Gingerbread Café Au Lait

I'm in such a giddy mood lately. Not only is it the Christmas season (which is the only thing that makes the wintertime bearable) but I'm in the midst of planning a trip to Italy. I booked the flights early in November (they were deliciously cheap) and now I've got to decide what we're going to do during those nine days abroad.

With all of this natural giddiness brewing inside, I don't need any coffee to help me along. And to be frank, in general, I don't do well on caffeine. Because I don't drink any caffeinated drinks regularly (it's more of a special occasion deal, for me) I get quite dizzy and my heart beats a little too quickly when I have coffee. And that's why, I love a good café au lait. It's half coffee and half milk, which means the potency is drastically reduced. And, because it's gingerbread week, I'm sharing a gingerbread version, duh. It's barely a recipe, but it uses the gingerbread syrup that I shared yesterday. Basically, the rest of the week will be filled with cozy gingerbread syrup-flavored drinks.

Ingredients:

strong french press coffee

steamed milk

gingerbread syrup

+ cinnamon (ground or stick, if you like)

+ gingerbread cookies

I have slightly more detailed instructions on how to make café au lait in a previous post, if you need it. But it's pretty easy. To start, brew yourself some lovely coffee in a French press. If you don't have one, just brew it as you normally would in your normal coffee maker.

Meanwhile, steam and froth up some milk. I wasn't in a super frothy mood, so I went for a light froth this time around.

Pour yourself half a cup of coffee.

Pour in some gingerbread syrup, to taste. Start with 3 to 4 tablespoons and if you've got a massive sweet tooth, you can always add in some more.

Top off the cup with the steamed milk, give it a quick stir, add a sprinkle of cinnamon, and enjoy.

Oh, and if you have a batch of freshly homemade gingerbread cookies just lying around, garnish with some of those. After your first sip, you'll be saying, "Screw you, Starbucks! I can do this on my own!"

A lovely and warm and spicy-sweet treat for the morning.

Here's the recipe page, ha, as if you need one: