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Fruit? Candies? On a stick?
The Origin of Candied Haw
The story is traced back to long long time ago....
Candied haws, as known as tanghulu in Mandarin, is a favorite winter snack for children in Northern China. According to folklore, the candied haws were originated fromt he Song Dynasty, which was about 800 years ago. Once, one of the concubines of the Emperor Guangzong of the Southern Song Dynasty was sick and had a poor appetite. The emperor then posted an emperor list and solicited prescriptions from the folks. A doctor then entered the palace and developed a recipe of boiling rock sugar water with large-fruited Chinese hawthorn. The doctor ordered the concubine to eat 10 haws every day before dinner. Finally, the concubine recovered within half a month.
In the following years, the prescription was passed on to ordinary people due to its effectiveness proven by the concubine. People started to put haws on a stick and dipped them in hot sugar syrup, turning it as a crystalized fruit candies, and made these haws whenever someone got sick. After several transformation, these haws has been transformed into a traditional sweets for everyone as a snack after meals.
The Meaning of Candied Haw
here's a fun fact!
"Perfect & Complete"
"Perfect & Complete"
Several married couples replace wedding candies with candied haws due to the meaning behind this particular dessert.
The Varieties of Candied Haw
Nowadays, street vendors combined different fruits for candied haws in Taiwan.
Traditional Style
Traditional Style
Haws are basically the main ingredients for the making of candied haws due to its crispiness on the outside and the juiciness on the inside. However, owing to the climate difference, haws can be found in Mainland China, whereas this type of fruit is hardly spotted here in Taiwan. Thus, Taiwanese tend to replace haws with torinashi, the flavor and chewiness of which are quite similar to haws.
Modern Style
Modern Style
People in Taiwan nowadays, however, combine different fruits and put them on sticks. You don't have to worry if this fruit combinations is cringe-worthy, for the tastes that clash on your taste bud can be purely pleasurable while providing you with various nutritions coming from different kinds of fruits.
Difficult to find candied haw vendors these days?
Why not turning your favorite fruits into a candied haw at home?
Steps to make candied haws at home:
Wash and pat dry strawberries or fruit of choice.
Arrange fruit on bamboo skewer. I recommend 1-3 pieces per skewer.
Bring waqter and sugar mixture to a boil.
Using candy thermometer, boil sugar water misture until the temperature reaches 300 degress Fahrenheit. This will take approximately 5-10 minutes. If you do not have a candy thermometer, you can test the temperature by dipping a spoon into cold ice water and then dipping the spoon into the syrup. If it gardens immediately, then you have reached the proper temperature.
When sugar water mixture has reached the desired temperature, dip your fruit skewer into the sugar misture to coat the fruit.
Place each fruit skewer on your sheet pan, silicone baking sheet or parchment paper. If you parchment paper is not good quality, your candy may stick to the paper. You can sprat parchment paper with pan spray to help prevent sticking.
Sugar coating should garden almost immediately. This recipe is best eaten right away. If you need to store, cover lightly with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator.
Now you can enjoy your candied haws!
*Special thanks to Aubrey' Kitchen Candied Haw Recipe!
Christine Cheng & Sharmane Lin
Instructor: Gretchen Lee
Instructor: Gretchen Lee
Department of English Language and Literature
Fu Jen Catholic University
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