Tanghulu (Candied Fruit)

 

One of my daughters has been asking me to try to make Tanghulu for several weeks, which is a traditional Chinese dessert of candied fruit on a skewer. It used to be made with hawthorn berries but now it is made with other fruit. I am seeing more cafes selling this at $5-6 per skewer. We tried making it by microwaving the sugar but that did not work because the sugar wasn't hot enough. We tried again, by first watching this video and was successful Foolproof Strawberry Tanghulu | How to Clean Your Pot | ASMR at the end! (youtube.com). She was really excited when it worked! When you bite into the fruit, it has a nice satisfying crunch. 

 Tips we learned:

1.      Sugar needs to be very hot. The temp needs to be around 300-315 Fahrenheit. Took around 15 min to get the sugar that hot. Can do a test with a skewer or chopstick to see if it is ready by dipping it in the sugar and then in ice water-if the sugar is still malleable then it is not ready yet. The sugar needs to be hard like crystal after dipping in ice water. 

2.      Fruit needs to be dry.

3.      Have skewers with fruit ready and make sure they are securely on the skewer. Don’t put too many fruit on 1 skewer.

4.      Dip the fruit quickly and drip off excess sugar or else the layer of sugar coating will be too thick.

 

Tanghulu (Candied Fruit)

 Ingredients

Fruit

Skewers

1 cup white sugar

½ cup water

1 wooden chopstick/skewer and 1 cup of ice water for testing

Parchment paper

Thermometer (optional)

 

Directions

1. Wash and completely dry fruit

2. Skewer the fruit. Secure tightly and do not put too much fruit on 1 skewer (e.g. 1-2 grapes)

3. Get 1 cup ice water ready and 1 wooden chopstick/skewer. Get parchment paper ready.

4. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in pot. Don't touch stir it in the pot. Boil on medium to high heat. Start stop watch when turn on stove to monitor the time. Do not want to burn the sugar

5. Took around 15 min to get to around 310 fahrenheit . Do chopstick/skewer test. Dip the chopstick/skewer in hot sugar and immediately put it in ice water. If the sugar is hard then it is ready. If it still soft, then boil the sugar a little longer.

6. When sugar is ready, you have 2-3 min to dip and rotate the fruit in the sugar before it hardens. Tip the pot and quickly dip the fruit with the skewers in the sugar. Work quickly. Don't let the fruit sit too long in the sugar and quickly drip off excess sugar so sugar layer is not too thick. Lay on parchment

7.  Clean pot. Put some water in pan and heat on low heat.