Welcome to the first post of my FROM SCRATCH! series at Purple House Cafe. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of cutting out as much packaged and processed food as possible, and I’m often delighted to discover how easy it is to make a lot of the staples I buy at the store from scratch.
Lots of the recipes I share on this blog require the use of candied ginger. Biting into sweet, chewy ginger pieces is a fundamental part of eating this muesli. I use it in my power balls, granola bars, and seed cookies. It’s the star of the show in my ginger chocolate banana bread. I buy scads and scads of it at the store (and it’s kinda expensive), so I thought, why not try to make it from scratch?
Turns out it’s pretty easy to do!
- 1 lb. fresh ginger, peeled
- 4 cups sugar, plus additional sugar for coating the candied ginger
- 4 cups water
- pinch of salt
- Slice the ginger thinly - about 1/4 slices are perfect. Place in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and allow the ginger to simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Drain the water from the ginger and repeat the above step.
- Add the sugar and four cups of water to the ginger and heat until the mixture reads 225F on a candy thermometer.
- Remove from the heat and drain off the remaining water. Toss the ginger in more sugar to coat.
- Store the ginger in an airtight container.
- P.S.: I took a few slices and drizzled chocolate over them. Divine! This would make a lovely gift!
