Sort-of Gingerbread Latte

I know that we're still in pumpkin spice latte season but as our calendar has begun filling up with November and December commitments my thoughts have turned to gingerbread lattes.

There are all kinds of 'make it at home' gingerbread latte recipes out there. The one I tried this morning calls for a homemade spiced simple syrup added to steamed milk and coffee. It's not bad - I don't think it is as strong as a genuine Starbucks gingerbread latte but with a few tweaks (more ginger? add molasses for some of the sugar?) it could be. It's no page 821. But it's pretty good. Here's what I did:

Spiced Simple Syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ginger sugar mix

Ginger Sugar Mix
Combine 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp powdered ginger

Combine your ingredients for Spiced Simple Syrup in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool. Add 2 tbsp of simple syrup to 1 cup steamed milk combined with 1/2 cup coffee.

You might want to start by just adding 1 tbsp of the simple syrup then add more to suit your taste. And the original recipe called for a scant teaspoon of vanilla, which I forgot to add since I was also putting away groceries while making this. Any coffee will do, but at our house we have developed a taste for Kona coffee, which is grown in Hawaii. Which makes it a wee bit pricey. We first discovered Kona coffee at the Polynesian Resort at Disney. Every morning D. or I would go for a run, stop at the coffee bar on the way back and then relax on our balcony with our morning java until the kids woke up. Our view:


I've since discovered I can get really good Kona coffee close to home through The Fire Roasted Coffee Company. Haven't been able to do much about replicating the view though.

Lattes

Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never discovered a taste for coffee until I was well into my thirties. My husband was late to coffee as well, using it to stay awake the year he earned his MBA, which was also the year we had our first child. Coincidence? Nu-uh.

So. Coffee. I would not thank you for a cup of straight black coffee, which is what my husband favours. I'm a designer drink girl, something that began when I had a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks a few years back. Starbucks lattes are expensive. Some lattes (yes, I mean you PSL) are also a bit hefty in the calorie department. PSL are seasonal and a sometimes treat, so no biggie, right? Then Starbucks introduced the Cinnamon Dolce Latte.

This Summer I drank way-y too many CDLs. Sure, the calories aren't so bad (when you order skinny) but the cost per day was getting a bit out of control. Last Mother's Day my husband had attempted to make me a CDL as part of my 'breakfast in bed' and it was passable. It needed some work - the cinnamon was a bit gritty, for example, and left a rough after-taste but overall it was a respectable fascimile of the real thing. So I recently decided to try and find a way to make a good CDL at home. And it wasn't that hard. Here is the recipe -

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
1 1/3 cups milk
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Combine the sugar and cinnamon with the milk and heat. I did this on the stove top. I strained the milk mixture through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of the gritty cinnamon problem of Mother's Day memory. Add the coffee and voila. It's pretty darn close to the real thing.

For the gadget-happy crowd, a slight variation on the above. Go get yourself a Keurig Milk Steamer / Frother. Put the milk, sugar and cinnamon in this bad boy and it will steam your milk in about 90 seconds. Oh yes. Steamed, slightly frothy milk at the touch of a button. And the nifty little stirrer thing-y that whirs the milk around does a great job of dissolving the sugar and cinnamon...so no need to strain. I haven't even tried the frother yet. It had me at steamed.

Now I realize that to save myself a few bucks I went and invested in a not inexpensive gadget. Thank you, kind husband, for pointing this out. I've made peace with my purchase. Up next - the homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte. Oh yes, you can!