tanghulu
Tanghulu is a classic Chinese street food that features fresh fruit covered with a crunchy sugar coating. While it can be made with any fruit, this popular dessert is traditionally made with hawthorn fruit.
History of Tanghulu
This snack dates back to Song Dynasty when the emperors favorite concubine fell ill. After multiple failed attempts to get her better, one doctor suggested that she would eat hawthorn fruit covered in sugar daily. After a miraculous recovery, the doctor and the snack both became famous. Today Tanghulu is a Chinese street food staple!
How to make tanghulu?
To start the recipe whisk together sugar and water in a small pot. Bring to boil and lower the heat to medium high. Then keep simmering until it reaches 300f. Meanwhile make the fruit skewers. Make sure all the fruit is patted completely dry and put 3-4 pieces of fruit on each bamboo stick. Set a large bowl of ice water next to the boiling sugar mixture and a large tray lined with parchment paper. Quickly dip each skewer in the hot sugar completely covering the fruit, then dunk it in the ice water. Set the finished tanghulus on the lined tray and serve immediately.
Tanghulu is supposed to have a hard sugar coating, if the texture is chewy it means that the temperature of the sugar isn’t high enough.
Tips
Make sure that the fruit is completely dry. Any moisture will make the sugar coating melt.
Dunk the fruit in quickly to avoid it from getting too hot and soggy.
If the sugar coating is chewy instead of crunchy the sugar temperature didn’t get high enough.
Recommended products to make this recipe
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