I just used the last of what I had of this spice blend from Chai-Wallah’s to make pancake syrup. OMG it is SO GOOD. Better than anything I could buy in the grocery store, and it’s really very simple. I bring some water (about 1/2 a cup) to a boil, place the spices (about 2 tsp) in a teacup (or bowl, or whatever you want to use) and pour over the boiling water and allow it to steep for at least 10 minutes. I just kept it steeping and added small amounts to the pan as needed.
In a pan, add about a 1/2 cup of sugar (I used a combination of turbinado sugar and dark brown sugar), and add a little bit of the steeped tisane to encourage the sugars to melt. Turn the stove on (medium-high heat), and as the sugars cook down into a syrup, add more of the steeped tisane (straining as you go, unless you want the chunks of spices in there, which probably wouldn’t be bad either), and continue cooking until you have added all the tisane and the syrup is a suitable consistency (keep in mind that it will thicken as it sits, so, you might want it a little runny. I didn’t keep this in mind, so by the time my syrup cooled, it was a bit more like caramel syrup than pancake syrup, but it still tasted amazing.)
BTW: I never really measure things when I’m cooking, so these measurements are approximate, eyeballed kind of measurements.
BEST. SYRUP. EVER!
And here is my full-length review of this Spice Only as a tisane: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/10/06/chai-spice-only-from-chai-wallahs/
