Gingerbread Syrup

There is a local coffee place that is a sort of community gathering place on Hwy 116 at Bloomfield Rd. It's called Hardcore and they make great lattes. Sweetie loves their gingerbread lattes so he treats himself now and then when errands take him that way. 

Just before Christmas I found a recipe for Gingerbread Syrup and thought that it would be fun to make it for Sweetie so that he could doctor his morning coffee with some of it and a splash of cream. Not quite the same but probably still delicious if you love the flavors of gingerbread like he does. 

He tried it this morning in his coffee, with a small amount of cream. He said it was delicious and quite a bit gingerbread, but needed more milk or cream, so if you try it, heat a little milk or cream to add to your coffee, or make a latte if you have the machine for it!

It was also quite tasty over some coffee ice cream. I'll bet you can think of more uses for it...over lemon pancakes? Over baked apples?

Gingerbread Syrup

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 cups water
2 tablespoons molasses
pinch of salt
2 cinnamon sticks
1 1/2-inch (4 cm) fresh ginger, roughly chopped
8 allspice berries (I used 1/4 teaspoon ground)
8 whole cloves
4 black whole peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except for vanilla in a saucepan. Cook, whisking occasionally, to dissolve the sugar and continue until the liquid thickens, 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl with a pouring spout. Discard the solids in the strainer. Use while warm, or cool and pour into clean, sterile jar(s) with tight-fitting lid(s). Refrigerate up to 2 weeks. Makes approximately 2 cups.