Saturday, June 18, 2011

Ginger Syrup

(about 1 pint)

I love ginger-ale, but it has a lot of sugar in it. I have never been fond of "diet" soda. I'd rather they cut the amount of sugar in half than replacing it with something artificial. I've tried Stevia, but I don't care for that either.

This week I decided to try making my own syrup to combine with sparkling water. I was very happy with the result.The syrup was very gingery with a nice touch of lemon.



1/3 lb fresh ginger
1 large lemon
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar

Peel the ginger and cut it up. Remove the rind from the lemon taking care not to get any of the white bitter pith. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and place that into a non reactive (such as stainless steel) saucepan.


Place both the ginger and lemon rind into the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times until the mixture is finely chopped taking care not to over-process into a paste.


Add the ginger mixture to the lemon juice in the saucepan. Add the water and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 5 -7 minutes.

Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan. Leave at room temperature overnight.

The next day strain the mixture through a cheesecloth, squeezing it to extract as much juice as possible. Return the liquid to the saucepan and add the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 3-5 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool. Keep refrigerated.

Add 1 tablespoon, or to taste to a glass of mineral or plain soda water.

10 comments:

Torviewtoronto said...

beautiful delicious drink cooling as well

Sue/the view from great island said...

I can't wait to try this, I was just about to embark on a day of simple syrup makings for summer drinks, and it seems like a lot of my favorites feature ginger, and I can never get enough lemon!

Gerlinde in Washington said...

What sorts of syrups do you make?

Sue/the view from great island said...

We were planning to try mint, grenadine (from pomegranates), citrus, maybe. I'm not sure about the shelf life of the flavored syrups, so we might have to take it one at a time. Can't wait to try yours first, though because we have a lot of ginger lovers in our house.

Gerlinde in Washington said...

Hmm.. grenadine sounds very interesting. I have 2 pomegranate trees in my backyard, but they don't look very promising this year.. no blossoms.

Jennie said...

Oh my, this syrup sounds so good!! Great to keep on hand for those hot Summer days!

Ruth Ellis said...

Hi there - I'm writing a Daring Kitchen Food Talk article - it's a homemade edible gifts roundup, and I'd really like to include this, with a picture and a link to your post. It sounds like a splash of it would be brilliant in hot wintery drinks too.
Can you confirm if this is OK?
Thanks!
Ruth
http://makey-cakey.blogspot.com

Gerlinde in Washington said...

Ruth.. Yes, it's fine with me. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I really want to try this! But can you tell me how long can I save it in the fridge please?

Gerlinde in Washington said...

Mine lasted about 3 weeks.. it might have lasted another week or so, but I used it up at that point.

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