More homemade gifts: candied ginger

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Over the weekend, I found another fantastic homemade gift idea, thanks to blogger and cookbook author David Lebovitz. Lebovitz wrote a recent post on his blog about making candied ginger, which looked and sounded just too fun not to try. It was also surprisingly economical, especially considering how pricey candied ginger is when you buy it packaged. I picked up some very fresh -- and very inexpensive -- ginger at a grocery in Chinatown. Candying the ginger is easy: Peel and slice it, blanch twice, boil in sugar syrup and drain. Then just sprinkle some sugar over the top and you’re done. You also get a few cups of ginger simple syrup, which Lebovitz points out is a terrific by-product of the process, good for cocktails and dessert recipes. The ginger is great diced and folded into cookies, particularly ginger cookies. (I’ve used it to decorate gingerbread men too.) It’s also fantastic in ice cream. Since I didn’t feel like making ice cream myself...

I mixed minced candied ginger into purchased vanilla ice cream and then refroze it (credit for this trick goes to Nancy Silverton, who has a recipe for doing this with balsamic vinegar and vanilla ice cream in her cookbook ‘A Twist of the Wrist’).

A spoonful of the ice cream was great over a simple apple galette, with a drizzle of Armagnac caramel sauce (already on the homemade gift list) and some more diced ginger. Good for dessert, and for breakfast the next morning too.

Basic caramel sauce:

Total time: 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes chilling time

Servings: Makes 1 cup

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1. In a heavy-bottomed pan with high sides, place the sugar, lemon juice and one-fourth cup of water. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, swirling the pan occasionally or stirring to maintain even cooking.

2. Cook the sugar until it turns a deep bronze, about 8 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

3. Pour the cream all at once into the hot sugar. Be careful, as the mixture will bubble and froth up. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sauce is smooth and combined and has stopped boiling.

4. Add the salt and if you are adding flavoring, stir that in as well.

5. Pour it into a glass bowl, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer. The sauce will cool down, develop flavors and thicken to the right consistency; if you let it cool down completely and it becomes too thick, put it in the microwave briefly or in a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water until the sauce is a pourable consistency.

Note: For Armagnac caramel sauce, add 1 tablespoon Armagnac while stirring in the salt.

Homemade candied ginger, cost of making, about $2.50 for a pound. For David Lebovitz’s recipe, click here. For my apple galette recipe, click here.

-- Amy Scattergood

Photos of candied ginger and apple galette with ginger ice cream by Amy Scattergood