I have to credit my husband, Mr. Rad, for this recipe. When he suggested that we try making ginger chews at home, I flashed back to my original thoughts on making marshmallows at home. Ginger chews are not "food" in my mind. Their ingredients could be spun gold, melted wishes, and Hobbit sneezes for all I know.
The Mister was undeterred, and I sat back skeptically as he made his first batch of chewy candies. Batch #1 was darn close, and my interest was piqued, I was by his side for Batch #2. By Batch #3 we were feeling confident that we had cracked the code on ginger chews. And with that, I share the recipe with you.
Ingredients & Equipment Needed:
Several pieces of fresh ginger
Liquid Maltose
White Sugar
Tapioca Starch
Electric Juicer
Electric Juicer
Sifter
Wax Paper
Saucepan
Wooden Spoon
Cutting Board
Sharp Knife
Take 1 cup of sugar and place in saucepan over medium heat. Melt sugar completely until it caramelizes. Add 2 tablespoons maltose and stir together. Add 3 tablespoons fresh ginger juice. Allow mixture to bubble together.
Place wax paper on a large plate or cutting board. Generously sift tapioca starch onto wax paper. With your finger, make gentle depressions in the starch and pour candy mixture onto the depressions. While you allow the mixture to cool, sift a bit more tapioca starch over them.
Once the pieces are cool enough to handle, use a cold knife and cut the candy strips into bite-sized pieces.
Store in an airtight container with ample tapioca starch to keep the pieces from melting together. Enjoy!
Notes: This recipe is a work in progress. If one of you reads this, tries it, and can improve upon it, please share your work! We are open to suggestions!
These ginger chews work wonders on scratchy throats and pesky coughs.
If your local markets don't carry Liquid Maltose and Tapioca Starch, try theses links.
Warning: These ginger chews are similar to the kind you would suck on, not actually CHEW on. Chewing them could cause you to pull out your dentures! Ask my father-in-law...
Happy cooking!
Lady, you are reading my mind!!! I was just thinking about how one would make these at home while I was running this morning! Very freaky. Anyway these look awesome--I'll still go the easy route and buy them at the store, but good to know if I had to I could make my own :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband LOVES these...maybe I'll try this for his birthday next month!
ReplyDeleteYummmm! My dad and Todd would freak out about this recipe. Maybe I should make a couple batches for fathers day. Also, ginger is really good for nausea. So I'll be whipping these up next time I get pregnant for sure! Love it, Megan!
ReplyDeleteYoSoyBlog!! Really? I love hearing that we're on the same wavelength... yours is a great one to be aligned with! :) What's your favorite brand of store-bough chews?
ReplyDeleteKristine- Ooooh! You are the cutest wife! DO IT!! <3
Jessica I'm a ginger ADDICT! Any time I make juices for breakfast I always put SO much ginger in them (Maybe the punch will help me ween off coffee? PS... any plans for baby #2? I cannot wait!! You are such a great mom! :)
xoxo
radmegan
"spun gold, melted wishes, and Hobbit sneezes" ????? MEGAN where do you come up with this stuff!?!!?!? I wish I was half as funny as you are! I read that line and laughed so hard I almost cried. I'm going to use those three ingredients somewhere, somehow. I don't know for what yet, but be sure you'll see them again!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Janee
yellowbirdyellowbeard.blogspot.com
would it work to substitute maltose with honey?
ReplyDeletei can't find liquid maltose (I'm in Toronto) - what could I replace it with?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure you can use malt extract
DeleteI am wondering why maltose is needed. Commercial ginger chews like chimes have 3 ingredients: sugar. ginger and tapioca. I was thinking of experimenting on my own to reproduce them myself and came across this site. I wonder what will happen if if a) don't include any maltose at all, b) just stir in a bit of the tapioca starch into the cold ginger juice before adding it to the heated sugar.
ReplyDeletetry adding some lemon juice to the ginger juice!
ReplyDeleteI think that you can substitute food-grade glycerin for the maltose. Glycerin can be used as a subtle sweetener and to keep foods soft, so it would seem appropriate here. You should be able to get it at grocery stores, pharmacies, or Bulk Barn.
ReplyDeleteI have not yet tried this recipe without using the maltose- Sorry, Toronto friend! - but I found OUR maltose at a local asian market- you might try there!
ReplyDeleteIf that doesn't work, try skipping the maltose altogether and cooking the sugar until it becomes a thick caramel- then add the liquid ginger. Then pour it onto the wax paper coated in tapioca powder. If you can't find tapioca powder either, try cornstarch!
Good luck!
I believe light corn syrup can be substituted for the liquid maltose.
ReplyDeleteI am REALLY excited to make these.. I've had the ingredients forever but haven't had a day off to try. Today is the day! Just wondering how you prepped your pan or cleaned it afterwards so as not to destroy it? I am remembering when I tried to make fudge as a kid and decided the ingredients were melted marshmallows and cocoa powder. My mom was not thrilled when her new pan was destroyed!
ReplyDeletecook it on or below medium and then you can boil water in it for a little while afterwards to dissolve the sugar.
DeleteThese were great! I only used 2 T of ginger juice and they were still a little strong so maybe I'll try 1 1/2 T next time. We also added some lemon Essential oil to some of the batch to see what it would taste like. Really great taste. Thanks so much for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteI've made crystalized ginger but have wanted to try my hand at making ginger chews. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteSo excited to give these a try. Love ginger anything! All I could find, though, is dried malt extract. I've done a good deal of searching online to find out if I could use it in lieu of the liquid maltose, but my searching has been fruitless. Does anyone know? Can I add water or some such to the dried extract? I'm stumped. And I'm just itching to make these ginger chews!
ReplyDelete@pinkpeppercorns- do you have an asian market near you? I found mine here: http://www.99ranch.com/ If you can't find the liquid maltose, try making a caramel from the sugar and then combining that with the remaining ingredients! Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteThis looks a lot like when I've made caramel with my mom (brown sugar and butter melted together and when we add baking soda it bubbles up like that!) With that in mind, I wonder if it would do the same thing here without the butter... I'm allergic to corn so maltose syrup is out for me but I eat Reed's and Ginger People's chew constantly!! Thank you for sharing, I'm excited to try.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear about the pan cleaning as well though- with the caramel I think we just washed everything straight away before it hardened... helpful to have 2 people, is it the same here?
so you put no water in the sugar when you melt it?? Wouldn't you have to put a little water in it?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI really REALLY want to try this.. I have ginger already cooked and in the freezer waiting for me to find the perfect recipe! I hope this is it. I just can't use the maltose because of the corn.. I'll try butter and see what becomes of it.
ReplyDeleteAMAZING! I LOVE ginger and recently found a box of Ginger Chews at a speciality market and had to guard them with my life because I thought I wouldn't be able to find them again and NOW I CAN MAKE THEM.
ReplyDeleteNamase,
Jenny
Tapioca flour, or more appropriately – cassava flour, is still produced and consumed in tropical countries where the cassava plant is indigenously grown. Gluten-Free Flour
DeleteJust made a batch of peanut butter ginger chews based on both this recipe and a ginger caramel recipe found at:
ReplyDeletehttp://mykitchenstudio.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/double-ginger-caramels/
My first batch (sans peanut butter)I tried to follow the directions here but didn't let the mixture get hard enough and it didn't set hence the search fora caramel recipe to follow. Mostly I was looking for the candy temperatures to make sure I hit the right stage. This will make this a huge comment but here's what I came up with,
*I didn't have maltose and used regular old corn syrup
Ginger Chews
1 cup white sugar
½ cup corn syrup
½ - ¾ cup ginger juice
Tbsp. lemon juice (optional)
Extra ginger powder (optional)
To make ginger juice, puree ginger and press through a sieve. I needed to add a few tbsp. of water to have my blender puree the ginger.
Mix together ginger and lemon juice. Add extra ginger power to taste.
Put sugar and corn syrup in a thick bottomed pot. Heat on medium stirring slowly with a silicone or wooden spoon. When the mixture is smooth and starting to bubble, measure temperature. Heat to 310F. Take mixture off heat and slowly and carefully stir in ginger/lemon juice. Mixture will be crazy bubbly. When the mixture is all smooth again, return to heat and heat to 248F. Make sure to stir the mixture on the bottom of the pot to reduce chance of burning.
Poor into a small heat proof pan lined with greased parchment or aluminum foil. I used a 7x7 ceramic dish.
Let cool, cut into squares and wrap in small squares of waxed paper, or coat in corn starch to prevent sticking.
Alternative:
Peanut butter ginger chews
Reduce ginger juice to ½ cup. Stir in ½ cup peanut butter (natural or not,crunchy or not, if all natural add a pinch of sea salt) to juice. Do not add lemon juice. Heat mixture in microwave to help the peanut butter mix.
Proceed as previously with recipe. Make sure to stir well after adding peanut butter mixture, it will start to burn as it reaches close to 248F.
Before pouring into pan, stir in one more tbsp. of peanut butter.
Cheers,
Janelle
What do you think of substituting arrow root for the tapioca/cassava/cornstarch?
ReplyDeletethanks!!! my mother is coming back from her trip and i was worried cause i finished all her ginger chews and in my country they don't sell it... i did them today... simply perfect... same taste same... "chewy" sensation
ReplyDeleteyou saved me :D I used organic brown sugar (instead of white) and corn starch (instead of tapioca cause here they don't sell it) I simply added a spoon of water to start the caramelization ^_^
Hey Guys, I was experimenting a little while making these and found a way to make them without liquid maltose and chewable! First I made a batch following this recipe, just to see how'd they'd turn out and Megan was right! You cannot chew those suckers!
ReplyDeleteBut I was determined to find a way to replicate the texture and taste of chimes ginger chews! Anyways, taking Megan and all the advice from the comments, I think I found a way to do that's pretty easy!! :) I thought I would share!
Mix 1 tbls of tapioca powder with 3 tbls of freshly squeezed ginger juice
(I chopped mine up into fine pieces, blended them, found a new pair of tights to use as a strainer, and squished the pulp for all it was worth!)
set this mixture aside
Heat up 1 cup of sugar on medium until it is all dissolved (be careful not to caramelize it for too long!)
add in the ginger/tapioca concoction and stir for about 30 seconds (just make sure everything is mixed in)
pour onto tapioca covered wax sheets and let dry (1 hour)
just cut the strips up and you're done! You have yourself some homemade Chimes inspiried ginger chews!
Granted, the recipe isn't perfect and the texture is still isn't close enough for my liking... but I thought I would share what I learned! I will be working on perfecting it soon!
Have a nice day!
Stephanie :)
I have seen on a turkish delight recipe that they used 1 tsp of cream of tartar, with cornstarch or tapioca starch.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!