It's that time of year when the wind hurts your face, which means we're frantically searching for anything that'll warm us from the inside out. One of the most festive ways to do so is with mulled wine, but you probably shouldn't guzzle some first thing in the morning. Luckily, there's a totally socially acceptable way to get mulling spices all up in your business from morning to midnight with spiced coffee, baked goods, cocktails, and even brined meat. (Stay with us here!)
Mull over these six new ways to use mulling spices all day, err'day. Seven if you count just keeping a jar on your desk to sniff when you need a whiff of holiday spirit.
Coffee
True Life: I'm addicted to Stumptown's Winter Cheer. What's that, you ask? Only the most magical (and sadly, seasonally-available) cold brew in the world. It's bright, slightly-chocolatey Latin American coffee with a little milk and mulled-spice syrup. Whether you drink coffee cold year-'round like I do or you switch to hot caffeine in the winter like a normal person, you can spice it up easily. According to Stumptown's VP of Cold Brew, Diane Aylsworth (yes, that's her real title), just simmer mulling spices—cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and orange peel—in a few cups of water for 30-40 minutes, strain, and add to coffee. If you want your coffee sweetened, use a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water for simple syrup and steep the whole spices in it. The mulled-spice syrup will last in your fridge for about a month.
Pumpkin Spice Substitute
When fall transitions into winter, just swap out your pumpkin spice for mulling spice. Blitz together cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in a spice grinder, store it in an air-tight container, and you've got it on hand for anything and everything for at least three months. Just make sure not to add dried citrus, says senior food editor Chris Morocco, as the flavor could be unpredictable and overpowering in the blend. Just zest fresh orange peel into whatever you're making—and we've got plenty of ideas below—to control the level of orange flavor.
Baked Goods
Now that you've got mulling spice on hand, stir it into all of the baked goods. Okay, not all of them, but Chris suggests in a honey-spice cake or a gingerbread cookie. "Use it 1:1 as a sub for pumpkin spice, or add around 1 tsp. into baked goods unless you really want to make it the star," he suggests, but taste the batter to make sure it's the right amount of sugar, spice, and everything nice.
Breakfast
You can add a teaspoon of mulling spice into pancakes or waffles too for Christmas breakfast. If you're really into mulled things, our Dirt Bomb doughnuts could take to the spice well, as could French toast.
Meat
This is where things get a little weird, but let's have some fun and experiment. Chris says mulling spices could work as the base for a berbere-style spice rub—an Ethiopian blend great for poultry, pork, or roasted vegetables—but to be careful of them burning easily. "It would also be great as a turkey brine," Chris adds. "Add some juniper berries and boom!
Cocktails
Make crowd-pleasing Under the Mistletoe Punch—a blend of cranberry, lemon, dry Vermouth, and Sherry—in one less step by taking that mulled-spice simple syrup and adding it in. Chris also says that a "splash in an Old Fashioned could not possibly suck," so go forth and mull all of your drinks. But if you want to stick to the classics, you can always just make last-minute mulled wine.
But you can still get boozy this holiday season:
