This is the best homemade tanghulu recipe! It's so easy to make and this candied fruit is made with just three simple ingredients including strawberries, water and sugar. This recipe is a fun twist on the classic Chinese street food!
I love easy dessert recipes like homemade chocolate covered pecans, no bake peanut butter fudge and no bake chocolate chip cookie dough bites, which is why I am so excited for you to make the Tanghulu recipe I am sharing today. It is one of the easiest desserts to make!
Table of Contents
What is Tanghulu?
Tanghulu is a candied fruit snack that originated in Northern China. This Chinese street food is different from traditional candied fruit because the sugar syrup creates a hard crunchy shell around the fruit rather than the soft candied fruit that you may be used to.
Tanghulu is traditionally served by street vendors on bamboo skewers which makes it easy to eat anywhere. Classically it is made with Crataegus pinnatifida fruit, also known as mountain hawthorn fruit or Chinese hawthorn berries, but it can be made with any type of fruit that you like.
What makes this recipe special:
- This tanghulu fruit dessert is so fun to eat and has the best taste! The pieces of fruit have a delicious sweet hard candy shell and then a melt in your mouth inner fruit layer.
- It's easy to make Tanghulu!
- These Tanghulu fruit skewers are made without corn syrup and are dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan.
If you love fruit based desserts you also need to make my lemon blueberry cookies, berry ice cream bars, and gluten free lemon blueberry pop tarts!
Ingredients and substitutions:
For the full ingredient list and exact measurements refer to the recipe card later in this post.
Jump to the Recipe Card.
- Fresh fruit - I love using fresh strawberries but you can use any type of fruit that you like to make Tanghulu. Some other options include oranges, tangerines, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, dragon fruit, pineapple chunks, or even apples.
- Granulated sugar - this is used to make the Tanghulu candy coating. I use organic cane sugar but white sugar works too.
Recipe variations and add ins:
- You can use either cane sugar or white granulated sugar to make Tanghulu. Just note that white sugar tends to boil faster so it will be even faster to make.
- You can easily double or triple this Tanghulu recipe if you are serving a crowd - just be sure to keep the 2:1 ratio of sugar to water.
How to make Tanghulu:
- Step 1: First, wash and dry the fruit and place each piece on a wooden skewer or bamboo skewer.
- Step 2: Put the water and sugar in a medium sized pot and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Using a candy thermometer, boil the mixture until the sugar dissolves and the temperature reaches between 250 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This will take about 10-20 minutes.
- Step 3: Once the sugar water mixture has come to temperature, quickly dip the skewered fruit into the hot syrup to coat the fruit and then place each skewer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Step 4: The sugar coating on the fruit should harden very quickly, once it does serve and enjoy! If you aren't eating it right away, move it to the fridge so that the coating stays hard.
How to make Tanghulu without a thermometer:
To make Tanghulu without a candy thermometer you can test the temperature of the boiling sugar water by dipping a spoon into a bowl of ice water and then dipping the spoon into the syrup. If the syrup hardens immediately, then you have reached the right temperature. You can then start dipping the fruit skewers into the boiling sugar mixture.
Top tips:
- The temperature of the sugar water mixture is very important when making Tanghulu. Make sure you let it get to 250-300 degrees Fahrenheit before you dip the fruit in it - If you try dipping the fruit at lower temperatures the sugar coating won't harden (trust me I tried it).
- I highly recommend using a candy thermometer to make Tanghulu.
- Make sure you dry the fruit completely before putting it on the bamboo skewers. If it is still wet the sugar coating may not harden.
- I recommend using fresh and not frozen fruit to make this Tanghulu recipe.
- Tanghulu is best served right after it's prepared. If you let this fruit candy sit for too long at room temperature the sugar coating will start to soften and melt.
- You will likely have some sugar syrup left over. You can save it for later and use it as a simple syrup.
Tanghulu FAQs:
For Tanghulu to turn out properly, the best ratio of sugar to water is 2:1. For example, if you are using 1 cup of sugar, use 1/2 a cup of water.
You eat Tanghulu right off the bamboo stick that's it's made on. Simply bite into the hard sugar coating and enjoy!
If your sugar water is the right temperature, between 250 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit, the sugar coating will harden almost immediately when you dip the fruit into it.
Tanghulu can be sticky if you don't allow the sugar water mixture to reach the appropriate temperature. If the sugar water isn't hot enough it won't harden when you dip the fruit in it, instead, it will turn into a sticky sugar coating rather than a hard sugar candied coating.
Store any leftover Tanghulu fruit skewers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
Other dessert recipes you will love:
Recipe
Tanghulu
Equipment
- Pot or saucepan
- Candy thermometer
- Bamboo skewers
Ingredients
- 3 cups cane sugar (or white sugar)
- 1.5 cups water
- 1 lb fresh fruit
Optional additions
- pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Wash and dry the fruit and place them on a skewer.
- When the sugar water mixture has come to temperature, quickly dip the fruit skewers into the hot mixture to coat the fruit and then place each fruit skewer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- The coating should harden very quickly, once it does serve and enjoy!
Optional
- To change the flavour slightly, add a pinch of sea salt to the boiling sugar water.
Notes
- If you do not have a candy thermometer, you can test the temperature of the sugar water mixture by dipping a spoon into cold ice water and then dipping the spoon into the syrup. If it hardens immediately, then you have reached the proper temperature.
- If you don't eat this right away you can store any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
- Nutritional values are an estimate and will vary depending on the exact ingredients used.
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