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.

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.

-Working quickly, dip the fruit skewers into the melted sugar, coating evenly. Then dip the fruit into the ice bath. The sugar should harden right away. Enjoy immediately!

'Tanghulu' actually means 'bottle gourd' in Chinese, which is a type of fruit commonly eaten during the winter months in China.

For the best result, cover the pan with a lid and DO NOT STIR the sugar — stirring the sugar will make it crystallize and harden. If you sugar hardens, you can either retire that batch and start all over or add more water and remelt the hardened sugar until it reaches the right temperature to make chocolate tanghulu.

Syrup is almost always a mixture of sugar and liquid, so you should be able to simply run warm or hot water from the tap to resolve your crisis. If your disposal is frozen running hot water my loosen it enough to break free.

Why is my tanghulu chewy? If you heat the sugar syrup at very low temperatures, you risk the sugar coating to be chewy. To prevent this from happening, always cook the syrup at medium-high heat.

Satisfyingly crunchy, but not safe for braces.

Moreover, the sugar coating may absorb the juices and water from the fruit, which can make it soft in the long run. Thus, I highly recommend eating tanghulu within the day after making it. Moreover, keep it away from high humidity. Exposure to heat can cause the sugar to melt and lose the crunchy coating.

Why does my tanghulu keep crystallizing? ›

Why did my tanghulu crystallize? 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.

Room Temperature: If you plan to eat your Tanghulu within a few days, you can store it at room temperature in an airtight bag to avoid the sugar dissolving. Refrigerator: If you want to store your Tanghulu for a longer time, you can keep it in the refrigerator.

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.

Traditional **Bing Tang** Hulu - **Candied Haw** on A Stick

Turn on the stove to medium heat. Wait for the solution to boil and bubble over. At first, the sugar mixture will be cloudy, but don't mix or stir it. As the solution boils, the sugar will be eventually dissolved, and the solution will clear up.

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.

Traditionally, tanghulu is made from hawthorn berries, which have a sour, crab apple–like flavor. They are difficult to source in the United States, so resourceful cooks most commonly use strawberries as a substitute.

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).