Grape Tanghulu
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Candied grapes, otherwise known as grape tanghulu, were made widely viral online in the last few years. This delicious Chinese street food makes incredible fruit skewers with crunchy hard candy coating, a true trend.
The best part is that all you need is skewers, sugar, water, and your favorite fruit to chow down on this excellent easy-to-make candied fruit.
We know this recipe works because one of our readers says “My daughter and I had these at 6 flags and gave this recipe a go at home!!!! 10 out of 10!!! So crunchy so yummy!!!!” Let’s get started!
Ingredients
- grapes (or any other fresh fruit)
- white sugar
- Wooden skewer or lollipop sticks – If you can only find long skewers, just cut on each side after adding grapes, leaving enough stick to hold.
How to make Candied Grapes
Prep a glass with dry granulated sugar to hold grape skewers. Wash and dry grapes.
Add grapes to skewers and dry grapes once more. Wetness on the grapes will cause the syrup not to stick. NOTE: If you put more than 3-4 grapes on a skewer, you may have to tip your pan to correctly coat all grapes.
Add water and sugar to a saucepan. Heat the saucepan on medium heat and stir syrup until halfway dissolved. Stop stirring and increase heat to medium-high.
Using a candy thermometer, boil until the temperature reaches 300 degrees. This may take up to 20 minutes. Remove melted sugar syrup from the heat, and then dredge grape fruit skewer in when it’s hot and ready.
Finish coating all grapes and then let coating harden for about 10 minutes. Tanghulu should be served immediately.
Sugar gets HOT HOT HOT. Be very cautious when dealing with hot sugar not to let it touch your skin. This is not a recipe for kids until you get to the eating and enjoyment part.
What is the best way to dry candied fruit?
Set up a glass with sugar and drop skewers in the glass to hold upright. This helps prevent the excess syrup from sticking to the counter while the sugar reaches the hard-crack candy stage.
Can this tanghulu recipe be used on any fruits?
You can make this sweet treat with all kinds of fruits. Berries, fresh strawberries, cherries, and green grapes work fantastic in the sugar water mixture.
Wetter fruits, like mandarin oranges, tangerines, or bananas, would need to be tested to see if the sugar mixture would stick. This isn’t something that we have personally done, so I do not want to recommend that quite yet.
Just be sure that no matter the variety of fruits, they can easily be put onto bamboo skewers. Digging fruits out of hot sugar without that is nearly impossible.
Candied Grapes (Tanghulu)
Equipment
- Bamboo Skewers
- candy thermometer
Ingredients
- 24 Grapes or other fruits, like strawberries
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Prep a glass with dry granulated sugar to hold grape skewers. Wash and dry grapes.
- Add 3-4 grapes to each skewer and dry grapes once more. Wetness on the grapes will cause the syrup not to stick. Add water and sugar to a saucepan.
- Heat the saucepan on medium heat and stir syrup until halfway dissolved. Stop stirring and increase heat to medium-high. Using a candy thermometer, boil until the temperature reaches 300 degrees. This may take up to 20 minutes.
- Remove melted sugar syrup from the heat, and then dredge grape fruit skewer in when it’s hot and ready.
- Finish coating all grapes, stick in glass to dry, and then let coating harden for about 10 minutes.
- Candied Grapes should be served immediately.
Notes
- Sugar gets HOT HOT HOT. Be very cautious when dealing with hot sugar not to let it touch your skin. This is not a recipe for kids until you get to the eating and enjoyment part.
- If you put more than 3-4 grapes on a skewer, you may have to tip your pan to correctly coat all grapes.
- Please see article for more fruit suggestions.
- Be careful not to overheat the sugar or it will burn. A candy thermometer helps with that.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: The nutritional data provided here is auto-calculated and intended for your convenience only. As it’s generated via automation, its accuracy may be compromised. For precise nutritional insight, please compute the values utilizing the actual ingredients in your recipe through your chosen nutrition calculator or application.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Was like eating glass. Super sharp and cut our mouths. Also stuck to the plate and had to be pried off with a butter knife.
I am not sure you are talking about the same recipe because you dont put it on a plate…
You can put a layer of sugar on your plate then let them harden on the sugar so it’s not touching the plate just the sugar.
My daughter and I had these at 6 flags and gave this recipe a go at home!!!! 10 out of 10!!! So crunchy so yummy!!!!
Im am so glad you both loved this recipe!
It was pretty good but the sugar stuck to my saucepan and it is completely ruined now… would have been good to mention that or ways to avoid it here
Hi Adele, warmed up sugar in any recipe can stick, yes, however its pretty easy to remove. Just add some water to your saucepan, get that boiling, and it remelts the sugar in the boiling water. Remove carefully from the stove and then dump the water. Your pan should be fine after that.
Trisha
i love it slaaaayyy
When we got to Step 6, we were only able to dredge one stick of fruit before the syrup started to recrystalize.
it so yummyyyyyyyy
i love it slaaaayyy
Ruined the pan and spoon didn’t even work.Not a good recipie😡
IT should work fine but yes, hot sugar (including candy recipes as well) harden quickly. It doesnt ruin the pan or spoon though – all you have to do is reheat pan with water in it, sugar melts, and it comes off. This is same with spoon. Just place in a the melted sugar and water saucepan and as it heats, the sugar should melt off.