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    Home » Recipes » Candy

    Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com · 16 Comments

    Tanghulu (Candy Coated Strawberries)

    Jump to Recipe
    tall pin with 2 tanghulu images with text divider.

    Tanghulu, or Chinese candied fruit, is from Northern China. These glossy, candied strawberries are just as wonderful as a sweet dessert treat! Use an assortment of fruit to make an amazing array of colorful candied fruit, berries, citrus, and more!!

    Best Tanghulu Fruit Recipe

    I can't believe how long it's taken me to share these super fun, shiny, and just GORGEOUS strawberries and fruit! I mean, I've made my crack grapes plenty of times now because the kids can't get enough of them.

    This tanghulu is one of my most deliciously decadent indulgences! You're sure to love the crisp candy coating and sweet treat!

    large image tanghulu strawberries and more on serving tray.
    Insanely delicious candied Tanghulu strawberries (and more) that crackle as they are enjoyed!
    Jump to:
    • Best Tanghulu Fruit Recipe
    • ❔ What Is Tanghulu
    • 🥘 Tanghulu Ingredients
    • 📖 Variations
    • 🔪 How To Make Tanghulu
    • 💭 Tanghulu Tips & Notes
    • 🥡 Storing
    • 🍓 Best Fruits For Longer Lasting Tanghulu
    • 🍒 More Great Fruit Recipes
    • ❓ FAQ
    • 📋 Recipe
    • 💬 Comments

    ❔ What Is Tanghulu

    Tanghulu (also called bingtanghulu) is a candy-coated fruit enjoyed during the winter season of Northern China. Street vendors sell the brightly colored shiny, red, sour berries on bamboo skewers with all of the berries candy-coated together.

    The sweet treat is traditionally made with the fruit of the mountain hawthorn (also called Chinese haw, Chinese hawthorn, hawberry, or simply 'haw'). The berries, to me, very closely resemble small crab apples in appearance. Crab apples are also certainly a sour enough fruit to coat with sugar!

    Since haws are not found in grocery stores near me, I have opted to coat a variety of fruit tanghulu style!

    Tanghulu has become popular through a trend on TikTok and for its crackling sounds when eaten. It is frequently tagged with ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) for those that enjoy the auditory stimulation as well.

    🥘 Tanghulu Ingredients

    Just a few ingredients and supplies and you're on your way to making some amazing sugar glass-coated candied tanghulu! The result is amazingly tasty and oh-so-pretty!

    • Sugar - the main component for making hard candy, or sugar glass as this coating is more commonly known. Use regular granulated sugar to make your tanghulu.
    • Water - a bit of water gets the process started, but the boiling will evaporate the water to form the high shine appearance of our candied shell!
    • Corn Syrup - we need a bit of fructose to help prevent the candy syrup from crystallizing while you heat it. The corn syrup keeps the sugar liquified longer so that you have a few extra seconds to work at coating your fruit.
    • Fruit - choose your favorite fruits! I'd suggest checking out my details below about how well fruit varieties can be stored after coating them with candy. My favorites for making tanghulu are what you see here, 🍓 strawberries (addictive and delicious!), 🍇 grapes, and 🍊 Cuties.

    *Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!*

    If you love this easy-to-make candied fruit, check out my ridiculously tasty crack grapes! Everything you love about that glossy, crackly coating plus tangy bits of candy to make the coating complete!

    colorful candied crack grapes with crushed jolly rancher coating.
    Crack grapes after coating in the sugar syrup (like tanghulu) and then rolled in crushed candy for fun colors!

    📖 Variations

    • Assorted fruit can be used for the tanghulu - I note a lot of my top picks here on the page! Your best bet is a fruit that can stand up to the hot syrup coating, and that is not super juicy.
    • Add more to your candy coating like my 'crack grapes' in the photo above!

    🔪 How To Make Tanghulu

    Other than your ingredients, there are a few things you'll need. I suggest using a candy thermometer, and a heavy-bottom saucepan, also you'll need skewers.

    The skewers should be long enough that when coating the fruit, you aren't in danger of burning your fingers or hands!

    Prepare Your Fruit & Equipment

    Preparing fruit to make tanghulu.
    1. Prepare your fruit. Wash and dry the fruit thoroughly to make sure that it is dry. The extra water will seize your syrup!

    Make The Candy Coating Syrup

    Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water then heat without stirring.
    Process photo 3 checking the syrup temperature with candy thermometer.
    1. In your saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup. Bring to medium-high heat and allow the syrup to come to a boil without stirring!
    2. Place skewers into the ends of large fruit, or stack lots of fruits onto one long skewer. Alternatively, you can also candy-coat small bunches of grapes (just leave a good stem portion for you to hang onto).
    3. Boil the syrup until it reaches 300ºF (150ºC) which is the hard crack stage. Remember, no stirring!

    Coat Strawberries With Syrup & Dry

    Process photo 4 coating the strawberry with candy syrup.
    Process photo 5 drying the tanghulu.
    1. Once you have reached the hard crack stage of boiling your syrup, reduce the heat by one increment and start coating your fruit ASAP! Spoon the sugar syrup over the skewered fruit, moving quickly through the process.
    2. Place the coated tanghulu fruit onto a parchment paper-lined plate, surface, dish, or cookie sheet. Allow the coating to set up until firm, about 2-3 minutes. Serve immediately and enjoy!

    💭 Tanghulu Tips & Notes

    • 2 methods for coating the fruit - Either with multiple pieces of fruit on one skewer (which will help you coat quickly) where you will need to spoon the syrup over your skewered fruit. Or individually skewered berries and fruit (which will coat your fruit more thoroughly) that can be dipped directly into your sugar syrup.
    • Use berries that are not quite ripe - Berries that are not perfectly ripe will not be as tender and juicy as perfectly ripe strawberries. This means that not only is the berry more capable of standing up to being candy-coated, but it is also going to stay stable longer. Juicy berries and fruit will weep underneath the candy layer!
    • You've made your delicious tanghulu strawberries and fruit, now how do you get all of that hard candy out of your saucepan? The solution is to refill the saucepan with water and bring it to a boil. Everything dissolves into the water and voila! You have a clean pan again. 🙂

    🥡 Storing

    This part is going to depend on the type of fruit that you used to make your tanghulu.

    In the case of strawberries, the thin skin of the berry means that you have 2 - 3 hours at most to enjoy your tanghulu strawberries. Typically, more ripe berries will start to release their juice under the candy coating between 45 minutes to an hour.

    Enjoy your tanghulu quickly before the fruit starts seeping and you end up with a sugary sweet mess!

    The same holds true for peeled tangerines, mandarin oranges, Cuties (or Halos, which are both Clementine mandarin orange hybrids), apricots, and sliced fruits. If you slice navel oranges, blood oranges, pineapple, or other tropical fruits they will also have the fruit juices exposed to the candy coating.

    🍓 Best Fruits For Longer Lasting Tanghulu

    • Fruits with thicker skin like grapes are ideal for coating with sugar glass! Candy-coated grapes will last around 4 days in an airtight container.
    • Humidity will affect this greatly! I have also experimented enough to know that my refrigerated tanghulu grapes may still look OK after refrigerating, but the glossy candy coating is actually sticky when serving.
    • Larger berries like honeyberry may also hold up well to candy-coating. I also suspect that there are many less common fruits that would be excellent for the tanghulu-style coating too.
    Tanghulu Japanese candied fruit with shiny strawberries.
    Beautiful candy coating on my tanghulu strawberries!

    🍒 More Great Fruit Recipes

    • Strawberry Shortcake
    • Crack Grapes
    • Jello Grapes
    • Cherry Blueberry Dump Cake
    • Baked Cinnamon Apples
    • Chocolate Covered Strawberries

    ❓ FAQ

    How long does tanghulu take to harden?

    Between 2 to 3 minutes for your candy coating to harden, depending on the temperature of your sugar syrup. I like to boil my syrup until it reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) rather than the upper end of the 'hard crack' stage for the syrup (which is 310 degrees F/154 degrees C).
    This lower temperature for the candy stage allows me an extra minute to coat my fruit, but also means the candy coating takes a moment longer to fully set.

    How do I make tanghulu candied fruit without corn syrup?

    I've only ever tried this with strawberries, but slice a small strawberry up into thin slices and add it to your sugar-water combination. This will add the glucose needed, and work as a substitute for the corn syrup in any sugar glass.
    You can also use a pinch of cream of tartar to stop the formation of sugar crystals. The cream of tartar aids in keeping your sugar syrup smoother, and longer.
    Additionally, you can use honey rather than corn syrup (2 cups sugar+1 cup water+2 tablespoons honey) to make your tanghulu.

    Do you love a recipe you tried? Please leave a 5-star 🌟rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page.
    Stay in touch with me through social media @ Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! Don't forget to tag me when you try one of my recipes!

    📋 Recipe

    large image tanghulu strawberries and more on serving tray.
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    5 from 53 reviews

    Tanghulu Recipe (Candied Strawberries)

    Tanghulu, or Chinese candied fruit, is from Northern China. These glossy, candied strawberries are just as wonderful as a sweet dessert treat! Use an assortment of fruit to make an amazing array of colorful candied fruit, berries, citrus, and more!!
    Author | Angela
    Servings: 8 servings
    Calories: 270kcal
    Prep 10 minutes
    Cooking 15 minutes
    Total Time 25 minutes
    Share on Facebook

    Ingredients
     

    • 2 cups sugar
    • ¼ cup water
    • ⅓ cup corn syrup
    • 2 lbs strawberries (or assorted fruit)

    Instructions

    • In a saucepan combine the syrup ingredients: sugar, water, corn syrup. Heat the syrup over medium-high heat.
      2 cups sugar, ⅓ cup corn syrup, ¼ cup water
      syrup ingredients combined in saucepan.
    • Prepare your fruit with skewers. *I have to wash everything, that's why you see the abundance of paper towels. I was busy drying all the fruit!
      2 lbs strawberries
      Preparing fruit to make tanghulu.
    • Boil the syrup until it reaches 300°F (150°C) or the hard crack stage.
      candy thermometer submerged into the boiling syrup.
    • Once you have reached the hard crack stage, reduce the heat by one bit to keep the coating boiling. Spoon the candy coating over your skewered fruit. Move quickly through the process or you won't get everything coated in one batch of sugar syrup.
      candy coating a large fresh strawberry.
    • Allow the coated fruit to setup as you continue to coat the additional fruit. Place coated berries, grapes, tangerines, etc onto a parchment paper-lined plate, cookie sheet, or dish.
      candied strawberry coated and cooling on parchment paper.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 270kcal (14%) | Carbohydrates: 70g (23%) | Protein: 1g (2%) | Fat: 1g (2%) | Saturated Fat: 1g (6%) | Sodium: 11mg | Potassium: 175mg (5%) | Fiber: 2g (8%) | Sugar: 66g (73%) | Vitamin A: 14IU | Vitamin C: 67mg (81%) | Calcium: 21mg (2%) | Iron: 1mg (6%)
    Did you try this recipe? Rate it below!I can’t wait to see your results! Mention @bake_it_with_love or tag #bake_it_with_love!
    Candied Fruit, street food, Tanghulu
    Course Candy Recipes
    Cuisine Chinese
    author profile photo
    Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com

    Angela is an at home chef that developed a passion for all things cooking and baking at a young age in her Grandma's kitchen. After many years in the food service industry, she now enjoys sharing all of her family favorite recipes and creating tasty dinner and amazing dessert recipes here at Bake It With Love!

    bakeitwithlove.com/about/
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    Comments

    1. Siobhan n says

      November 15, 2022 at 3:57 pm

      My sugar never hardened? How come
      ?

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        November 17, 2022 at 9:11 am

        It's hard to answer this without more details, but usually when your sugar doesn't harden it is because it didn't quite reach the right temperature. I would suggest checking to make sure that your candy thermometer is calibrated correctly. Hope that helps!

        Reply
    2. Hillary says

      June 06, 2022 at 5:52 am

      5 stars
      Het is heel goed gelukt dankje wel.

      "It worked very well thank you."

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        June 06, 2022 at 12:20 pm

        Prachtig! Bedankt voor het delen van je resultaten!

        "Wonderful! Thank you for sharing your results!"

        Reply
    3. Mel Church says

      April 27, 2022 at 9:17 pm

      Is it possible to make the candied strawberries and store them for a longer period of time?

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        April 28, 2022 at 1:23 pm

        Unfortunately, no, the strawberries do not last long as the berries will start to weep fairly soon after being exposed to the high heat of the candied syrup. Thanks for asking!

        Reply
    4. Samantha says

      March 27, 2022 at 5:39 am

      The sugar coating dried to be so shiny and beautiful that I'll be making these tanghulu strawberries whenever I want to impress everyone. Thanks so much for including the instructions for making these with corn syrup and without corn syrup too!!

      Reply
    5. Karla S. says

      March 24, 2022 at 8:27 am

      Amazingly easy to make tanghulu! I used grapefruit and blueberries since I had both on hand. Both were easy to coat, but I had to reheat my syrup to finish coating all of the fruit. Thanks for all the tips!

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        March 24, 2022 at 8:35 am

        Awesome, so glad you enjoyed them! Tanghulu grapefruit sounds like it would be a wonderful sweet tart contrast!

        Reply
    6. Krista says

      March 07, 2022 at 9:45 am

      5 stars
      Amazing candied fruit! I didn't have any hawthorn but used kiwi and strawberries instead. The hard sugar candy coating is perfect for ASMR, Fabulous!

      Reply
    7. Bobbie says

      December 22, 2021 at 10:00 pm

      I’m so frustrated with myself that I did not plan better. I am a THE dessert maker for all holidays for both sides of the family. I LOVE IT!! I am so excited to have found your site! My main dessert this year is “DEATH by Chocolate Mousse “. I’ve decided to use your recipe for berries as garnish. I’m also going to TRY this technique on mint leaves. We’ll see 🤷🏼‍♀️ I know it’s late but…. For BEST results should I prepare the berries on location? Could be entertaining!

      Whether my question is answered or not, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Happy thoughts to all preparer’s of THE BEST PART of dinner! ❤️❤️❤️

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        December 23, 2021 at 8:37 am

        I would do all of my sugar-coating as close to the presentation and serving as possible. How long the coated tanghulu fruit lasts will depend on the amount of juice in your fruit. And - if you do end up making the tanghulu at someone else's house take your own pot and candy thermometer 🙂 The syrup is VERY sticky. Have fun and Merry Christmas to you as well!

        Reply
    8. Sofia says

      July 31, 2021 at 5:32 pm

      Con cosa si puo sostituire lo sciroppo di mais?

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        July 31, 2021 at 5:43 pm

        Si prega di consultare la sezione FAQ sopra la scheda delle ricette per le alternative allo sciroppo di mais per caramellare la frutta. L'ho appena aggiornato, spero di esserti stato d'aiuto!!

        Reply
    9. Kristy says

      July 10, 2021 at 5:22 pm

      5 stars
      Just made these very good directions. One question...how long does the candy coating stay set?

      Reply
      • Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says

        July 11, 2021 at 8:48 pm

        Hello Kristy, these are best enjoyed right away. I have used them as cupcake toppers, but the strawberry will start to weep in under an hour. Moisture and humidity will affect the candy shell making them difficult to refrigerate too. Thanks for asking!

        Reply

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