Grungy Sauce Recipe

Hey, gang. I'm re-posting my Grungy Sauce Recipe because for some reason, people have trouble finding it on the blog. Even though it's in the Primitive Recipes category, some folks can't seem to find it. I think it's because it is posted in my Grungy Hang Tag Tutorial. So I want to make it easier to find and just post that recipe all by itself. Not sure why I didn't do this a long time ago! :)

Grungy Sauce Mix Ingredients:

• Instant Coffee (get the cheapest you can find...I always buy generic)
• Vanilla or Imitation Vanilla Extract (again, go cheap if you want to; I use good vanilla for baking so I always have some on hand. But if you're not a baker just get cheap imitation vanilla!)
• 2 Cups Hot Water (I just nuke it so it's hot enough to dissolve the coffee, but not hot enough to burn my fingers while I'm working.)
• Ground Spices (this is totally optional and I only use it occasionally; I mostly use cinnamon)
• A Bowl
• A regular spoon or teaspoon

 

Mix up your grungy sauce. Take the 2 cups of hot water and to that the instant coffee--twice as much as the directions tell you to. Mine says 1 TSP for each 8 oz cup, so I use 2 TSP for each cup. You want the grungy sauce good and dark, so really, you can add as much as you want--so add more if you want to! Also add 1 TSP of vanilla, and your ground spices, if you're using them. Just a little sprinkling of spices will do.

Once it is mixed up, you can use it right away, or you can let it cool off first. If you're going to be dipping things into it, I'd suggest letting it cool first so you don't burn your fingers! I store my sauce in an old jar in the refrigerator. Occasionally, I also put some in a spray bottle and keep that in the frig too. The spray bottle is great for when you just want to spritz some grungy sauce onto a finished project; whereas the sauce you have in a jar you can pour into a bowl and use for dipping things, like hang tags or what not.

There are many variations to this recipe out there. Some people use tea instead of coffee. I think I tried that a few times, but I prefer the instant coffee because it's just easier. You can't really screw this up, so don't worry in that regard. Have fun with it.

Now go forth and get grungy!