Easy Tanghulu Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are tanghulu made of? ›

hulu/) or tang hulu (simplified Chinese: 糖葫芦; traditional Chinese: 糖葫蘆; pinyin: táng húlu; lit. 'sugar calabash'), also called bingtang hulu (冰糖葫芦; 冰糖葫蘆; bīngtáng húlu; 'rock-sugar calabash'), is a traditional Chinese snack consisting of several rock sugar-coated fruits of Chinese hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida) on a ...

Why isn't my sugar hardening on my tanghulu? If the sugar isn't setting, it means that the sugar hadn't been heated to the right temperature. Make sure you check the temperature or consistency of the sugar water mixture before dipping your fruit.

To make the chocolate tanghulu, dip or pour the sugar using a spoon over the strawberry skewers and dunk the skewers in ice water so the sugar will harden immediately. Remember to not stir or add water to the sugar, it will harden right away.

Start checking the mixture at around 5 minutes by dipping the chopstick in the pot, then immediately into the ice water. Bite the chopstick – it should crunch in your mouth. If it's still soft and sticks to your teeth, keep cooking! Watch the sugar mixture carefully because it's easy to burn.

Tanghulu (also known as bingtang hulu) is a candied fruit snack originating from China. Traditionally, it uses red hawthorn berries dipped in a sugar syrup and served on a bamboo skewer, and they're often given to children on Chinese New Year as a symbol of happiness.

Normal cane sugar works fine, but I chose to use raw sugar since it was my first attempt at making tanghulu and raw sugar is harder to burn. Combine the water and sugar into a saucepan on low heat and stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved, but you are still able to see some granules in the water.

The sugar will crystallize if you stir it while you cook it. Make sure you don't stir the sugar after it comes to a simmer. If it does crystallize, add another half cup of water and start the process again. If making chocolate tanghulu, once the cocoa powder is added, it will begin to crystallize.

Not to worry, you can keep tanghulu in the refrigerator and preserve its yummy candy shell. Store it in an airtight container with parchment paper lined on a single layer and not stacked since you want to avoid losing the hardened sugar coating. You can keep it in the fridge for up to three days.

It originated from northern China, but it is now commonly available in most Chinese cities. It generally consists of hawthorn fruit and has a hardened sugar coating that comes from dipping the skewer in sugar syrup. Tasted sour, sweet, and cold, it can be found everywhere.

Here's what is needed to make this tanghulu recipe: 10 pieces of fresh fruit (strawberries, other berries, other fruit of choice) 1 cup granulated sugar. ½ cup of water.

Do you have to eat tanghulu right away? ›

It's best to eat tanghulu immediately for a perfectly crunchy texture. However, if you have leftovers, keep them in an airtight container for up to 3 hours in the fridge. You can store them for up to a few weeks, but the sugar syrup will start becoming sticky and lose its crunch.

Step 2: Make Sugar Candy Coating

Do not stir. Stirring introduces more air bubbles causing the sugar to crystalize. Crystalized sugar will be cloudy and chunky instead of clear and smooth, which is what we want for this tanghulu recipe.

Refrigerator: If you want to store your Tanghulu for a longer time, you can keep it in the refrigerator. Place the Tanghulu in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Tanghulu is a sweet-and-sour treat of skewered candied fruit, traditionally hawthorn berries, encased in crystallized sugar. It's said to have originated in northern China during the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279), when the emperor's favorite concubine supposedly fell sick and a two-week diet of tanghulu healed her.

The Chinese hawthorn berry is a tiny, tart sphere that looks a bit like a crab apple. To turn the berries into the popular street snack known as tanghulu, vendors place several on a bamboo skewer and coat them in caramelized sugar. The result is a sweet, crispy coating surrounding a chewy, sour fruit.

Candied fruit is known as crystallized fruit or glacé fruit, where the whole fruit or smaller pieces of fruit/peel are placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from the fruit and eventually preserves it (Kuwabara, 1988).

Rock sugar, also known as rock candy or sugar candy, is a hard confection made by cooling sugar syrup into large crystals, sometimes around a stick or piece of string. It can be made with different types of sugar, including white granulated sugar, sugar cane, and brown sugar.