Here’s a new holiday essential in our household: Gingerbread Syrup! This cookie-inspired drizzle is pure bliss, melding notes of cinnamon and allspice with ginger and molasses. The great thing about it? It’s endlessly versatile: use it for coffee, cocktails, oatmeal, pancakes or waffles to infuse them with a bit of holiday cheer. Try it in Christmas Coffee, Gingerbread Latte or a Gingerbread Martini. Or why not add it to Gingerbread Waffles while you’re at it?
How to make gingerbread syrup
This gingerbread syrup is a variation on our brown sugar syrup a liquid sweetener made with equal parts brown sugar and water. Because of its molasses content, brown sugar syrup has a deep flavor with notes of caramel and toffee. Instead of adding molasses to this syrup like a traditional gingerbread cake or cookies, you can just use brown sugar! The difference is you’ll simmer it with whole spices to infuse a major amount of flavor. Here’s what to do (or jump to the recipe below):
Toast the spices. Toast the fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks, and whole allspice in a small saucepan until they’re fragrant, about 2 minutes. Combine sugar and water: Add the brown sugar and water. Heat until dissolved: Heat over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the spiced flavor is infused. Make sure to adjust the heat to maintain an even low simmer.
Scale up the recipe if desired
This gingerbread syrup recipe makes ½ cup syrup, which was perfect for us for making small batch Christmas cocktails. But if you’re entertaining, you’ll likely want to make a larger batch. Jump to the recipe below and click the 2x or 3x buttons to easily scale up your recipe.
Storing homemade gingerbread syrup
Store homemade gingerbread syrup for up 1 month refrigerated. Best for storage is a glass bottle for easy pouring or a glass mason jar. The flavor is best as fresh as possible, but it lasts well refrigerated.
Ways to use gingerbread syrup
This gingerbread syrup is endlessly versatile! You can use it in holiday drinks, or for Christmas breakfast recipes like waffles, pancakes, or baked oatmeal. Or, you can even just drizzle it over vanilla ice cream for a Christmas ice cream sundae! Really anything goes. Here are our top ideas for how to serve gingerbread syrup:
Hot coffee like Christmas Coffee Lattes like Cafe Latte Cocktails like this Gingerbread Martini Iced coffees like Iced Brown Sugar Oat Milk Espresso, Iced Espresso or Iced Latte Hot chocolate like Homemade Hot Chocolate (use ¼ cup syrup in place of the 3 tablespoons sugar) Pancakes like Gingerbread Pancakes, Almond Flour Pancakes, Oatmeal Pancakes, Applesauce Pancakes, or Vegan Pancakes Waffles like Perfect Waffles or Gingerbread Waffles Oatmeal like Classic Oatmeal, Everyday Baked Oatmeal, Vegan Oatmeal, Steel Cut Oats or Overnight Oats
More gingerbread recipes
Love a great gingerbread flavored recipe for the Christmas season? Us too! Here are a few more gingerbread-inspired treats: 5 from 2 reviews
