What do you think of when you smell and taste gingerbread spices? For me, it conjures up memories of Christmas, winter holidays, giddy anticipation, spicy-sweet comfort and heading through the woods and over the hills to grandmother’s house.

Gingerbread spices, typically cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves and a pinch of pepper, aren’t reserved just for gingerbread men, gingerbread houses and the soft gingerbread cakes my relatives loved to make during the holidays.  My DIY Homemade Gingerbread Spice recipe is simple to make, keeps all year to spice up all sorts of your favorite and even unexpected foods. Read on to get the Homemade Gingerbread Spice recipe and all the yummy ideas: 

All you need to prepare DIY Homemade Gingerbread Spice is a mason jar (or other air-tight container) and assortment of ground spices you may already have in your cabinet – cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and a pinch of black pepper. Measure out spices in the proportions indicated in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, dump into your jar or baggie and then shake to mix up. Most individual-sized suggestions below take about ½ teaspoon of homemade gingerbread spices. Because it’s a pretty bold blend of spices, I always start with less than I think I need and add more to taste.  You can keep these spices in a dark, dry pantry for up to a year (or more)!

Try out some of these easy gingerbread spice ideas:

Gingerbread-Spiced Mashed Sweet Potatoes: One of my favorite creative ways to elevate sweet potatoes. Add ½ teaspoon gingerbread spice, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and 1 tablespoon butter for every 1 cup of mashed sweet potato.

Warm Gingerbread Milk: Stir ½ teaspoon gingerbread spice into 12-ounces warmed milk of choice.

Gingerbread Latte: Stir 1/4 teaspoon gingerbread spice into latte or iced coffee.

Gingerbread Smoothie: Pour 12 ounces milk of choice into blender along with ½ frozen banana, ½ teaspoon gingerbread spice and enough ice to blend into desired consistency.

Gingerbread Yogurt: Stir ¼ to ½ teaspoon gingerbread spice into a plain, vanilla or chocolate yogurt. Or even lemon yogurt – it will remind you of gingerbread cake that’s typically served with lemon curd.

Gingerbread Nut Butter: Stir 1/4 teaspoon gingerbread spice into 2 Tablespoons nut butter of choice.

Baked Hasselback Gingerbread Pears: This delicious dessert is warm, cozy and crave-worthy with gingerbread spiced streusel topping. Check out the recipe blog post here.

Gingerbread Pancakes: Add a teaspoon or two of gingerbread spice to your next batch of pancake batter.

Gingerbread Oats: Stir ½ teaspoon into a single-serve portion of instant oats, overnight oats or steel cut oats.

Gingerbread Applesauce: Stir ¼ teaspoon gingerbread spice into a single-serve applesauce cup. Warm it up for even more yumminess.

Gingerbread Spiced Cream Cheese: Stir 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix into an 8-ounce tub of whipped cream cheese. If not sweetened, sweeten to taste with stevia, honey or maple syrup.

Gingerbread Butter: Soften a stick of butter and stir in 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix. Spread on pancakes, waffles, bagels . . even sweet potatoes.

Homemade Gingerbread Spices makes a wonderful food holiday gift for family and friends!

5 from 8 votes

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DIY Homemade Gingerbread Spice Mix

Prep Time

5 mins

Total Time

5 mins

 

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: American, german

Keyword: cinnamon, ginger, gingerbread, spice

Servings: 24 1/2 teaspoon servings

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp ground allspice
• 2 Tbsp ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp ground nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp ground coves
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Mix together all spices in bowl.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Use funnel to transfer into 4 to 6 ounces jar.

3. Keep in dry, dark pantry for up to 1 year.

4. Multiply recipe by desired number of batches if making for gift giving. Each batch makes about 1/2 cup or 4 ounces.