Gingerbread Vodka Martini

Gingerbread Vodka Martini

Gingerbread cookies is one of the staples during Christmas season in the Nordics. Whenever there’s coffee there’s also a little box of gingerbread showing up, from early December until the end of the twelve days of Christmas. The smell and taste just screams Christmas and is a very powerful trigger in addition to just being a good sweet.

One of the best surprises I’ve had when it comes to food was when I had an early, Asian/Nordic fusion Christmas dinner. On the drink menu was a Gingerbread Martini which was just like eating gingerbread cookies but in the form of a perfectly balanced Martini. The restaurant used crushed gingerbread cookies and muddled oranges to infuse the vodka which was mixed with ginger syrup and a little lemon. I decided that I needed to try this myself but wanted to start all the way from scratch with the basic ingredients. This makes this drink a little more pure even though it doesn’t generate the “I’m drinking gingerbread” experience that the original version does.

This is not a Martini you drink dry or without the twist. It shouldn’t be a sour either, but a little bit of lemon brightens and balances the cocktail. Add a little more lemon and you get something that should be called a Gingerbread Daiquiri, which is still nice but quite different from what we want here. For me, this is a very Nordic cocktail which means that Absolut vodka is preferred, but any vodka or light rum should do fine.

Gingerbread Vodka Martini

2 cocktails, 1 minute

  • 1 piece ginger, 1.5 x 1 cm
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 4 dried cloves
  • 10 cardamom seeds (not the pods)
  • 500 ml Absolut vodka

Gingerbread vodka infusion

  1. Peel and slice the ginger finely. Put all ingredients into an airtight bottle or jar and let rest rest for 2 weeks.
  2. Strain into a bottle through a very fine sieve. Store until needed.
  • 100 g dark muscovado sugar
  • 50 g Lyle’s Golden Syrup (or other golden syrup)
  • 150 g water

Dark syrup

  1. Weigh all ingredients into a sauce pan. Heat gently while stirring and continue to stir until all sugar is dissolved.
  2. Let cool and then transfer to a bottle or jar. Store until needed.
  • 8 cl gingerbread vodka infusion
  • 3 cl lemon juice
  • 2.5 cl dark syrup
  • 1.5 cl Cointreau
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters
  • 1 egg white
  • powdered cinnamon

Finishing

  1. Press the lemons to get the juice, take out ice and bring out all the other ingredients.
  2. Shake the dark syrup and egg white first, without any ice to get the egg to start foaming. 15 seconds should do.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients including ice and shake well. Strain into two chilled martini glasses and sprinkle a little powdered cinnamon on top of the foam.

Gingerbread Vodka Martini