Chocolate Ginger Candy Experiment

 

It's a few minutes after midnight. Soon I am going to turn the heat on and melt these ingredients together from a recipe that I've been contemplating for over a month.

On January 6th, I began this experiment with the purchase of a bottle of Everclear and a 1/2 pound of ginger root. I peeled the root and shredded it in a blender. Half of which I covered in booze the other half in water. But for this experiment, I am concerning myself with the ginger and the booze. My aim was to make a tincture. I know that this works with flowers like chamomile or st johns wart.

In Washington state, the sale of 190 proof alcohol is illegal. Thus, Everclear sells a dumbed down version of its moonshine for us Washingtonian wimps. I'm hoping that 75.5% alcohol will be pure enough to suck the ginger soul out of the wood and infuse its unique boldness into the booze. I guess, I'll have to wait and see.

Here is the recipe that I conjured out of the moon from a talisman and a stray black familiar. I rolled a ten sided dice and this is the magic that appeared on the parchment:

•  3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• ~2 tlbs butter
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• ~8 oz marshmallows
• 1/2 cup ginger booze
• ~2.5 cups 60% Cacao  bittersweet chocolate
• 8 oz 100% Cacao Unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup boozed up ginger chunks
• 1/2 cup dried cherries

(the elements in order of entry into a bubbling wizards black iron cauldron)

{For the results of this arcane experiment, scroll
down to the depths of that dark oblivion
called the bottom of the post}



The 36 day old everclear ginger brine & hmm



















Simple Just Butter & Brown Sugar



Add the Cream. It's heavy like my music

 

Cherries, Ginger chunks, and Ginger Booze




It's thick like honey...not really



An overview of some of the ingredients





Look at the chocolate beotch




the butter is starting to melt into the cream & sugar



Looks like Alien guts...almost time to add the ginger booze




It's almost ready; everything is in the pot

 


the molten madness poured out like a flow of obsidian

 




All gone. I hope it sets up

  
..... eight hours later ...





peeling off the tin-foil hat reveals a solid stream of chocolate madness






the final product



I am slightly disappointed. It is creamy and (too) sweet like a fudge. Some bites taste more like ginger than others.I was hoping for the texture to be more chewy like a three Musketeers or a Mars candy bar, but not taffy like a Charleston Chews. The batch I made at the end of December / top of January was perfect; unfortunately, I forgot the recipe. It is lost someplace in annuals of my head---I should have written it down. I am a poor scientist in my old age.

For the next time, I need to decrease the sugar and cream to a 1/2 cup and increase the ginger booze chunks to over a 1/2 cup and allow some of the booze to plump up the other added dried fruits.