Tanghulu (Candied Fruit)

You’ve got to try this delicious candied fruit recipe, tanghulu. It’s originally a Chinese recipe.

Like anything with sugar work you have to work quickly and have everything prepped in advance, but it is possible to make a perfect tanghulu recipe. 

Essentially, you’ll make a hard crack sugar candy coating for your fruit. When you bite into it it has a wonderful crunch! It’s so fun to eat!

The Origin of Tanghulu

Tanghulu, also called bingtang hulu, is a popular street food in Northern China that’s made with Hawthorn fruit and sugar. Multiple berries are placed on long bamboo sticks and dipped in a sugar syrup that hardens into a sweet treat.

Now tanghulu is made with more than just hawthorn berries – you might find it made from kiwis, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, pineapples, bananas, grapes and watermelon!

Ingredients

• Fresh Fruit (strawberries, other berries, other fruit of choice)
• Sugar
• Water
• Small Pot
• Bamboo Skewer

See the recipe card for the ingredient amounts.

I’ve found the maximum number of strawberries you can fully dip and coat, when using 1 cup of sugar, is 10 berries. If you’d like to make more, you’ll need to increase the amount of sugar and water you use. You will end up with some excess syrup, but it’s easy to clean up.

How to Make this Recipe

This recipe doesn’t call for many ingredients but it can be a little tricky to make. When you’re heating sugar it can quickly go from a perfect consistency to burnt. If you have a candy thermometer, I highly recommend you use it. 

Here are the steps to make this recipe. 

Prep Your Berries – Wash and dry your berries. Push them onto a skewer. If you’re leaving the greens on your strawberries, pull them up and away from the berry so when you dip them the leaves don’t get stuck in the sugar. Place the berries on a silpat or parchment paper near your stovetop.

Prep the Cold Water Bath – Place at least an inch of very cold water and a few pieces of ice on a rimmed baking sheet, in a 9×13 pan, or any other dish your pot can easily fit into.

Heat the sugar – Combine the sugar and water in a small pot. Heat on high heat till the sugar mixture is boiling and at a temperature of at least 250 degrees. Test the sugar water mixture readiness by dipping a wooden skewer into the sugar and then immediately into the cold water bath. If the sugar is hard and immovable, it’s ready. If the sugar doesn’t harden it’s not hit the right temperature. Keep heating it and try again in another minute. The sugar should not go above 300 degrees or it will burn.

Cool the sugar – Dip the pot with the sugar into the ice bath for 1 second and then remove and set back on the stovetop. 

Dip the berries – Working quickly, tip the pot to the side so the sugar is deeper. Dip the strawberries in and twirl them to fully coat. Remove them and allow excess sugar to drip off and then place them on the parchment or silpat. Repeat until you run out of strawberries or the sugar becomes too hard.

Cleaning your pot – Excess sugar can be removed from the pot just by soaking the pot in water for an hour. Or you can add a few cups of water to the pot and boil it, let the sugar dissolve and then you can pour it out and clean your pot.

The candied tanghulu will only last for about 30 to 45 minutes before it starts to get too juicy and break down the sugar. Tanghulu is best served immediately