the first fall that Auspicious was open, Bryant’s mother had moved down from Pennsylvania to help them in the business. The pumpkin bar was a recipe she had long made for her nursing coworkers. Craving them, Kelli Horger asked her daughter if she could bake up a few batches, which Bryant and Ekstrom put out for sale on the counter.

“They’ve been a hit ever since,” Bryant said of the sweet sponge topped with swirls of cream cheese frosting that make it a suitable dessert if you did not devour it as a coffee accompaniment.

“Of course, we’ve had to tweak it a bit from her little 7-quart mixer, and now we’re mixing it in a 140-quart mixer,” Ekstrom explained with a laugh. “It’s come a long way.”

Over their four weekly retail days, Bryant estimates that they are selling 400 pumpkin bars, and Ekstrom expects that number to double into the fall holidays. Each week, the couple has seen customers bulk buy the bars by the half-dozen and dozen, and half-sheet pans of twenty are in the offing.

“They’re super-popular,” Bryant added. “We’re definitely getting our pans ready.”

All told, Auspicious features five items starring pumpkin, though each is spiced differently. Bryant is excited to put the pumpkin cinnamon bun, touched with tahini, on the menu, and the savory case will have a roasted pumpkin purée spread to go with their breads and snacks, one of which is a pumpkin cracker finished with Sugar in the Raw and toasted pumpkin seeds.

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Fork & Dagger's Pumpkin Spice Milkshake

Because I am the Last Man Alive Without a Cell Phone, all of social media is (intentionally) lost on me, but I am glad that my wife follows our favorite restos in town. Last Saturday, we flunched at Fork & Dagger, 1402 Habersham St., splitting the stupid-good Pig & Grits and a Pumpkin Spice Milkshake ($5).

As we fought over final sips of the latter, owner Sky Hoyt credited staffer Hayley Becker with its creation.

“It was all me,” Becker avowed with a proud smile. “My friends and I were all excited about the flavor coming back at Starbucks, so I said, ‘Sky, we have to do pumpkin spice.’”

Already a hit on the weekends, the super shake is simply vanilla ice cream, pumpkin syrup, milk, and a pumpkin pie spice powder mix Hoyt home-makes, blending cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg.

“I’m trying to convince her to do pumpkin spice coffee,” Becker added, and Hoyt has given her crew the purview to make that happen, too.

Do not forget that, with three days’ lead time, Hoyt will make you one of F&D’s celebrated cheesecakes to go. For the season, pumpkin is right at the top of the more than four-dozen flavors on offer.

Savannah Coffee Roasters' Veritable Pumpkin Patch

As I played the part of Charlie Brown and scoured town in search of pumpkin this-and-that, no other eatery was already as ready as Savannah Coffee Roasters. Late in the day, the case had been cleaned out of pumpkin-corn muffins and pumpkin-pecan scones, though the big jar on the counter still had plenty of pumpkin cookies.

SCR’s Executive Chef Tim Michael said that this month’s menu of sweet treats will feature pumpkin-sage scones, pumpkin-white chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin spice latte cookie sandwiches, which is similar to a whoopie pie and is currently the coffee bistro’s fastest seller. On the savory side, he has put a curried coconut-pumpkin soup on the carte.

“In both our drinks and our baked goods,” he explained, “if it says ‘pumpkin,’ it has pumpkin in it, not just the spices commonly used in pumpkin dishes.”

All of SCR’s pumpkiny beverages use a real pumpkin-based sauce, and the baked goods contain solid pack pumpkin. As for the house-blended spices, Michael prefers cloves, ginger, and cinnamon at a 1-2-4 ratio, respectively, as well as adding coffee, maple, and rum to these recipes.

The West Liberty Street standard always rotates new items into its dessert case, but pumpkin will be featured into the Christmas season. At some point, plan on seeing pumpkin roll, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin ‘black bottom’ cupcakes, Michael’s spin on his native Baltimore’s hometown favorite.

Other Good Gourds

My wife surprised me this past Saturday morning with a mini pumpkin loaf from Stevedore Bakery ($5), a light almost bite-sized quick bread topped with a toothsome pepita streusel and vanilla drizzle that needs to be put on everything I eat for the rest of my life.

The sweets that fill Gallery Espresso’s main case, baked in large part by Chike Cole, are consistently among the city’s best, and the next time you stop in, look for pumpkin scones and a gluten-free pumpkin bundt cake.

Your pumpkin amuse-bouche awaits right next door at Chocolat by Adam Turoni's in the form of The Pumpkin Royale truffle: black strap molasses and pumpkin pie caramel finished with a candied mint leaf.

Mark your calendar now because you have to go to either of Quanita Brown’s Culver’s locations (West Montgomery Cross Road or Pooler) on Oct. 26 when pumpkin pecan will be the Flavor of the Day, specially prepared fresh frozen pumpkin custard “lavishly” garnished with toasted pecan pieces.

Obviously, I cannot catalog every Savannah area eatery’s pumpkin plans, but chances are you have already sipped or snacked on something squashy-orange as September turned into October. If not, get your fall fill of any of these seasonal specials - and bring me back one of each.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: pumpkin spice on the menu in Savannah