Spicy homemade ginger ale

Ginger Ale

Spicy ginger ale, June 2011

One of my favorite restaurants is Big Bowl. I used to eat at their various locations when I lived in Minnesota and later when visiting family in the Chicago area. I like their food, made with fresh ingredients and nice Asian flavors, but I keep going back for their fresh-tasting, spicy ginger ale. This recipe makes ginger ale that tastes just like theirs, or maybe even better. It has a spicy kick and uses raw sugar (also called turbinado sugar or washed cane sugar), which adds subtle flavor not present in white sugar.

Homemade Ginger Ale
5.0 from 1 reviews
Print
Recipe type: Beverage
Author:
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup peeled and coarsely grated fresh ginger (about 3 ounces)
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup raw cane (turbinado) sugar
  • Sparkling water or club soda
Instructions
  1. Peel ginger with a paring knife, and coarsely grate.
  2. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, boil 1 1/2 cups water. Pour 1/2 cup of the boiling water into a small heatproof measuring pitcher. Add sugar and stir to dissolve.
  3. Place grated ginger into the remaining 1 cup boiling water in the saucepan and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Turn off heat, cover and allow to steep 20 minutes.
  4. Place a strainer over a small bowl. Pour steeped ginger-water mixture through strainer. Press ginger to extract liquid. Discard ginger pulp. Add sugar-water mixture and stir. Pour ginger syrup into pint jar, cover and chill.
  5. For 8-ounce serving, place ice in a tall glass and pour in 2/3 cup sparkling water or club soda and 1/3 cup of the ginger syrup. For other quantities, ratio is 2 parts sparkling water to 1 part ginger syrup. Stir and enjoy.
Serving size: 8 ounces. Calories: 106; Fat: 1g; Carbohydrates: 25g; Sugar: 18g.
Note
(Recipe adapted from Simplyrecipes.com.) 

 

Shared at It’s a Keeper Thursday and Linkup Party Mindie Style at Bacon Time With the Hungry Hungry Hypo.


4 Responses to “Spicy homemade ginger ale”

  1. Lisa says:

    Thank you for posting this! I just had Big Bowl’s ginger ale for the first time last week and was blown away. This recipe is just like it 🙂 The only problem….now I’m going to want it on a daily basis!

  2. mindie says:

    I love ginger ale. When I was a kid we only got it when we were sick.

    I would love for you to link this and more up to my linky party that runs Friday evening through Sunday night. You can find the button for the party at http://www.bacontimewiththehungryhypo.blogspot.com/

    Our last party, the first ever, had over 300 links so this week there will be a special give away just for linkers, hope to see you soon.

    Come strut your stuff!


Leave a Reply to mindie

Rate this recipe: