Candied grapes, otherwise known as grape tanghulu, were made widely known on TikTok in the last few years.
The video platform has been showing delicious Chinese street food and making 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.
Why you will love to make Tanghulu
Juicy fruits with tanghulu sugar is such an exciting experience. The mixed fruits with a hard candy crunch feel like eating fresh fruit candy.
Such a fun treat, the sweet juices and crunchy candy are not typical food, and we thank social media for bringing this fantastic Chinese snack to our attention once more!
Where did TikTok Grape Tanghulu come from?
While in no way did TikTok or its creators invent this type of recipe, it became more widely known on social sites for its ASMR. All over the TIKTOK platform and FYP, everyone has been testing, trying, and showcasing fruit wrapped in sugar with a satisfying crunch.
We have absolutely made this viral recipe before but really enjoyed @cookingwithlynja and her awesome video, which you can see below.
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 Tanghulu
- 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.
NOTE: 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 grape 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.
Related TikTok Recipes
- If you prefer a strawberry tanghulu recipe, we got you.
- Combine this recipe with other edible toppers for cakes here.
- Homemade marshmallow fluff is in your future.
- Only 3 Ingredients to make homemade Creme Brulee. And yes, one is ice cream.
- Nutella cookies in only 2 ingredients?
- Learn what recipes are viral today!
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Grape Tanghulu (TikTok Viral)
Equipment
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 3-40grapes to skewers 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 and then let coating harden for about 10 minutes.
- Tanghulu 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 information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is encouraged and appreciated. Copying of full recipe to any social media is prohibited.
