Candied Ginger

I have a recipe for a cookie that I make at Christmas called ginger cracks.  They're like a ginger cookie with an extra bite - compliments of candied ginger.  Candied ginger keeps for a long time and is good in lots of things - muffins, cookies, pancakes.  It's really good with all thing rhubarb too.
 
I made candied ginger yesterday.  I used to buy it.  I would have to make a special trip to Williams Sonoma and buy a can of it.  It was quite expensive.  

Fresh ginger is very inexpensive.  It's probably quite a bit per pound, but it's so light, that it actually doesn't cost very much at all.  I bought two 'hand's at the store yesterday for less than $3. 

Here is how you make candied ginger:

Peel as much as you want (I ended up with about a cup and a half) 
Chop it up quite fine (although you can slice it too)
Cover it with cold water two inches over the top of the ginger
Bring it to a boil, cover and reduce the heat
Simmer for 45 minutes
After 45 minutes, turn the heat off and let it sit until everything cools down
Strain the ginger, saving 1/4 cup of the liquid

Here is the trickiest part. Weigh the ginger. (I have a scale that I use to weigh yarn, so I had to go upstairs to get my scale. Yes, it's a kitchen scale, but it resides in my craft room).

Weigh out an equal amount of sugar
Combine the ginger, sugar, and reserved liquid in the same pan you used to boil the ginger
Bring it to a boil

You have to keep a bit of an eye on this. Stir it once in a while. It will look like there is way too much liquid and it is never going to crystalize. But amazingly, in the blink of an eye, it will. One minute you will be stirring, you'll turn away to do somethng else (in the kitchen I hope) and when you turn back to stir, the sugar will have crystalized and everything will look dry.

Take it off the burner, and put it on some parchment to cool down. At this point you should separate the ginger so it doesn't all stick together in a clump.

When it's cool, put it in a jar and use with all of your favorite recipes. This recipe is so awesome - it takes a bit of time, but very little hands on time - and it's SO simple.  I've heard of people that dip slices of candied ginger in chocolate and let them get hard.  I've never tried it myself - the candied ginger seems a bit too strong to me to eat by itself.

Now when I get around to making my cookies in a week or two I'll have lovely homemade candied ginger to put in them.