Homemade Gingerbread Latte.

Now, we sadly don't have Starbucks here in Italy so we can actually save most of our money that would otherwise be gone in years of coffee, but at the same time I've tasted Starbucks lattes only in a few rare occasions during the past years, and there's been no chance to try any of their seasonal drinks. When I realized of the existence of their Gingerbread Latte, I felt a bit more excluded from the club of delicious drinks' enjoyers, which is sad but instead of complaining I decided I'll have my Gingerbread Latte anyway and made an homemade version of it. Now, obviously I've never tried the original which is good because I quite like my result and I'm not tempted to try the real one (I actually am tempted but it's not possible, same, right?) but at the same time I can't quite say it tastes exactly the same as the original for obvious reasons, however it does taste pretty delicious, so maybe you cool people that have access to Starbucks lattes can confirm it tastes at least similar?! Both cases it's worth a try, since it'll come out super delicious and quite gingerbread-y anyway!

Also I'm super impressed I was able to shoot this recipe, as I tested it out in the last few days at my boyfriend's place where there's a nice coffee maker as well as a milk frother, but then I came home and my coffee maker doesn't work anymore and the milk frother is gone as well. You'll be wondering how I did... well, a part from the old moka being brought up again, a few secrets for achieving a good latte without any equipment at all (and also for cleaning up the post-syrup mess) will be revealed somewhere below!

Ingredients | 1 Gingerbread Latte:
1 Espresso
150ml milk
For the gingerbread syrup:
125ml water
80g brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 vanilla bean
A pinch of ground cinnamon

the syrup ;
1 :: Pour the water and the brown sugar into a saucepan together with the cinnamon, ginger and half vanilla bean (if you don't like your coffee to be extra sweet reduce the sugar to 60g).
2 :: Bring the mixture to a boil over a medium heat, then lower the heat to a minimum and leave the mixture to simmer for around 15 minutes stirring only when necessary not more than a pair of times.
3 :: Remove from heat and set aside.

TIP!

You'll have enough syrup for three gingerbread lattes, so you might want to store the left over into a tiny jar. It can be conserved somewhere fresh and dark (not in the fridge but room temperature) for a pair of days so you'll be able to enjoy two other drinks for the next pair of breakfasts!

assemble it! ;
4 :: Make an espresso and heat up and froth your milk.
5 :: Assemble your latte by firstly pouring the espresso into a mug, followed by 1/3 of the gingerbread syrup you've previously made and lastly by the frothed milk.
6 :: Enjoy when still warm without adding any sugar (it will be pretty sweet already!) together with other gingerbread festive treats!

DID YOU KNOW?

This might be obvious to some of you but it wasn't to me, so I'll share it anyway just in case some of you are still not conscious of it! You can froth your milk in a standard blender if you don't own a milk frother (like I do at the very moment): just heat your milk up, pour it into a blender and then blend it away until it's fluffy on top!

I can't say I'm a fan of ginger all year around, but it's definitely the classic Christmassy flavour that I love to have around this time of the year and this latte is super delicious, extra sweet (just as I like it) and I think would pair amazing with some gingerbread men dipped into it - even though it's a combo I've yet to try! I love the fact that you can definitely taste there's something sweet and quite citrus-y in your latte, but it still doesn't cover the flavour of fresh coffee. You can obviously garnish with whipped cream if you like, however I do quite like it to the minimal as well.

CLEANING UP THE SYRUP-MESS

The syrup is sticky and it will surely stick to your saucepan and be hard to take off, it solidifies if washed with room temperature water, which make the cleaning a real hell. Here's the other genial but obvious tip for you: fill the saucepan with water and then put it onto a medium heat until the water is hot enough to melt the syrup residues on the bottom and sides of it - you'll see the water will become darker, then just empty the saucepan and it will be ready for being cleansed without any sticky mess going on!

Let me know if you give it a try and tweet me a picture if you take one!