Homemade Ginger Chocolates: Just a Tiny Bit Fiery
Delicious and characterful homemade ginger chocolates. No two will look the same. The recipe is a super easy one. You can use dark chocolate, milk chocolate or a mix of both. Why not make up a few gift bags for the ginger lovers in your life?
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my cookie and privacy statement for further details.
Homemade Ginger Chocolates
The first time I made these ginger chocolates, they were Christmas presents, so I wanted them to look good. As it turned out, they weren’t quite the uniform beauties I was hoping for. However, once I had a second glance, I realised they had their own charm and character. Now, this is exactly how I try to make them.
I used Chocolate by Trish for cooks to make these homemade ginger chocolates. I’ve already used her 74% dark chocolate buttons in these chestnut brownies and I was really pleased with the result. Likewise, I’ve also used her 38% milk chocolate buttons for this lemon balm ganache and was equally impressed with both the flavour and how easily they melted.
Such lovely shiny dark chocolates. These were my first ever and I was very excited. Sweet and fiery, slightly crunch pieces of crystallised ginger combined with good quality chocolate. What could be more delicious? Ginger and chocolate is one of my favourite combinations and turns out it’s popular with friends and family too.
As a milk chocolate lover, these are my favourite, but actually both are really good. These days I tend to just go with dark chocolate though. It’s easier to work with than milk and is substantially healthier too. So unless you’re really keen on milk chocolate, it might be an idea to start with dark.
Top Tips For Homemade Ginger Chocolates
These homemade ginger chocolates are probably one of the easiest chocolates you can make. But here are a few tips that might make things even easier.
Vegan Ginger Chocolates
Vegan chocolate is really easy to get hold of these days. If you’re on a dairy-free diet or a plant-based one, just use vegan certified chocolate to make these homemade ginger chocolates.
Chocolate Moulds
You can get chocolate moulds in any variety of forms. I find silicone ones the easiest to deal with. For these chocolates I used a 24 hole round silicone chocolate mould*.
I generally wipe a tiny amount of sunflower oil over my moulds before I use them. This makes unmoulding the chocolates a little easier and it gives them a shinier finish too.
How To Temper Chocolate
Tempering chocolate can be tricky if you only have a small amount of chocolate. It’s also a bit of an involved process. My quick and dirty method is a bit of a cheat, but it mostly gets reasonable results.
If you don’t temper chocolate, it will be bendy rather than snappy. It’s also likely to be dull and will develop a white bloom after a couple of days or so.
You’ll need to use a good quality cook’s chocolate or couverture. These have a higher cocoa butter content than normal chocolate which makes them easier to melt. Either finely chop the chocolate or make sure it’s in the form of small buttons.
Place two thirds of the chocolate in a heat proof bowl, then suspend it over a pan of nearly simmering water. Make sure steam can’t escape and that the bowl doesn’t touch the water. As soon as the chocolate has melted, give it a good stir. Remove from the heat and add the remaining chocolate. Leave for a few minutes to melt, before giving another good stir.
This is called the seeding method.
For the real deal you might want to do things a little more scientifically and use a thermometer. You’ll need a minimum of 300g of chocolate. More is always better when it comes to tempering. Basically, you heat the chocolate up to a certain temperature, then you cool it down, then heat it up again slightly. The temperatures needed for the different chocolates are as follows:
Dark chocolate
Melt until it reaches 40-45℃ (104-113℉) → cool to 27-28℃ (80-82℉) → reheat to a working temperature of 31-32℃ (88-89℉).
Milk chocolate
Melt until it reaches 32.5℃ (90℉) → cool to 27-28℃ (80-82℉) → reheat to a working temperature of no more than 30℃ (86℉).
White chocolate
Melt until it reaches 30.5℃ (87℉) → cool to 27℃ (80℉) → reheat to a working temperature of 28℃ (82℉).
Other Homemade Chocolate Recipes You Might Like
- Easy coffee truffles
- Mint chocolates
- Passionfruit caramel chocolates
- Sparkling chocolate mendiants
- Swirled chocolate bark
- Whisky truffles with dark chocolate & fresh cream
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these ginger chocolates, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?
If you’d like more homemade gift recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Homemade Ginger Chocolates. PIN IT.
Homemade Ginger Chocolates
Ingredients
- 150 g crystallised ginger
- 150 g dark chocolate (I used 74% cook’s chocolate buttons)
- 100 g milk chocolate (I used 38% cook’s milk chocolate buttons)
Instructions
- Chop the crystallised ginger into small pieces and place them at the bottom of each hole in a 24 piece round chocolate mould.150 g crystallised ginger
- Melt 110g of the dark chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of near simmering water.
- When melted, turn off the heat. Remove the bowl from the pan and add the remaining 40g.
- Resist the temptation to stir until these have also melted. Then stir until smooth.
- Spoon the chocolate over the ginger and fill the moulds to the top. Fill as many as you can.
- Bring the pan of water back up to a near simmer. Using the same bowl, melt the milk chocolate over the pan of water.100 g milk chocolate
- Spoon the melted chocolate over the remaining ginger pieces in the moulds that have not yet been filled.
- Lick out the bowl of lovely warm chocolate. Cook’s treat.
- Leave to set in a cool place, but not as cold as the fridge, for at least a couple of hours. Then turn out.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Post updated November 2021.
This post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk* or (affiliate link). If you buy through a link, it won’t cost you any more, but I might get a small commission. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
I’m in the middle of making these, and I seem to have way more ginger than can fit in the 24 piece silicone mold. The molds came in a pack of two, and so I can use the second mold if needed. Should I be packing in the ginger real full?
I’m also confused about step 7, which says to pour the chocolate over the remaining ginger pieces? What does that mean?
Thank you.
Hi Kathy. I guess it depends on the size of your moulds, some will be bigger than others. There is a lot of ginger in these chocolates, so fill them nearly to the top, but only loosely, don’t press it down. Step 7 is for the milk chocolate part, so for any you haven’t already filled with dark chocolate. Assuming you use different chocolates, otherwise go for all dark or all milk. I hope that clarifies things. I’ll try and make it clearer in the instructions.
These ginger chocolates would make perfect gifts, I would love to try making them with dark chocolate!
Despite my love of milk chocolate, I think dark chocolate goes best with ginger really.
What a perfect snack! These ginger chocolates were perfectly flavored! I loved them!
If you like ginger, these chocolates really hit the spot. So glad you liked them.
I am loving these ginger chocolates! So delicious and easy to make!
Delicious and easy to make is how it should be. Pleased you like them and thanks for letting me know.
Kath – I’m rather envious of those violet and rose creams, especially the rose ones – yum! Now I know you must be a generous woman – you wouldn’t catch me handing out anything from a “specially for me” box of chocolates, well, unless they were coffee ones.
Mr OC knows how to keep me sweet. There wasn’t enough cherry chocolates this year though. But I was surprised at how strangely addictive the violet and rose creams were. I let them have the occasional one or two (well one actually).
Thanks BVG, I was pleased with them.
one of my favourite combinations – they look amazing.
Celia – thank you. I’ve looked at thermometers in the shops but have only seen jam ones and they are huge. Will have a look for your digital probe.
Kitchenmaid and Mr Pineapple – thank you
looks so delicious!!
So shiny, Choc! They look most fine! I always find milk chocolate harder to temper than dark (milk is a bit more temperature sensitive at both ends – as it’s heating and again when cooling). My tip? Buy a digital probe thermometer, you’ll never look back. 🙂
Ananda – thank you. I was really pleased with these, but don’t know if I will be as lucky a second time.
Chele – maybe I can come around to you for lessons – simple to do? Really?
CityHippy – I just keep thinking of your great tempering post and know I have a long way to go.
Busy Nest – thank you
Hazel – thank you and thanks for the book recommendation.
Janice – thank you. Maybe we should start a ginger chocolate fan club; there are so many of us out there 😉
FoodyCat – thank you. “Totally impressed” has filled me with pride – dare I do it again and fall flat on my face?
Mary – you are so right there, I haven’t found it at all easy. But will hopefully get better.
C – thank you. I really do want to try and master it. I won one of Celia’s chocolate moulds and really want to be able to use it – moi? Scared? Will be interested to see how you get on, if and when you do give it a go.
Kath – ginger and chocolate is a real winner. But I guess I would say that wouldn’t I 😉 Glad you had your very own box of chocolates to enjoy – anything else of note?
Liz – it’s my mother’s favourite combination too. I’ve been trying to find a chocolate course in Cornwall, but have had no luck so far – a simple one for home bods like me.
Gillian – thanks for the tile tip – I now feel completely terrified ;-0
Suelle – thank you, it’s nice to get encouragement for my rather bodged attempt. But actually, I quite like the pieces of ginger showing too.
Johanna – thank you. Let’s hope I learn something to pass on 😉
Sarah-Jane – yes I hear from others that Callebaut is the way to go, but it seems you can only buy it in really large quantities. Any recommendations on a good chocolate melting pot?
Dom – you know how to schmooze. Feel great now, thanks 😉
Sushma – thank you. Ginger and chocolate seems to be popular with so many people.
Joanna – thank you. It was more by luck than judgement and I have no idea if I’ll be able to get such good results a second time!
Torview – you must try it, ginger and chocolate go very well together.
I’m very impressed – they look great. I keep meaning to have a go at tempering chocolate too, but haven’t yet got round to it. Perhaps this year… I’ll be following your attempts with interest. Chocolate and ginger is always a winning combination too!
Candy making is not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. Your morsels look delicious. That chocolate and ginger combo is hard to beat. These sound delicious. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
They look perfect! I am totally impressed.
wowzer, these are the real deal! Gorgeous and with my favourite ginger too!
Congratulations on your first tempering experience! These look great! I hope to master it someday too. I, and most food scientists including Heston, swear by Harold McGee’s ‘On Food and Cooking’. It has an incredible amount of information and I know for a fact that there’s a few pages about tempering in there!
I love ginger and chocolate. These look wonderful!
Look at that gloss and shine!
Looks like it worked to me. I don;t find tempering chocolate hard, just time consuming and I think that might be what puts a lot of people off, but its pretty simple to do and it gets great results like this!
you have done it congrats! tempering i have never dared to try …u have got it so perfectly i can see the gloss on the chocolate …looks very beautiful 🙂
delicious flavours can’t remember if I have had this combination
Congratulations ! You did it!
looks too good…loved the ginger flavour…
well they look like jewels… i’d be more than happy to be given them!… such a delightful post x
I spent a fortune wasting chocolate and getting the mildew like results from commercial sweetie brands or using it too hot.
For me, it’s Callebaut all the way – and a chocolate melting pot. I haven’t used a thermometer with it to date – but have been getting good results and sheen.
Your chocolate gingers look yummy !
looks great – I have no clues about tempering but would be fascinated to learn about it from a true chocolate lover like yourself
I love the way the chocolate has flowed around the ginger pieces, but not covered them completely. One of those things which you might not have intended, and probably wouldn’t happen again, but it really makes the chocolates look unique!
Oh ginger and dark choc is my fav too. I love the way the ginger is not fully enrobed – asserting itself!
My tip for tempering: ask the local tile shop for a marble tile … one from a discontinued line even. This is a great way to cook the chocolate once melted.
These are my Mum’s favourite things in the whole world – how great to have a recipe. I’ve aways been put off by tempering too – let us know how you get on…
Oh my goodness these look good, I had a couple of ginger chocolates in my specially for me box of chocs at Christmas and I am now a complete convert to the loveliness of them. I am going to give these a go.