Spiced Christmas Gingerbread Coffee With Cognac Chantilly Cream

As soon as I discovered how to make ginger syrup, this gingerbread coffee was on the menu last Christmas! I tasted my first Gingerbread coffee, or actually, Gingerbread Latte, in a branch of Starbucks in Manchester, England in 2006 - and it was love at first taste! Mine is a little bit more grown up and indulgent, as I have included a spiced, cognac laced whipped chantilly cream topping! We will be having this for Christmas morning this year, and for many more mornings or evenings I suspect, as the mood takes us! Enjoy this coffee not just at Christmas time, but also throughout the colder months. This recipe is not for latte, but for a fresh filtered coffee and cream version - but I think it is just as delicious.

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 6 Tall Mugs

Ingredients

• Gingerbread Syrup

• 2  cups water
• 1 1⁄2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1⁄2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Coffee

• 1⁄2 scoop  fresh ground coffee, per person (in the coffee filter machine)
•  water

• Cognac Chantilly Cream Topping

• 10  fluid ounces  whipping cream
• 2  tablespoons cognac
• 2  tablespoons icing sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus extra to sprinkle
•  cinnamon stick, for stirrers

Directions

1. Gingerbread Syrup.
2. Make the gingerbread syrup by combining water, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Be sure the pan is not too small or the mixture could easily bubble over.
3. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat and simmer the syrup, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. Remove the syrup from the heat when it's done - thickened, glossy and clear - and then cover it. This can now be stored in a bottle or jar in the fridge for about a month.
4. Gingerbread Coffee.
5. Make the fresh coffee in your coffee filter machine to personal taste - I have suggested 1/2 scoop of medium blend coffee per person for a tall mug of coffee.
6. Just before serving the gingerbread coffees, whip the cream with a hand held mixer until it just holds its shape - then add the cognac, cinnamon and icing sugar and whip until it is firm. If you have a cream siphon - decant the cream into the siphon for piping later.
7. When you are ready to serve the gingerbread coffees, pour some fresh coffee into each tall mug until about two thirds full; add a tablespoon of ginger syrup and stir the coffee - taste it and adjust the flavour by adding more syrup if needed. Then carefully spoon or pipe the cream on to the top of the coffee. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and serve with a cinnamon stick as a stirrer!
8. If you have any cream left over - make another gingerbread coffee!