In just a few short days, February will have arrived. The winter is far from over, of course, but with February comes the new onslaught of holidays: Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Passover, etc, etc, etc. Before you know it, websites & blogs will be proclaiming “SPRING!” while you look out your window & see 2 feet of snow or frost-covered cars.
Not me, however.
I am fully aware that there’s a lot of winter left to go, and that you need some warming up. As do I. So on this, my last post of January, I present you with the following: spice-infused milk.
It’s a goddamn revelation, I tell you. It’s the easiest thing in the world, and I’m sorry I never thought of it before. It’s genius. Leave it to Martha to come up with something so stupidly simple it makes you feel positively soft in the head for not thinking of it yourself. It’s basically the same concept behind flavored coffee creamers. Duuuuh.
Last week when I went to Mystic, CT, in a little shop called the Franklin General Store I found Dave’s Coffee Syrup. It’s basically an all-natural, preservative free version of Coffee Time syrup. The ingredients are simply cold brewed coffee & cane sugar; no high-fructose corn syrup or coffee flavor. It’s typically used to make “coffee milk”; a Rhode Island tradition, but there’s a tag on the label that encourages you to get creative with it. I bought the regular coffee syrup, Jay got the Madagascar vanilla coffee syrup. I decided that I wanted to use my infused milk with my new coffee syrup… and so I did. But first I tried it with a regular coffee.
SPICE-INFUSED MILK (via Martha Stewart Living, Dec. 2012)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole milk
- Spices of your choice; i.e. star anise, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, freshly grated ginger, vanilla, cloves, etc (see below for recipe ideas)
- 16-oz. jar for storage
Directions:
- Heat the milk in a medium saucepan with the spices you choose, stirring just once or twice. Heat JUST UNTIL STEAMING.
- Cover pan and let the spices steep in the milk for 1 hour.
- Strain and reheat if necessary, or refrigerate in a jar (up to 3 days). Reheat gently before serving.
There are tons of ideas & possibilities here, and not just for coffee! For example:
OATMEAL: Infuse 2 cups milk with 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1 cinnamon stick or the pod & seeds of half a vanilla bean. Add to oatmeal.
SWEDISH COFFEE: Steep 18 lightly crushed cardamom pods in 2 cups whole milk, add to coffee. Alternately or in conjunction, you can use 1 cinnamon stick or freshly grated nutmeg.
MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE: For a spicy Mexican-inspired cocoa, infuse 2 cups whole milk with 1 or 2 dried chiles (smoky chipotles or anchos), 1 cinnamon stick and the pod & seeds of 1 vanilla bean. Mix with cocoa.
INDIAN: Use 10 cardamom pods, a teaspoon of fennel seeds, 1 star anise petal and 1 cinnamon stick. Use with coffee or cocoa. This is also good over muesli or with oatmeal.
GROWN UP MILK PUNCH: Mix milk with 2 tablespoons caramel, 3 teaspoons maple syrup, half a vanilla bean (scraped), 2 pinches ground cinnamon. Cook as directed, let cool. Once cooled, mix with 2 shots of brandy in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain before serving.
I made Swedish coffee milk, but I added half of a vanilla bean & a cinnamon stick to the cardamom. So maybe that wasn’t really a Swedish coffee, but I don’t care. It was delicious. I highly recommend it. Do whatever you want! Add whatever spices you like! Chiles, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, vanilla bean, Chinese 5-spice, etc. Go nuts.
And of course, what’s a Swedish coffee without a Swedish book?
I'm Marilla. A 30-something artist, hobby baker, home canning enthusiast, gardener, DIY-er, wife, mommy of a baby boy and dog mom (to another baby boy) from New York. 
Sounds wonderful… However does it need to be warmed before using? I’m usually not awake enough in the am to slightly heat anything (:
Thanks
Heather
Heather, I’m sure you could use it cold. I think the heat kind of re-activates the spices, but I would think that it’d be okay to have cold. If you can’t fathom the stove top heating, maybe use a microwave? It would take like 1 minute or so depending on how powerful your microwave is, and you could do it as the coffee’s being made 😀
GENIUS. Oh man. This is what I need to do with all the half-quarts of milks that usually end up curdling in our fridge after I make scalloped potatoes/whatever.
RIGHT!? Leave it to Martha. The woman is a genius.
Made with cinnamon and vanilla pods and ZOMG!!! It was awesome 😀
YES! So good! I love it. Glad you did too!
I’ll be trying this soon. If you come up with some more fun flavor suggestions or ideas you should post them on your Facebook.
That’s a great idea Gail! I actually just thought of one: maple! Maybe a tablespoon of fresh, good quality maple syrup in the milk… would be great on oatmeal.
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