There is something just so delicious about the sweet potent punch of candied ginger. As a kid, I never understood the enjoyment my mother took from candied ginger. As an adult, I think I may love it even more than she does, if that’s even possible. Ginger is also a wonderful digestive aid. I find it especially useful on days when I eat something I shouldn’t (whether inadvertently or with full knowledge of what an idiot I’m being) to help calm my digestive tract and speed the recovery process along. This candied ginger is very easy to make. And by using honey instead of the more common table sugar and/or corn syrup, this recipe is not only Paleo, but also GAPS-, SCD-, SIBO-, and Autoimmune Protocol-friendly.
When you make this honey-candied ginger, you will also end up making ginger honey. Don’t throw this ginger honey away. You can either store the ginger in the honey or store them separate (either way they will keep for several months in your fridge). Many people enjoy candied ginger plain, but it’s also delightful dipped in dark chocolate (I’ll be posting my recipe for ginger fudge on Friday). Chopped candied ginger is a delightful addition to many cookies and muffin recipes. Ginger honey can substitute for any liquid sweetener in your favorite recipes and you can make a pretty awesome chicken wing marinade from it. And perhaps one of my favorite desserts is to add some chopped candied ginger and a drizzle of the ginger honey to slices of fresh apricot, peach, or pineapple.
Ingredients:
1. Peel ginger and slice as thinly as possible. I used my Mandoline Slicer
set on 1/8” thick.
2. Bring ginger and 2 cups water to a boil in a pot over high heat. Cover and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes, then uncover and continue to simmer another 10-15 minutes, until tender (depending on the thickness of your slices).
3. Drain all but ¼ cup of water from the pot. Add honey to pot. Simmer uncovered over lowheat for another 30 minutes until ginger has turned darker in color and slightly translucent. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn.
4. Remove from heat. If you want to store the candied ginger in the syrup, simply pour the contents of the pot into a glass jar to cool. Otherwise, strain ginger syrup from the candied ginger by pouring through a strainer or remove individual pieces of ginger from the pot using a fork. Enjoy!
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Oh, hooray! Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to make this 🙂
I am all over all of this (L.O.V.E. candied ginger in bitter chocolate!) and my 3yo will be too.
Question: I geek/splash out for raw honey so try not to heat it. What are the odds that the necessary infusion would occur at room temp, as with grated garlic/onion in honey for cough syrup?
Good question! I usually buy both raw honey for when we’re going to eat it raw and cheap pasteurized honey for when I’m going to cook with it. I don’t think it would work that well with ginger slices because they are quite thick. If you minced the ginger though, it might work. I have no idea how long it would take. My other thought is to warm the honey in a yogurt maker, so it’s still raw, but the warmer temperature might be enough to do the job. If you play with this, let me know how it works!
As a beekeeper and someone who speaks on the benefits of honey – I was thinking the same thing! The enzymes and all the beneficial material are destroyed at temperatures above 110 degrees (I think the official temperature is 117, but don’t quote me on that – I’d rather not get that close). You could use a candy thermometer to cool it down to this temperature, and then allow it to seep for a longer period of time.
I’m the same way as Lauren about raw honey. Would love to know the answer to her question…..
Sorry, it took so long to reply! I’ve answered above.
I finally got around to making this recipe last week. Yum!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for this recipe. So yummy. I like to make sure I have some in the fridge at all times now. I made a double batch today and am going to try dehydrating some. Have you ever tried that?
No, but they do seem to keep in the fridge indefinitely.
I have a long flight coming up and want to take some. I thought they’d be a little more portable/practical that way. BTW, I really like how they turned out! They are chewy and don’t leave your hands sticky with honey. 🙂
I’m glad you tried it! I wondered if they’d be more like crystallized ginger (dry) that way – more portable. Thanks for sharing!
Ooohhhhh…..ginger honey for my Coconut milk Chai tea!
Hi! How do you store it?
In the fridge… lasts months.
This is a really good food to make, but what a KICK! 11:00 at night and it sure woke me up. Thanks for sharing this, I’m looking foward to trying more of your recipes!!!
I’m excited to try this recipe. I’ve been trying other candied ginger recipes and while the flavor is good the fibrous woody-ness is unpalatable. Do you have any suggestions that might help?
Make sure the ginger is really tender after the first step of boiling (you can boil for longer if your ginger is cut thicker), and make sure your ginger is very fresh.
Hello, I wonder if putting the cook ginger in the honey and let it “marinate” for some time would work too . I think this is a great recipe, but you will “kill” the honey by cooking it for 30 minutes.
So What happens if you dehydrate after made?
Just made some and absolutely love it. However, the recipe should come with a disclaimer – I have every bee in the neighborhood trying to get in. It’s 79F outside so all the windows are open. All I can say, thank goodness for the window screens :). The bees seem to be rather insistent in wanting to come in. I find the buzzing rather disconcerting. But it looks like they think the honey-candied ginger is as tasty as I think it is. Thanks for the fab recipe.
Yeah, it’s almost 2 years later but I couldn’t keep but think that if they behaved that way it must’ve been wasps. Bees aren’t attracted to food much from my experience, only flowers, but wasps like to attack anything that smells like sugar or even meat. Also, bees are really tiny!
What do you think? 😀
(If you answer after so much time)
When I drained the water from the ginger (before I added honey) I kept the ginger infused water and froze into ice cubes. Half a lemon, half a teaspoon of honey in hot water and then drop in one ginger ice cube in a mug makes for a yummy healthy hot drink. Plus it seemed a shame to waste that beautiful ginger infused watery goodness.
Ugh, wish I had remembered to do so! That should be in the recipe so idiots like me don’t forget to use it!
I make ginger infused water to drink every day to keep my body from being inflamed and achy. It does such wonders. So, it looks like i can just kill two birds with one stone and instead of throwing away the ginger slices every day, I’ll make ginger honeyed candy. Wahoo! Less waste! And more ginger benefits! That makes me happy. Thanks!
Are there any sweetners I could substitute that would be both AIP and low Fodmaps?
You could try maple syrup… I don’t know how that would taste.
Really want to try this. In fact I want to run out right now & buy lots of ginger but it’s too early lol. Can’t wait to try it as it is,I’ll be able try lots of new things with it plus I think I’ll dehydrate some. Using the ginger water is a great idea too. Thanks Paleomom. I love recipes of things you can make, store away & snack when I’m in the mood.
Seriously… delicious.. I only wish I made more. What a nice treat to have on AIP.
This is such a wonderful treat! I’ve been wanting candied ginger for some time and this recipe is perfect. It came out delicious. My husband who didn’t care for ginger before even thought it was good. Thank you for sharing yet another great recipe.
I also had a bee make it’s way into my house while I was making this! How funny. The recipe was great. The finished product is a little sticky however. Not sure what to do about that, any ideas? Also, I could do without peeling ginger again for the rest of my life, what a pain that was!
The finished product will be a little tacky due to the honey. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
If you turn a spoon around so it is facing the ginger and scrape it, the outside comes right off 🙂
I love the idea of a healing treat, and leftover ginger honey! What’s better than that? I featured it at this weeks AIP Recipe Roundtable. Thanks for linking up!
OK so I thought the anecdotes about the bees trying to get in or even make their way in the house were cute and funny, but I didn’t really think much about it actually happening. Well TWO bees made their way into my house! You should have seen us trying to get them out. What a site!! I really didn’t want to kill them, so we did manage to get them out unharmed (bees and us!) I think they came in through the exhaust fan over the stove. So be forewarned; if anyone is deathly afraid of bees or allergic to them, ya might wanna think twice about this recipe! lol
That being said, the ginger is absolutely delicious! I bought cheap pasteurized honey as I too did not want to use my good local raw honey. Peeling the ginger was painstaking (literally-my hand really hurt!) but bees and pain were well worth the outcome. I think I may actually like this better than regular crystallized ginger 🙂
Easiest way to peel ginger is with a spoon like this. Though I pull the spoon towards me lol.http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M9zgXSdnPGI
Tip to peel ginger, use the back of a spoon and scrape.
To peel the ginger-use a potato peeler!
This looks amazing! Do you think this will last very long un-refridgerated? I have a two-week-long trip coming up soon that will have multiple plane rides, train rides, and car rides – and I get crazy motion sickness! I’d love to make a big batch to keep on hand, but wonder how I would transport it. I thought of dehydrating it, but don’t have a dehydrator. Any tips? Thanks so much!
Is it supposed to be really spicy? I was excited about this, but I’m a weakling with spice and it had a little bit to much of a kick for me! Hopefully I’m just making it wrong, because I have serious stomach problems and could benefit from this snack!
Yes, ginger has a lot of natural heat. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
If you’ve ever bought crystalized ginger (not “candied” which is more chewy and mild) I personally compare the heat to that, except a little stronger and much better in my opinion! I love the heat (I soooo miss hot sauce!) and I have to stop myself from eating too much! That being said, if you can tolerate one piece a day then you are probably getting the benefits without overdoing the sugar (like I tend to!) But be warned, as the sit they get stronger! I am at the end of my batch and it is stronger and sweeter! Maybe your taste buds will build up a tolerance 😉
I want to make more but I’m afraid of the bees again!! :O
How do you store the ginger honey? I put it in a glass mason jar but wasn’t sure if it gets stored in fridge or pantry? I don’t usually store my regular honey in the fridge so I wasn’t sure. Thank you for the recipe! I love it!!!
I store mine in the fridge since I go through it very slowly.
I’m going to do this and then make ice cream with chunks of it
This looks great. I have fructose malabsorption, so can not have honey. Would maple syrup work too? 🙂
How to you store it if you do not keep it in the honey? Can’t wait to try!!
How much of this can I have per day and stay true to the AIP??
What is the best way to peel ginger ? anonymous
I soak my ginger in water for several hours or overnite before peeling. This also makes it more tender after cooking. I do slice very thin, add a small amt of water and practically cover with all honey. Simmer low heat for about 30-45min. Just do not go over the 110degree mark when cooking. I will use the ginger honey syrup in my teas and slightly dehydrate some of the ginger on the candy sheet overnight.
I made this recipe yesterday, and I saved both the concentrated ginger water after boiling, and saved the honey ginger syrup to use for teas and cool ginger drinks 🙂 I just added some to my water bottle with some lemon crystals, it’s very yummy!
Your recipes are awesome. Candied ginger -out of this world. I put it in the dehydrator after making and it was better than candy. I have been eating whole foods for over a year, not finding great recipes until discovering your site. Thank You!
Has anyone tried to dehydrate it? I am taking off for a couple of weeks and won’t have refrigeration for some of that time. I had to give up Trader Joe’s crystalized ginger when I was diagnosed with SIBO. Can’t wait to make this.
Thank you now I have a good recipe for all the ginger I have! I worry it will go bad, now it will not! And I’m like you Paleo Mom, bowel issues since I was little and ‘going’ is a daily issue. I bought the Calm you suggested and just started taking that. I can’t exercise much because of my disabilities, but I saved your ‘pooping’ article to remind me I am not alone in this fight! Okay I am off to make candied ginger. Thank you again SO very much!!
Fanny
Is the syrup supposes to be runny while cooking? It seems to never thicken! Do the ginger slices get hard?
Another thought on how to use leftover honey syrup; make sorbet! I have made some delcious ginger-lemon sorbet a few times this summer, although with maple syrup instead of honey, and I would bet replacing maple syrup in this recipe would work beautifully! All you have to do when the ginger is strained/separated from the syrup, is add some fresh lemon juice and zest, let it steep for probably 20-30 minutes, strain again, cool, and freeze!
I don’t have an ice cream maker, so periodically breaking up the ice crystals by mixing it and running it through my Vitamix is all that is needed to get that nice sorbet texture. The heat of the ginger is a delight that hits you right after the actual cold of the sorbet starts to dissapate. Such a treat! But getting two treats from one batch of ginger and either honey or maple syrup, that’s cost effective too! Next time I am ready for more sorbet I plan to make the candied ginger first. (:
I love this idea! Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely! And here is an update; I made the candied ginger with maple syrup, LOVE IT, and did use the leftover syrup for sorbet, here is what I’d the NEXT time, since the sorbet was SO very ginger-y!! (;
I would use at least 3 lemons, zest and juice from all 3, and I would add probably another cup of water to the existing syrup. Would likely pick the ginger slices out with a slotted spoon or a fork, add the extra water and bring to a boil very briefly, then remove from heat and add the lemon zest and juice and allow to “steep” for at least 30 minutes, maybe more. Strain out the zest, and allow the “new” syrup to cool a bit, chill in fridge, then freeze.
Every so often (every 1.5-2 hrs? Have not been a stickler on this and it’s still awesome every time), pull it out and run it through the blender for 30 seconds or so to break up ice crystals and work it toward that lovely sorbet texture. Do that till it looks and feels like sorbet. Delicious!!