Mmm...Coffee!

While I drink tea a lot (understatement) I do enjoy coffee as well, especially this time of year. Though I usually drink my tea hot and black, I love sweet coffee with lots of flavor.
I stopped buying the fancy creamers when I decided to stop eating and drinking things that contain ingredients I cannot pronounce. Amazing how much "food stuff" that eliminates! Seriously, what are we eating? /soapbox.
What is a girl to do when she even starts to question her Pumpkin Spice Lattes and wonder what that weird film they leave on the roof of one's mouth is all about? One hopes it is just the fat from the whipped cream, but still.
There are a few recipes out there like this one I'll try when I bake squashes this weekend for purees. Until then, I'm using my Pumpkin Spice Brown Sugar.
I had poured a little brown sugar in a jar and stirred in some cinnamon and cloves a few weeks ago. Mixing it all together added great flavor and kept the floating spices to a minimum. It is also amazing in oatmeal. This morning I noticed I needed to make more. Someone had commented and asked how I had mixed it up before, but I didn't pay attention so I wasn't sure.
Today I paid attention. I had read about how easy it was to make brown sugar so I decided to kill to birds with one stone. I poured one cup of regular sugar into a jar and added one tablespoon of molasses. That's it: instant brown sugar. It is soft and flavorful, but not at all overwhelming. I then stirred in a tablespoon of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of both cloves and nutmeg.
It turned out great! I love molasses so I may add more in the future. Did you know that the only real difference between light and dark brown sugar? It' just more or less molasses. Super easy and know I can just make up what I'll need and not have bags of brown sugar going rock hard in the pantry. It is cheaper, too.
It will be great the next time I make these and use my homemade vanilla extract. Hmm...that gets me thinking. Maybe I should pour some of the vanilla in the spice sugar for coffee. See? This is how I get myself in trouble: one thing just leads to another.
I am now imagining how good this cup of coffee would be with a batch of Ginger Bears. So soft and autumny and filled with molasses and spices. They'd make a good dinner, right?
I just remembered this post I read recently. She had some links for homemade creamers. I think I might need to add a pint of half and half to the milk order for tonight's delivery. Any fun ideas to share yourself?