A candy board is pure sugar and a "fruit charcuterie board" is just a fruit platter with better PR. Why not pick the best of both boards and combine them into this Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board that's not only sweet and delicious for dessert or snacking, but healthy, too! Shall we?
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What is a Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board?
A Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board is exactly what it sounds like: a dessert charcuterie board laden not with candy (that's a Candy-cuterie Board), not with just fresh fruit (that's a Fruitités Platter), but specifically with candied fruit. And it's not just the regular shmegular sticky, chewy dried candied oranges that you know from the dried fruit section at the grocery store. This Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board is inspired by and features tanghulu, which are fresh fruit like strawberries, mandarin oranges, and grapes on skewers coated with a whisper-thin, glass-like sugar candy shell that shatters into the most satisfyingly crispy crunch.
Because you can't have just one thing on a full-on charcuterie board of any kind, this Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board has all forms of fruit and nuts like fresh fruit, dried fruit, roasted nuts, and candied nuts. It is the most perfect snack or dessert board made with "nature's candy" glass-candied fruit!
Ingredients You Need for Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board
For Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board, you will need:
- candied fruit obviously! more specifically, tanghulu which you can make using the easiest recipe here!
- fresh fruit
- dried fruit
- candied nuts
- roasted, salted, and spiced nuts
OK, so What is Tanghulu?
Originally from China and dating back hundreds of years, tanghulu is a candied fruit snack made by skewering fruit, dipping the entire skewer into hot sugar syrup, then letting it harden into a glass-like candy shell. Traditional tanghulu in China is made with hawthorn berries, but as tanghulu has spread around the world to places where hawthorn berries are not available, tanghulu is made with a variety of fruits like strawberries, mandarin oranges, grapes, and even cherry tomatoes.
Crackly, crunchy, and shatteringly crisp, tanghulu sounds almost as good as it tastes, which is why you've seen so many videos trending on social media of people going full ASMR biting into the candy-coated fruit that looks like glass.
So Many Fruits and Nuts Grow in California!
Aside from the very obvious fact that I live here, I love California for its produce, both the variety across the seasons and the sheer volume. Because of the state's long, north-south geographical shape and varied topography, California has multitudes of growing climates that support not only different crops suited to different regions, but the same crop in different regions in different seasons.
For example, berries grow in southern regions of California in the warmth of spring and early summer, and continue to grow in California as northern areas start to warm up. This is why strawberries, most citrus, and certain other crops are in season year-round in California. For a helpful visual guide seasonality of some key crops in California check out California Grown's Eat the Seasons chart. You can download and print it.
Two things that are ALWAYS in season in California: dried fruit and nuts!
California alone grows one-third of the vegetables and two-thirds of the fruit and nuts that we get here in the United States, making it the leading agricultural state in the country. California is also the sole producing state of almonds, walnuts, olives, artichokes, dates, raisin grapes, kiwifruit (who knew?!), clingstone peaches, pomegranates, and sweet rice.
Check out this article for more information and nerdy statistics on California-grown produce.
Notes and Resources for Additional Fruit and Nut Ingredients
In addition to the actual candied fruit tanghulu, we're adding fresh fruit, dried fruit, and nuts because it's all "nature's candy" imho. Depending on the season, the holiday, your personal taste preferences, and visual aesthetic, the specific ingredients might vary. Here are the major types of things you need for a Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board, with specific suggestions.
Fresh Fruit. For fresh fruit, choose fruit that 1) you don't already have as the candied version, and 2) can be served whole or won't weep out too much water if peeled and sliced. These are the best fresh fruits for a Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board:
- blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries if you don't already have strawberry tanghulu!
- stone fruit: cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines
- citrus fruit: blood oranges, cara cara, kumquats and mandarin oranges if you don't already have mandarin tanghulu
- tropical: kiwi, mango, papaya, pineapple, star fruit
- grapes: if you have candied grapes, pick fresh grapes with a hard crunchy texture and that are super sweet
- figs
- apples and pears in the fall
- persimmons in the late fall
- pomegranate in the winter
Dried Fruit. Choose any dried fruit! Especially ones that don't tanghulu, yes, "to tanghulu" is a verb in my world now:
- apricots
- candied citrus - different from tanghulu, these are cooked in a sugar syrup
- cherries
- cranberries
- dates
- figs
- prunes
- extra large crimson (red), flame, and golden raisins
- dried mango and other dried tropical fruit like kiwi, papaya, and pineapple
Nuts of any and all kinds. Candied and sweet flavored nuts are an obvious choice but roasted, salted, and highly spiced nuts will be a welcome flavor balance to the sweet tanghulu and soft ripe fresh fruit!
- almonds
- pistachios
- walnuts
How to Make Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board
The Healthiest Candy Charcuterie Board isn't hard to make per se, so instead of following a detailed step-by-step recipe, it's more important to keep some key tips and tricks in mind for the high level how-to.
Make tanghulu if you are doing it yourself using the 2-ingredient recipe from California Grown and set aside on a plate lined with parchment paper.
Cut small pieces of parchment or wax paper to wrap and keep tanghulu separate from each other and from the fresh fruit. You can also create a "barrier" with dried fruit and nuts between tanghulu and any fresh fruit that has a lot of water.
Peel, wash and dry fresh fruit with clean kitchen towels or paper towels until the fruit are BONE DRY. Wetness may be the essence of beauty but it's the melty wicked witch of the west for tanghulu.
Line a large board, platter or tray with parchment paper.
Arrange ingredients on the board, making sure to keep any candied fruit and nuts separate from fresh fruit or other sticky ingredients.
Add fresh herb sprigs and/or organic edible flowers as garnish!
Pro-tips, Tricks for Making Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board
Dry fresh fruit until it is bone-dry. Use a clean kitchen towel or paper towels, not just draining in a colander. Any water or moisture that accidentally gets to the candied fruit and nuts will cause them to melt, weep their coating, and/or stick together.
Dry fresh fruit until it is bone-dry. This is so important, I’m telling you twice.
Use short skewers for tanghulu, or skewer the fruit and then cut the skewers off close to the fruit.
Cut small pieces of parchment paper to keep tanghulu separate because the candied tanghulu has to stay dry so it doesn't melt or get sticky.
Best Wine Pairing with Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board
The general rule for wine pairing is that the wine should taste sweeter than the food to which it's being paired. For dessert then, the best wines are those that are actually identified as a "dessert wine."
There are hundreds of styles of dessert wines, but most of them fall into a few categories: sparkling sweet wines, naturally light sweet wines, naturally rich sweet wines, and fortified wines. Dessert wines are such a broad category that deserve their own post, so I'll just stick with a few of my favorite specific bottle recommendations:
- Quady "Essensia" Moscato, a California produced dessert wine made with orange muscat grapes (in the photo above)
- DeForville Moscato d'Asti, a light, sweet sparkling wine from Piedmont
- Domaine Huet 'Le Mont' Demi-Sec Vouvray, a lighter sweet, though still decidedly sweet, wine from Vouvray, France, made with chenin blanc grapes
- Dolce, an American late harvest blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc
- Chateau d'Yquem, a luxe dessert wine from Bordeaux that's such a special splurge, you should probably drink this by itself as the dessert, without any other food
** For more wine pairing guidelines, especially with cheese boards, check out this comprehensive Wine and Cheese Pairing Guide, using specific bottles as examples.
FAQs
Strawberries, oranges and grapes are most common tang hulu fruits, but you can use whatever is available to you. Check out the tanghulu recipe over on California Grown for details!
If tanghulu doesn't harden when you remove it from the hot sugar syrup, it most likely means the sugar has not come up to 300°F Hard Crack stage. Check the temperature on the thermometer, or test the sugar syrup again with a skewer.
If tanghulu hardens when you remove it from the sugar syrup, but softens or gets sticky, your kitchen might be too warm or humid. Try keeping the finished tanghulu in the refrigerator.
Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage
Fresh Fruit. You can wash and dry the fresh fruit for the Candied Fruit Board up to two days in advance. In fact, I highly recommend prepping fresh fruit in advance and having them ready to plate so that you can concentrate on making te tanghulu just before serving.
Leftover fresh fruit can be kept in air-tight containers in the refrigerator anywhere from 1-3 days depending on the fruit., e.g. washed and hulled berries will keep for 1 day, washed and dried grapes will keep for 3 days. Just make sure everything is very dry.
Tanghulu. On the other hand, tanghulu is best eaten immediately after it’s made and cooled, because of the glass candy coating. So make it just before you plan to serve it. However, if you live in a fairly dry climate, you can keep tang hulu on the countertop for a few hours. (Not recommended in a very humid environment.) Arrange as much of the other fresh and dried fruit, candied and roasted nuts on the board as you can, then add the tanghulu right when it's ready. Beyond a few hours, wrap tanghulu in clean parchment paper and place in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. Leftover tanghulu will not keep longer than 1 day.
Dried Fruits and Nuts. Any dried fruit, candied roasted, or raw nuts that have been set out on a board and leftover can be placed in separate air-tight bags or containers and refrigerated for a few days. Do not return them to their original containers with untouched dried fruit and nuts.
Where to Get Tanghulu in Los Angeles
If you want to buy tanghulu before attempting to make the candied fruit at home, here are a few places you can get tanghulu in Los Angeles and Orange County:
- King Tang Hulu 865 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90005
- Tangtastic, 698 S Vermont Ave #101, Koreatown Los Angeles, CA 90005
- Sweetbox OC 6950 Beach Blvd #E112, Buena Park, CA 90621
** Keep in mind that tanghulu tastes best immediately after it's made, so may not travel too far or too long from the store.
Best Dessert Board Ideas
- Paletas and Popsicles Dessert Board
- Chocolate Dessert Charcuterie Board
- Chocolate Salami for Dessert Charcuterie
- Grapes Cheese and Charcuterie Board
Candied Fruit Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
- tanghulu
- dried fruit like apricots, dates, figs, and prunes
- fresh fruit any kind
- candied or flavored nuts like honey-roasted, yogurt-covered
- roasted and/or nuts like almonds, pistachios, and walnuts
Instructions
Prep Fresh Fruits and Tanghulu
- Make tanghulu if you are doing it yourself—use the easy 2-ingredient recipe from California Grown—and set aside on a plate lined with parchment paper.
- Cut small, individual squares of parchment or wax paper to separate tanghulu from one another and protect from any particularly wet fresh fruit or other sticky ingredients.
- Peel, wash and dry fresh fruit with clean kitchen towels or paper towels until the fruit are BONE DRY.
Arrange Ingredients on Board
- Line a large board, platter, or tray with parchment paper.
- Arrange tanghulu, dried fruit, candied nuts, and roasted/raw nuts on the board. Protect tanghulu from any fresh fruit or sticky ingredients by wrapping in pieces of parchment or wax paper, presenting in separate smalls bowls or plates, or barricading with dried fruit and nuts.
This post developed in partnership with California Grown. You can see more of my fawning all over California-grown produce on California Grown's blog, and TheDeliciousLife.com posts here.
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