Hi everyone! Hope everybody is doing wonderfully! I’m doing something a little different today (not just recipe-wise) but I’m posting on Monday 😮! Honestly, I’ve had the chance to cook so much these days that for the time being I would love to post two recipes a week. This week, I wanted to start off with a fun, simple recipe called Tanghulu. Doing a little tippety-typing on the interwebs my “research” taught me that Tanghulu can be described as a traditional Chinese snack of fruit skewered on bamboo sticks that are covered in a hard shell of sugar. I chose to use strawberries as my fruit.
I was first introduced to this snack while watching one of my favorite YouTubers, EmmyMadeInJapan. She made a video on her experience making it and I was very much intrigued by the dish and I finally got around to making it. You can see her video right here! For this recipe I actually got some help in the kitchen from my sister (honestly, I may have been her helper, hahaha). My sister has been working from home these days so we’ve been cooking together much more than usual. She has much more of a sweet tooth than I do though, so we’ve been pretty much making sure a homemade dessert is always available in the house. Good news is our family isn’t sick of it, yet! Now seems like a good time to get on with this recipe. So let’s get started, shall we?
*I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post*
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 15-20 strawberries
Directions:
There are a lots of different variations to this recipe. Some people use corn syrup and some people don’t. Since we don’t tend to have corn syrup in the house we found a recipe that didn’t use it. To begin you can prep your strawberries (or any other fruit of your choosing). After making it I favored the smaller strawberries because they’re easier to just pop into your mouth. So, I would recommend using the smallest strawberries you have. That being said, just using what you have is not a problem! Just rinse your strawberries thoroughly and pat them completely dry. Pushing the leaves back a little so they don’t get in the syrup just insert a toothpick in the top. This will help to grab and coat in sugar later.
Place them onto a piece of parchment paper for after they have been coated. After this, just put the strawberries aside until you are ready to use. Now you can turn your attention to making the syrup. Very, very exciting stuff. Can I just say I’ve always been afraid of sugar work on stoves ever since at age 15 I tried to make caramel in my cousins kitchen and it was burnt to a crisp. Was not a pretty sight. RIP to that saucepan. First of all, I had no idea what I was doing. Second of all, I’m not sure why I attempted this when I had no idea what I was doing. Third of all, I made it much harder than it needed to be.
The key to making sugar work (whether its hard candy or caramel) is to keep your eye on the stove and just staying calm. I’m pretty sure the sugar can sense you panicking. A Candy Thermometer is also very helpful. My birthday was a few weeks ago and my sister got me one! May not sound like an exciting gift but trust me, it opened up so many more avenues of cooking for me! Definitely gave me an excuse to finally make this.
To make this hard sugar shell you will need to just put the sugar, water, and one halved strawberry into a saucepan and bring it to a simmer on medium-high heat. Attach a Candy Thermometer to the side so its just in the sugar and not touching the bottom of the pot. Or if you have a hand held thermometer check the sugar periodically (every 2-3 minutes). You want to cook it until it reaches 300F.
So, I didn’t get a picture of it at 300F but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! Between 300F-310F is the hard crack stage of sugar so anywhere in that range is when you should turn off the heat. Once it stops bubbling we starting dipping the strawberries carefully in holding them with the toothpick. Tilting the pan helps the sugar to pool up and it makes it easier to dip. Just dip then take it out and spin it around a bit to let excess sugar drip off and then place it on the parchment paper to cool. Do this with the rest of the strawberries and since we had some sugar left over we found some blackberries in the fridge and coated some of those, too.
I highly recommend parchment paper because it just slides right off of it with no hassle when it dries. Wax paper, on the other hand, can stick to the sugar (based on unfortunate previous experiences…)
Now, all you have to do is wait a few minutes (about 5-10) and they’re ready to eat! It’s honestly so delicious and not to mention very pretty to look at. The candied shell pulls out some of the natural juices in the strawberries so when you bite into it’s like the sweetest, crispest, juiciest strawberry you’ve ever had. It’s like those little strawberry candy bon-bons I feel like everyone has had in their life, filled with that little pop of strawberry filling. You know what I’m talking about! It’s like that, on a much larger scale and it’s an actual strawberry. So, okay, a little different but much more delicious. I highly recommend you give it a try and let me know if you do! You now know how simple it is. If you want to see the recipe we ended up following just click here.
Tanghulu (Candied Glass Strawberries)
Equipment
- Candy Thermometer
Ingredients
- ¾ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup water
- 15-20 strawberries
Instructions
- Rinse your strawberries thoroughly and pat completely dry with paper towel.
- Add a toothpick to top of each strawberry.
- Set strawberries aside on parchment paper until ready to use.
- In a saucepan add sugar, water, and one halved strawberry. Bring this mixture to a simmer or low boil on medium-high heat.
- Monitor the heat with a candy thermometer or cooking thermometer. Cook until you reach between 300°F-310°F. This is hard crack stage of sugar.
- Once sugar reaches this stage turn off the heat and wait until bubbling subsides.
- Dip strawberries in one by one until they are coated and allow excess sugar to drip off.
- Put onto parchment paper and allow to harden for 5-10 minutes.
- Once hardened they are ready to be eaten.
- Enjoy!
If you want to stay up-to-date on all Mostly Masala recipes then sign up for the newsletters below! Recipes will be sent straight to your inbox 📩
If you tried out a recipe and enjoyed feel free to leave a review and comment down below. I would love to hear what you thought ✨