Lemon Thyme and Ginger

Crystallized Candied Ginger

As is often the case with specialty ingredients, a recipe requires a small amount, but you must purchase a much larger portion then needed.  This is often true for ingredients like fresh ginger root or fresh turmeric. Unless you cook recipes that use fresh ginger every day, using up a knob of ginger takes a conscious effort. What to make with all that ginger? One solution is make candied ginger.

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

Baby, or young, fresh ginger root

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

Adult, or mature, ginger root with candied ginger

This week I found myself in this exact predicament of having more fresh ginger than I could use. I bought more ginger than usual because a couple of farmers at the market sold baby ginger. I love how baby ginger looks (also known as young ginger), and wanted to photograph it. With its’ creamy pale-pink coloring and smooth skin, it is hard to believe it is ginger. I had about a half of a pound of young ginger and needed to figure out something to make with it. It dawned on me there was no candied ginger in the house. This was a missing pantry item over the whole summer, so it was time to make it.

I happen to like ginger and often cook with it. When I have candied ginger in my pantry, I enjoy it with my breakfast sprinkled over yogurt, in granola, oatmeal, cookies, pies, crumbles, cakes and muffins, or for an afternoon pick-me-up. I found eating a date stuffed with a slice of candied ginger and a walnut, squelches any sugar cravings and afternoon munchies.

People swear by fresh ginger’s ability to soothe an upset stomach and morning sickness, and is good for digestion. I used to drink an elixir of ginger, turmeric, lemon juice and honey to reduce inflammation. With all these great health benefits, I like to always have some form of ginger available.

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

Some people have a philosophy, that they won’t make a specialty food if they can easily buy it from a quality and reliable source. Not me. I am open to make just about anything. So why make candied ginger when you can easily buy it? For me, it is all about knowing what I put in my body and reducing my carbon footprint. If I make candied ginger, I can buy organic ginger at the store, or locally grown baby ginger at a farmer’s market. I also don’t use any preservatives.

You also get two by-products when you make candied ginger, ginger simple syrup and ginger sugar. Both taste great in hot or cold tea, coffee, homemade soda or drinks, or in baked goods. I particularly like using the ginger syrup in a ginger martini.

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

 

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

There are a couple of obstacles that intimidate people and prevent them from making candied ginger. You need a candy thermometer, or one that reads temperatures above 250°F (121°C), like a Thermapen instant read thermometer. Thermometers are our friends. They tell us important and accurate information about our food, especially when cooking with meats. This information lets us know our food is properly cooked, or not. There are visual clues to read, but the internal temperature of a piece of meat does not lie and indicates exactly how far along your meat has cooked. If you don’t own a thermometer, you should get one. I rely on mine all the time. You don’t need an expensive one, just one that is reliable and easy to read.

Thermometer brands I like are Thermoworks, and CDN. The Thermapen by Thermoworks is the highest rated instant read thermometer. It is also expensive. Thermoworks makes other instant read thermometers, like pocket thermometers that are less expensive. (This is not a sponsored post)

Also, making candied ginger does take some time to make. Fortunately, while the ginger simmers, cools and dries, you can work on other projects. The time between the cooling and drying, and coating the ginger with sugar is a couple of hours. Later, the sugar-coated ginger needs to air dry some more.  Fortunately, this is something you can set up and forget about until later. I believe the positive reasons for making candied ginger outweigh the negatives.

This recipe is slightly adapted from David Lebovitz recipe . I have been making this for a few years and really like it. It produces a lot of the ginger syrup too. I scaled his recipe down and only use a half pound of ginger. The original recipe specifies, one pound of ginger and 4 cups each of sugar and water. It is an easy recipe to scale up or down because the ingredients are easily divided by or multiplied by 2. Plus, the water and sugar ratio is one to one.

Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

Crystallized Candied Ginger reicpe

Recipes to use with your candied ginger:

Apple muffins with Lemon Glaze

Chocolate Bark

Low Fat Granola

Baked Oatmeal with Apples and Apricots

Fall is here and along with the changing leaves, back to school, and colder temperatures, the holidays are around the corner. Hopefully, that means there is a lot of festivities and parties to attend. I believe a jar of homemade candied ginger is a perfect host/hostess gift. What a thoughtful thank you. Who does not like a delicious homemade treat? Attach a recipe that uses candied ginger, and your host or hostess will be more appreciative.

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Crystallized Candied Ginger recipe

Candied Ginger

Making your own candy ginger is easy to do and tastes a lot better than store bought. In addition to the candy ginger, this recipe makes two other by-products, ginger simple syrup and ginger sugar. So don't throw out anything. The syrup is great in drinks or used in baked goods. The total time to make candied ginger does not include the couple of hours needed to dry the ginger after it is cooked in the simple syrup and before you coat the ginger with granulated sugar. Candied ginger, also known as crystallized ginger, tastes great served with fresh fruit, like pears and apples. It is also a great addition in muffins, pies, cookies and cakes. I like to add it to my bowl of yogurt and granola. This recipe is slightly adapted from David Lebovitz recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Author Ginger

Ingredients

Candied Ginger

  • 1/2 lb fresh ginger root
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • small pinch of salt

Special equipment

  • 3-4 quart saucepan
  • Candy thermometer
  • Lightly greased cooling rack or parchment paper
  • Sheet pan large enough for the cooling rack to fit in
  • Air tight container to store the candied ginger

Instructions

Candied Ginger

  1. Peel the ginger using the side of a spoon and scrape off the thin skin. Slice the ginger into 1/8-inch (3 mm) pieces with a thin and sharp paring knife or mandoline slicer.
  2. Add the ginger slices to a saucepan then add enough water to cover the ginger slices by one inch (2.5 cm). Bring the water to a boil and simmer for twenty minutes or until the ginger slices are tender and easily pierced with a fork*.
  3. Pour out the tender ginger slices into a fine mesh strainer resting over a bowl to catch the water. Measure the water and add more to equal 2 cups for a half pound of ginger.
  4. Add the water and 2 cups of sugar, pinch of kosher salt to the saucepan and add the ginger slices. (if you are concerned with the ginger syrup crystallizing add 1- 2 TB of corn syrup). Stir to help the sugar dissolve.
  5. Bring the sugar water to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium-high and cook the ginger until the sugar water reaches 225°F (107°C).
  6. Turn off heat and set the saucepan aside.
  7. If you want to keep the candied ginger in the syrup, let it steep in the syrup for at least one hour, up to overnight. Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about one year.
  8. If you want to dry the ginger and add a sugar coating, immediately pour the ginger into a fine mesh strainer resting over a bowl large enough to hold the ginger syrup. The ginger syrup is delicious and can be used in many different recipes.
  9. Spread the candied ginger over a cooling rack, resting on a sheet pan to catch any drips. Make sure the ginger slices are not stuck together. Let them air dry for 2 hours. You are ready to coat the ginger when it is sticky but not too wet or dry.
  10. Pour about 1/2 cup (125 ml) of granulated sugar on a plate and toss the ginger slices in the sugar to coat. Return the ginger to a clean cooling rack resting over a clean sheet pan and let it dry for 2 hours.
  11. Store in an air tight container, in a cool, dry place. The candied ginger will last for about one month.

Recipe Notes

*The time spent simmering the ginger depends on the age of your ginger root. The younger the ginger is the more tender it is. Older ginger can get a very fibrous texture. Simmer the ginger slices until it is just tender.

© 2017 – 2018, Ginger Smith- Lemon Thyme and Ginger. All rights reserved.

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