Stem ginger balls in syrup...

[Wingedharpy]

will they mash down to a pulp?
I'm attempting to impress DH with my culinary skills and want to make him some soft, moist ginger cupcakes.
Have found a recipe that includes the above but, I know him very well and know he won't like the texture of chopped bits of ginger balls but if I can mash these down with a potato masher or something, then mix them in, that may work.

I've never used ginger in syrup so don't know what the texture of it is like to start with.

Any thoughts?

PS. Moistness of cake will be essential.

Very hard. Sweet but really hard.

You can chop them very finely, I do that when I use it in Turkey burgers. I'm not sure if they'd mash. Although you could whizz them in a blender.

I doubt they would mash. You might be able to blend them (but I can’t guarantee it won’t break your blender.)

I wouldn't say they're hard, as much as .....tough. They chop very easily.

God I love them. They are really fibrous though, think they would just go that and stingy

Try grating them maybe?

They won’t mash but you can chop finely and then you won’t get big chunks. Think grating would be a very sticky business and would also be difficult as they are very slippy guff CD be the syrup!

I recently made pear and ginger muffins with ground ginger plus chopped stem ginger and they were great, so good luck!

*because of the syrup

They would blend, they are not hard enough to break a blender! Not the ones I buy anyway. They might sort of smush together rather than mix in with the other ingredients though. The syrup has a ginger flavour, so you could add this with the wet ingredients or maybe drizzle the syrup over the cakes when they are still warm from the oven.

Definitely grate them. My DD makes a lovely stem ginger cake and grates them in.

I think you'd struggle to mash them, and agree with PP they'd prob go stringy if grated. I think I'd use the syrup out of the jar plus powdered ginger tbh. Thinking about it you can also buy it in a jar with the ginger chopped up really finely...I used it in ginger cookies the other week and you couldn't really notice the 'bits' when They were cooked.

You could try freezing and grating maybe on the basis that fresh ginger grates much more easily once frozen?

Wow!
I'm impressed with the speedy responses - thank you all.
Sadly, I don't possess a blender, or a food processor.
I will attempt the grating method and, if all else fails, get something shop bought!
The danger is, of course, they will be a real pain to make but he'll love them and then I'll be trapped forevermore.

I'd have put them in a food processor, but if you haven't got one I'd settle for chopping them as small as you can with just a sharp knife. They are sticky but in my experience quite soft, so not difficult to chop. I like a drizzle of the syrup over a slice of melon, if you're looking for a use for that!

Use a garlic crusher? May get stringy though

I've just added them to
My online shopping - I make oaty shortbread biscuits with chopped stem ginger

Sainsbury's do frozen grated ginger if that helps.

You can buy ginger jam or similar which is not that different. It’s already chopped and mushed up. I’d go for that plus some powdered ginger.

They grate beautifully to a sticky paste

Stuff that. Put one and a good drizzle of it in the bottom of a glass and top up with cava or Prosecco - delicious!