Tanghulu (candied fruit on a stick)

a hand holding three skewers of Tanghulu with glazed grapes and strawberries.

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Tanghulu (candied fruit on a stick)

Tanghulu (candied fruit on a stick) is a traditional Chinese snack, featuring candy coated fruits threaded on skewers. Take a bite and enjoy the crunch of brittle shattering sugar syrup surrounding juicy grapes and berries.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: skewers (7-8 inch long wooden skewers)

Calories: 151kcal

Author: Jennifer Fishkind

Ingredients

1 cup green grapes rinsed and patted dry very well
10-12 small strawberries approximately 1 ½ inch in size
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons light, clear corn syrup

Instructions

Line a medium sized baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Rinse the green grapes under cool running water and pat them dry really well with a paper towel and place them onto a plate. Set aside.
1 cup green grapes
Rinse the strawberries under cool running water and pat them dry really well. Using a small sharp paring knife hull the strawberries by removing the stem and leaves from each strawberry. Do not make too large of a hole when doing this. Place the hulled, and dried, strawberries onto a plate.
10-12 small strawberries
Using the sharp end of a 7-8 inch wooden skewer, thread 2-3 pieces of fruit onto the tips of each skewer. You can either keep your grapes and strawberries separate, or you can mix and match them. Place all the fruit threaded skewers onto a plate and set aside while you prepare the sugar mixture.
In a 3-quart heavy-duty saucepan, add the granulated sugar, water, and light corn syrup. Do not stir to avoid crystallizing the sugar.
2 cups granulated sugar, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons light, clear corn syrup
Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the saucepan and heat on medium-low.
While leaving the saucepan undisturbed, allow the mixture to come to a boil and cook until a light golden brown (amber) color and the candy thermometer reads 300°F (hard crack stage). Turn off the heat to the saucepan. This can take between 20-30 minutes depending on how well your saucepan heats up and how your stove top burners heat up. Do not rush this step. by turning up the heat as you will run the risk of burning the sugar. If you burn the sugar mixture, you will have to start over again with a fresh saucepan of sugar, water and corn syrup.
Working quickly, dip a fruit skewer into the hot sugar syrup, allowing as much excess syrup to drip back into the saucepan, then place the candy coated fruit skewer onto the prepared baking sheet.
Repeat until all the fruit skewers have been coated in the candy syrup and placed onto the prepared baking sheet. You will need to work quickly with this step as the sugar syrup will start to harden as it cools.
Allow the candy coated fruit skewers to cool completely, to harden to a hard candy coating, before plating and serving.

Notes

Storage:

Do not refrigerate these Tanghulu. They are best served at room temperature and do not do well when frozen for longer storage.

Tips:

You do not want any more than 3 pieces of fruit per skewer as the fruit needs to be able to be fully emerged by the hot sugar coating inside the saucepan.
If you are very careful, you can tilt your saucepan slightly while dipping the fruit skewers to allow more of the sugar syrup to coat the fruit a little higher up on the skewer.
Please be mindful that you are working with extremely hot sugar for this recipe. This can cause severe burns if the hot sugar touches your skin. This is not a recipe for the kids to help make. It is best that they watch from a safe distance and enjoy the finished product.
For best results, you want to make sure that your fruit is very dry before dipping into the hot sugar syrup. If the fruit is wet, the sugar coating will not stick to the fruit.
If you rush the process of cooking the sugar and water by turning up the burner heat, you run the risk of burning or crystalizing the sugar. This can take between 20-30 minutes depending on how well your saucepan heats up and how your stove top burners heat up. If this happens, you will need to start over from scratch with a fresh batch of sugar, water and corn syrup.
Try experimenting with some of your other favorite fruits to thread onto the skewers. I most prefer Tanghulu recipes made with berries and grapes, but as long as the outer surface of the fruit is dry, many others will work. Oranges, peeled clementines, blueberries, and blackberries are some of my other favorites.

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