Homemade Ginger Ale

The kids and I have had fun making a few batches of ginger ale. It is very easy and in my opinion very good but if you think of it in comparison to other commercial ginger ales it is not going to tasste the same. It is a lot easier to make then root beer. Here is what you need:

1) Empty clean 2 ltr plastic bottle with cap
We use our left over 2 liter bottles from club soda for bottling our ginger ale. Wash them out and they are ready to go. It is not recommended to use glass because it is much harder to judge the fermentation. Exploding glass bottles are dangerous. You also need a funnel and a grater with fine teeth.

2) Ingredients for each 2 ltr bottle include:
-sugar 1 cup
-freshly ground ginger 1.5 to 2 tablespoons
-1/4 tsp of yeast
- cold fresh pure water
-optional juice of 1 lemon

3) Use the funnel and pour 1 cup of sugar into the bottle. Add 1/4 tspn of yeast. Cap and shake.

4) Use the funnel and add your ground ginger. If you add the lemon then you should add this to the ginger when you put it in the funnel.

5) Pour water into the funnel and the ginger will wash down the funnel into the bottle. It it gets stuck use a plunger (not from the bathroom it would be too big). I used a skewer to get the ginger moving. Add about half a bottles worth of water then cap and shake to mix the sugar yeast with the water. Continue to add cold fresh water until 1 inch from the top of the bottle.

6) Cap the bottle and let sit for as long as you dare. For the last batch I went about 10 hours or so but you can probably go 48 hours before it explodes. You can experiment. You can easily judge by squeezing the bottle to see hard hard it gets.

5) Open slowly and easily unless you like to clean up a mess. I like to strain off the major ginger sludge with a strainer and pour it back in the bottle. If you think it needs more fizz then you can let it sit out for 8 hrs and it will fizz back up. Put in the refrigerate and enjoy your homemade ginger ale.

Warning: this can contain some alcohol somewhere in the range of 0.4%.

You can experiment with the amount of sugar, ginger, lemon and also how long to ferment it. We haven't tried it yet but it would be fun to see how long it takes to explode the bottle.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

This recipe is for lovers of chocolate. A little bit goes a long way. It is becoming a winter holiday tradition in our house. This can be made Mexican style or not. I will admit that I have made it American style because I did not have any cinnamon sticks.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup milk

1 cup heavy whip cream (or half and half if you want)

4 oz semisweet chocolate chopped (I use chocolate chips makes for less work)

1/8 of a vanilla bean (shop around Albertson's wanted $10 a bean but I found them for $3 elsewhere)

2/3 cinnamon stick

1/3 tsp almond extract

Directions:

Combine milk, cream, cinnamon sticks and vanilla in a 1 quart stainless steel pot and bring mixture to a boil. Have prepared chocolate in a mixing bowl. Allow the heated liquid to steep (rest off the heat) for 5 minutes, take out the vanilla bean, then pour over the top of the chopped chocolate. Stir the chocolate mixture until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
Pour the warm mixture through a strainer and it is ready to serve. Serve immediately or refrigerate. To reheat, place chocolate mixture in a 2 quart stainless steel pot on low heat -- do not let sit, or it will burn. Stir mixture until warm. Immediately serve and place in 4 oz. portions with a dollop of slightly sweetened, softly whipped cream and a light dusting of cinnamon.
Serves four.

This is the site the recipe was stolen from. You can listen to the story if you like.

P.S. If you have the idea that you want to make this for a large group and if you decide to keep it warm in say a crock pot for hours at a time be warned that as the milk steams off the hot chocolate turns from thick hot chocolate to ganache to pudding. It is still good but not quite the same.