By Sarah Kauzmann | February 19, 2026
I’ve officially decided, to absolutely no one’s surprise, the best gifts are those you can eat. Over the years for holidays, birthdays, and special occasions I’ve made everything from cakes (duh) to homemade vegetable dumplings, to beef jerky and apple butter, to homemade marzipan and garlic powder (pretty sure my house still smells like roasted garlic).
Candied Ginger
2025 was no different, I made limoncello for my sister-in-law’s birthday, a pretty epic cake for my mom, and for Christmas I really outdid myself with a giant homemade drumstick ice cream cone for my dad (actually the size of his head) and for my brother and sister-in-law (and some for my best friend too), I made candied ginger!
Turns out it’s not as tricky as I imagined. You start with peeling fresh ginger root then cutting it into slices about a 1/8th inch thick. I did this with a sharp knife and cutting board but using a mandolin would probably be easier and achieve more consistent thicknesses.
Once your ginger is all sliced, it all goes into a pot to boil with some water. I threw in some lemon peels (I used a peeler to take off just the yellow part of the lemon in long strips, I did NOT zest it, this is important, I will explain later) to add a little extra flavor. After about 30 minutes, you reserve ½ cup of that water and drain the rest.
Now it’s time for candy-ing!
The ginger goes back in the pot with the reserved ginger water, sugar, and a little salt (don’t be afraid of salt when baking!) and let it simmer until a candy thermometer reads 225°F, usually around 35-40 minutes.
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Now drain the liquid off into a bowl, but do not throw it away! This liquid is some of the best stuff around. It can be added to club soda or seltzer to make ginger ale or to cocktails or mocktails for an added zing of sweet ginger. Let liquid cool and keep it in a glass jar to use over the next few weeks!
After draining the ginger candies, they will be too sticky to coat with sugar just yet. Instead, and this part takes a bit of time, separate them out onto a cooling rack so they are not touching. Allow them to cool and slightly dry out for 1-2 hours. It took around an hour in my house because I have a woodstove which makes the air very dry, so just keep an eye on them. You want them to be sticky but not wet so the sugar sticks but doesn’t completely dissolve.
Once the desired stickiness is achieved, toss them in a bowl with some sugar then put them back on the cooling rack. Leave them to fully dry out for another few hours or overnight. Then enjoy the spicy sweetness of candied ginger!
A note on the lemon peels: the strips of lemon peel went along this whole process with the ginger: boil, candy, dry, sugar, dry. This means by the end we also had candied lemon peel which I carefully separated out during the last step. This wouldn’t have been possible if I had just zested the lemon into little bits and thank goodness I didn’t zest because the candied lemon peel was amazing! The candied ginger was obviously delicious but the candied lemon peel truly stole the show. I was only disappointed I didn’t make more but have no fear, it’s already in the works to make more in 2026!
Sarah Kauzmann, MHS ’12, Lehigh Univ. Masters ’17, has been baking since she was old enough to hold a spoon. She is the owner/operator of pipitsbakery.com
