Tanghulu Recipe (Chinese Candied Fruit Skewers)

Tanghulu are Chinese candied fruit covered in a thin, crunchy layer of hard sugar syrup. This Asian snack is brilliantly coloured and makes any fruit look like a glossy strand of big pearls on a stick. 

Our easy tanghulu recipe will show you how to make this Chinese candied fruit treat, which is popular as street candy in Korea.

We'll show you the best way to dip these colourful skewered fruits in sugar syrup without making a mess. We'll also show you a few simple tricks to make our recipe without corn syrup or a candy thermometer.

Jump to:

• What Is Tanghulu Made Of?
• Tanghulu Ingredients
• How To Make Tanghulu Sugar
• Tanghulu Recipe | Chinese Candied Fruit Skewers
• How to make candied fruit without a thermometer
• Alternative Method: Use Liquid Food Colouring
• How To Store Tanghulu
• Variations

What Is Tanghulu Made Of?

Tanghulu is a Chinese snack traditionally made from dried hawthorn fruit. The hawthorn plant, or 'san zha', resembles small red crab apples. It is also the main ingredient in haw flakes, a traditional Chinese sweet. 

Vendors coat the candied fruit with a layer of hardened sugar syrup, which makes it bright and glossy. It is conveniently served skewered on a stick, making it a popular hit in Asian street markets.

Tanghulu Ingredients

Here are the key ingredients to make our Chinese candied fruit recipe.

• water
• white sugar
• corn syrup (or golden syrup)
• strawberries (or fruit of your choice)
• Honey (optional)

The syrup for the exterior of the candy is made from white sugar, corn syrup, and water. However, you can also make our tanghulu recipe without corn syrup by using golden syrup instead. Golden syrup is partially inverted refined sugar that works as a substitute for corn syrup to reduce the crystallisation of regular sugar. Therefore, you'll be able to make the candied sugar layer clear and transparent even without corn syrup.

You can also use brown sugar in our recipe instead of white sugar. However, using brown sugar will give you a stronger yellow-coloured exterior.

Although strawberries are the most popular choice for tanghulu, you can also use other fruits. Sour or tarty fruits work very well as it strikes a delicate balance with the sweet sugary exterior.

Grapes, apples, and mandarins are great choices for candied fruit. However, with apples, you might want to cut them into bite-size pieces so they're easier to eat.

Honey is an optional topping for a sweeter treat. 

How To Make Tanghulu Sugar

To make Tanghulu sugar coating, you will need 1¼ cups of white sugar (250g) and about ½ a cup of water (125 ml). We'll also have to add about ⅓ a cup of corn syrup. Corn syrup helps prevent the white sugar from crystallising when added to water. If you don't have corn syrup, you can substitute it with the same amount of golden syrup.

After combining sugar, water, and syrup in a pot over medium heat, stir the mixture evenly. To ensure the sugar coating hardens, a candy thermometer or general cooking thermometer measures the temperature of the boiling pot. The thermometer should read about 150 degrees Celsius when the sugar mixture boils. See our cooking tips on how to make these sugar-coated skewers without a thermometer.

Tanghulu syrup is ready when it appears light golden brown, and the coating should harden fairly immediately when exposed to air.

If the mixture does not harden, check it on the candy thermometer. Then, place it in a pot of boiling water, and the temperature should read 100 degrees Celsius (212F).

How to make candied fruit without a thermometer

To check the sugar without a thermometer, you can drizzle some of the Tanghulu syrup into a bowl of cold water. It should instantly harden into brittle crystal threads that snap. However, it's not ready if the crystal threads are flexible enough to bend before breaking.

Alternative Method: Use Liquid Food Colouring

Another method for hardening the mixture is to add some liquid food colouring. The sugar mixture could be sticky because there is still too much moisture. This could be caused by either the mix's water or the humidity in the kitchen. For those who cook in warmer climates, this might be the problem.

If the syrup still seems sticky without water, then moisture is still present. Adding some liquid food colouring allows the mixture to boil off the additional moisture so the syrup can continue to heat to the hard-crack stage. 

Food colouring enhances the appearance of the Tanghulu candy. We can also heat the syrup slightly longer to achieve a pale golden consistency. 

How To Store Tanghulu

Tanghulu can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge. This should keep the snack relatively fresh and good for a few days. However, we highly recommend eating the sweet treat fresh. After storing in the fridge, the texture of the candy will become harder and less crunchy. 

Variations

While strawberries are now commonly used, we can substitute them with other fruits such as apples, grapes, tangerines, and even kiwis. Cherry tomatoes are an excellent substitute.

You can also serve them on bamboo sticks and use lollipops sticks. Skewering the fruits on lollipop sticks to place on a cake pop stand or tying them like a bouquet of strawberries, creates a lovely dessert visual to delight guests coming over. 

Indeed, because of the aesthetic appeal of this glossy snack, content creators on Tiktok have outdone themselves, creating interesting variations of this dessert. So, if you're feeling adventurous, here are some delicious Tiktok Tanghulu recipe variations worth trying.

Brown Sugar

The most common variation is to substitute brown sugar for white sugar. Nutritionally, there is not much difference between the different types of sugar, given that brown sugar is just unprocessed white sugar. The main difference is that using brown sugar simple syrup produces a toffee-like, caramel-flavoured hard candy exterior. If you enjoy toffee sweets, then this variation is for you. 

Pop Rocks And Jolly Rancher

Some creative foodies have tried melting pop rocks and Jolly Rancher sweets to create the syrup coating to up the ante. This candy mix may initially seem terrifying as it melts into a colourful mess. But after hardening, the final product is an Instagram-worthy candied fruit snack. 

Bacon Strips

Another recommended Tiktok Tanghulu recipe trend replaces fruit with bacon strips. The saltiness of fried bacon is a sharp contrast to the sweetness of the candy, resulting in a savoury-sweet surprise. Imagine the look on your guests' faces when they realise the glossy bacon strips are not shiny due to oil.

Chicken Nuggets

Recently, we've also seen some influencers try chicken nuggets. While we haven't tried this, we can see how this combination could work. Similar to bacon strips, the chicken nuggets will give you a salty contrast with the sweet outer layer, not to mention the juicy meat inside.

History

Historical records show that Tanghulu hails from Northern China. It supposedly made its appearance during the Song dynasty, under Emperor Guangzong's reign. 

Many stories speak of its origin. One legend has it that a beloved concubine was too ill to eat anything until a physician suggested dipping dried fruit in caramel. Another story is that the physician's wife invented it because of her poor appetite. Whichever the truth, the candied fruit became very popular and was sold mostly in theatres, streets, and tea houses as an accompaniment snack.

Originally, the Chinese term this candied delight as Bing Tanghulu (冰糖葫蘆). 'Bing' is Chinese for ice. It was aptly named as the dessert that was eaten only in the winter to avoid a sticky mess when it melted in the sun.

With the invention of refrigerators and air conditioning, this candied treat has evolved to be an all-season snack. Still, this bright red candy is a festive favourite in many Asian countries, and it is not unusual to see many street vendors hawking it during the Chinese New Year period.

Couples on a date, children or teenagers looking for a treat will enjoy this fruit snack. You'll see them happily bite into its attractive, shiny exterior, nibbling on this sweet and sour delight while browsing the stalls.

Instead of hawthorn, strawberry Tanghulu is now more popular. However, other fruits like grapes, blueberries, apples, and even pineapples can work as well. 

This candied fruit treat is certainly an easy way to wow guests or a pretty edible prop for a picnic. So whether you tried a traditional approach or got bolder by dipping bacon into syrup, we hope you had fun trying this Tanghulu recipe. 

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