Ginger follow-up
Jan. 5th, 2004 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAfter harvesting ginger, I chunked the old ginger and put into chicken soup. The new ginger I carefully peeled with my fingers, sliced, and boiled twice in sugar syrup to make candied ginger. According to the variety of recipes I saw, I should probably do it a third time, but I ran out of patience, especially since there wasn't that much ginger to start with.
What I hadn't realized is that when making candied ginger, there's a by-product, ginger syrup, which is just wonderful, with fresh ginger taste in a sweet syrup. This could be put on pancakes, or over ice cream, or fresh fruit, but the first thing I wanted to try was gingerbread, and tonight I finally did that. I made a batch of gingerbread using the same Joy of Cooking recipe I'd used before, except I ramped up the ginger powder, though not quite as much as the last experiment (I've used a container in under three weeks, which is definitely a record for me.), and I replaced all of the honey and a bit of the molasses with ginger syrup. I made six individual gingerbreads for the condo meeting I ended up hosting tonight, and they're all gone; they were good while they lasted.
There was batter left over after the gingerbreads, and, remembering InfiniteHotel's description of a fruitcake he'd made recently, decided to use the rest of the batter for fruitcake. It's a bit odd, having been baked in a pie tin rather than a loaf pan, and having a non-traditional mix of add-ins (roughly chopped still-moist dried apricots, roughly chopped Medjool dates, slivered almonds, crushed walnuts, and sunflower seeds), but I think using the gingerbread batter worked pretty well. Next time, I should balance the fruit/nut mixture differently, with a few more kinds of fruit, but the nuts and seeds worked beautifully.
I have more ginger syrup left. Does anyone have other suggestions for how to use it?
What I hadn't realized is that when making candied ginger, there's a by-product, ginger syrup, which is just wonderful, with fresh ginger taste in a sweet syrup. This could be put on pancakes, or over ice cream, or fresh fruit, but the first thing I wanted to try was gingerbread, and tonight I finally did that. I made a batch of gingerbread using the same Joy of Cooking recipe I'd used before, except I ramped up the ginger powder, though not quite as much as the last experiment (I've used a container in under three weeks, which is definitely a record for me.), and I replaced all of the honey and a bit of the molasses with ginger syrup. I made six individual gingerbreads for the condo meeting I ended up hosting tonight, and they're all gone; they were good while they lasted.
There was batter left over after the gingerbreads, and, remembering InfiniteHotel's description of a fruitcake he'd made recently, decided to use the rest of the batter for fruitcake. It's a bit odd, having been baked in a pie tin rather than a loaf pan, and having a non-traditional mix of add-ins (roughly chopped still-moist dried apricots, roughly chopped Medjool dates, slivered almonds, crushed walnuts, and sunflower seeds), but I think using the gingerbread batter worked pretty well. Next time, I should balance the fruit/nut mixture differently, with a few more kinds of fruit, but the nuts and seeds worked beautifully.
I have more ginger syrup left. Does anyone have other suggestions for how to use it?