Gingerbread Latte at Home

The closest Starbucks to me is a 2 hour drive away. When we moved here I went through some pretty nasty withdrawal. Lately on Twitter I've been hearing people mention all the yummy fall drinks they've been enjoying and it's got me jonesing for a Gingerbread Latte. Now, a craving is a craving, but I ain't driving 4 hours with 2 kids just for a latte, so I figured there must be a way to re-create it at home.

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com but it calls for store-bought gingerbread syrup. Not having any or anywhere close to buy some (again, Starbucks is 2 hours away!) I had to make my own.

A syrup is essentially water and sugar with flavourings boiled down to create a thicker, sweet liquid. So taking that idea and adding the dominant flavours of a gingerbread cookie, I got what I think is a fairly reasonable facsimile of a store-bought Gingerbread Latte.

The syrup reducing by half

Gingerbread Latte

Syrup
1 c. water
3/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
splash vanilla (I never measure vanilla!)

Coffee
2 shots espresso (or if you're not fancy like me, 1/4 cup REALLY strong coffee)
1/2 c. steamed milk or cream (again, not fancy, I microwaved mine)
1/4 c. syrup

Instructions:
1. Put ingredients for syrup in a large pot and bring to a boil. (careful, the syrup gets very hot and boils over easily)
2. When the syrup has reduced by half and all the sugar is dissolved remove from the heat.
3. Brew your coffee and steam the milk.
4. Pour hot coffee into the bottom of a mug, add syrup and stir. Add steamed milk and top with whipped cream and freshly grated nutmeg.

enjoy!

Amanda