These homemade ginger chews are great to settle a yucky tummy – they are made with simple ingredients that come together quite fast!
Have you ever had Ginger Chews? They are something that you should always carry with you. They are great to settle a yucky tummy after you eat something that wasn’t agreeable. They’re even better for those who struggle with nausea.
Homemade Ginger Chews
Ginger is both sweet and spicy – and these chews are a mixture of both. Definitely a little hot – but not in a bad way. They are addictive, if you allow them to be. However, they are not something you will want to eat all the time since they are high in sugar.
Ginger is a perennial herb that thrives in most parts of southern Asia, Jamaica, Nigeria, and the West Indies. It’s wonderful for helping to support nausea, car sickness, digestion, even inflammation.
It can help support muscle pain and combat morning sickness, too.
Why Ginger?
Ginger contains chromium, magnesium, and zinc, all of which are key ingredients in maintaining healthy blood flow. It’s also been shown to help asthma by coating the airways.
They are pretty easy to make. You’ll want to make sure you have a good candy thermometer (I can recommend THIS one – it works great for me!)
Homemade Ginger Chews
Equipment
- Candy thermometer
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2.5 C water
- 1/2 C packed shredded ginger root
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 C honey
- 3/4 C organic cane sugar
Instructions
- Grate the ginger root in a measuring cup and pack it down to 1/2 C.
- Add the ginger root to the 2.5 C. water in a medium saucepan and set the temperature on the burner to low/medium and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes or until about half of the liquid has evaporated.
- Strain the ginger, and keep 1 1/4 cup of the liquid.
- Grease a small glass dish (I used an Anchor Hocking 7x4 dish) generously with coconut oil. Then lay parchment in the dish, and grease the parchment generously as well.
- Pour the ginger liquid in the saucepan and combine the honey, vanilla extract and sugar - stir well, and bring to a rolling boil until the temperature reaches 250-266 degrees F.
- Once the temperature starts to rise, keep an eye on the mixture - as the syrup gets thicker, the color will go darker and the bubbles smaller. Do not leave the pan unattended, as i t can burn in a matter of seconds.
- To test the mixture and determine if it's ready, grab a cup of COLD water, and drop a bit of the mixture in the water - the mixture should not be too hard but not too runny either.
- Once you believe the mixture is just right (250-266 degrees F should be perfect), turn off the stove and pour the mixture into the greased glass dish.
- Allow the mixture to cool for 30 minutes if not longer (we let ours cool a few hours!)
- Pull the parchment out of the dish and lay the chews evenly on the counter. Use a sharp knife to cut small pieces and wrap in parchment paper, twist the ends and store in a glass jar.
Notes
Have you ever tried making ginger chews? If you make these chews, let us know how they turn out!
Please leave a comment, rate the recipe and be sure to tag me on Instagram!
How long can these be stored?
Debbie, when properly stored, 2-3 years. But.. they will lose potency over time. They usually don’t last longer than a few months at my house. Hope that helps!
I just got done making these. Of course I had to ‘sample’ it as it progressed. I did add 1/2 tsp to it before the last stage of cooking…it tastes amazing! I just hope they help some with my husband’s migraines.
So glad you enjoyed them! I love ginger chews.. and I always try to have them on hand at home.
I meant 1/2 tsp cinnamon lol. And hubby says that they do work for his headaches.
Delicious! I had a lot of difficulty cutting the chews. I used coconut oil on the knife but that did not help. I ended up pulling it and making balls. Any suggestions? Thank you!
You shouldn’t have that much trouble provided you don’t go too long (with cooking) .. the longer you go the harder they will be to cut. Sounds like you managed to make it work with balls (which I would have never thought!) That’s genius actually.
Maybe throwing them in the freezer for a 15-20 min period might help cut them easier? Let me know what you think 🙂 Glad you liked them!
I use my kitchen shears. I dip them in very hot water first.
That’s a great tip!
I’m going to try this recipe … but skip the first part … I have a juice and can extract the juice straight from the ginger root. Think it’ll work? It will likely be way stronger than a watered version … but hey, you can never have enough ginger in your life, right? 🙂
Give it a try! I do agree with you… you can’t ever have enough ginger!
Have you ever done them with just honey? Do you think it would work? Sugar tends to make my morning sickness worse, but I can’t find a ginger candy recipe without it.
I haven’t.. but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
I made my first batch with a wildflower raw honey. Too floral.
My second batch I left out the vanilla and used clover honey. Best ginger chews I ever had❣️
Was this just with honey and no sugar? I’m wondering the same thing. If I can eliminate the sugar or replace with something else without altering the flavor too much. If so, what was the amount of honey used?
Nope, honey alone won’t set up correctlly, at least not to be chews (maybe syrup though).
Also, at these temperatures the good stuff in honey is deactivated so why bother.
When do you add the vanilla?
Melissa – with the honey and sugar. Hope that helps.
I followed the given recipe but stopped at about 240 degrees. They were like hard candy. Going to try it again when my new candy thermometer gets here. They are delicious, but definitely not chews.
I have to tell you the bad news–you went over 250 degrees to get hard candy–that’s just physics. Hope your new thermometer helps.
This is for the naturalists who want to preserve the bioactive ingredients in the Ginger–and honey too. At temperatures above 130 degrees most of the good active ingredients in ginger are DEACTIVATED (however, FYI, shoals–which shows anticancer behavior– can only be extracted at temperatures above 250 degrees for 3 hrs. in extract process), the same thing happens to honey above about 150 deg. What I do is cook the sugar and corn syrup up to the 260 -265 degree “chew” temperature range for a few minutes and wait till it cools down to about 150 degrees (which quickly drops after diluting) before adding fresh squeezed (from freshly shredded organic ginger root-briefly steamed to facilitate extraction volume) “cold pressed” ginger extract and the vanilla and honey. Not only are ALL the bioactive ingredients preserved but the robust flavors as well. The only issue with this is you then have to add tapioca flour into the mix to absorb the extra fluid so it will achieve “chewability” upon cooling. Another alternative is to (air) dehydrate sliced fresh organic ginger root and grind into a powder–which mostly eliminates need for tapioca flour.
Thank you so much for all of this great information, Dave! Incredible suggestions!
Would keeping some of the shredded ginger in the candy be a bad idea?
I haven’t tried it, but you’re certainly welcome to.