Candy Corn Recipes

Tap to Read ➤ Debopriya Bose

A favorite confection of North America, candy corn can be easily made from the readily available ingredients. Here are some easy recipes that you can use for preparing this colorful confection at home.

With children getting ready with their costumes, why don't you complete the fun of Halloween by making some candy corn? These triangles of white, orange, and yellow color have been around for over 100 years, so much so that it has become synonymous with Halloween in North America.

This popular confection is said to have been made for the first time in the United States some time in the 1880s by George Renninger, of the now defunct Wunderlee Candy Company. It was then made by hand using sugar syrup, fondant, and marshmallows.

However, candy corn is today commercially made by "Jelly Belly" following the same traditional recipe that was used when they took over the Wunderlee Candy Company, under the name Goelitz Candy Company.

Basic Method

Ingredients: Granulated Sugar, 1 cup Corn Syrup, ⅔ cup Butter, ⅓ cup Powdered Icing Sugar, 2½ cups Powdered Milk, ⅓ cup Salt, ¼ tsp. Vanilla Extract, 1 tsp. Red and Yellow Food Coloring, 1 package

Procedure: Take a large saucepan and add granulated sugar, butter, and corn syrup. Mix them together and while stirring continuously bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the heat to medium and continue to heat for another 5 minutes. Stir the mixture occasionally during this stage.

Add the vanilla extract and stir it well. Remove it from heat. In a separate bowl mix powdered milk, powdered icing sugar, and salt together. Add it to the mixture prepared in the saucepan. Mix the two thoroughly and let the dough cool down completely.

Once the dough has become cold enough to be handled with one's hands, divide it into three equal parts. Keep each part in a separate mixing bowl. Prepare the orange color by mixing the red and yellow food coloring. Add the orange color that you have made to one part of the dough. Add yellow food coloring to the second part. Leave the third part as it is.

Do not add any color to it. Now knead each dough in their respective bowls till the color spreads throughout the dough evenly. Ensure that the color of one dough does not get transferred to the others. Knead the dough until it becomes stiff enough to hold the shape.

Now roll each portion of dough into thin long ropes. Spread a strip of waxed paper over the tabletop. Place the ropes side by side on the waxed paper with the orange rope in between the other two. Ensure that the ropes are of equal length. Cut out the extra length of ropes when you place them side by side in order to make them of equal length.

Press the ropes slightly together so that they form a compact narrow rectangle. Roll a rolling pin gently along the entire length of the rectangle formed from the ropes. This helps to press the edges of the different ropes together. However, do not use too much pressure as that might flatten your candy and rob it off its plump look.

Now take a sharp knife and cut triangular pieces from the rectangular strip. Gently shape the edges of each triangle to make them look like plump colorful kernels. Serve it at room temperature.

With Marshmallows

Ingredients: Marshmallows, 8 oz. (miniature) Sugar, 1½ cup (powdered) Red and Yellow Food Coloring, 1 package Water, 2 tbsp.

Procedure: Mix water and marshmallows in a bowl and microwave it on a high temperature for a minute. The marshmallows should expand and become puffy due to this treatment. Now stir the marshmallows till they have melted and formed a smooth paste. In case the pieces of marshmallows still remain, microwave it for another 30 - 45 seconds.

Add powdered sugar to the molten marshmallow liquid. Stir it well, till the sugar begins to get incorporated in the marshmallow paste and you cannot stir it anymore. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on the table top and transfer the marshmallow-sugar mixture onto your working surface.

This mixture will be sticky with lots of sugar that hasn't been incorporated. Knead this lump working the unincorporated sugar into the fondant. Knead till the fondant loses its stickiness and becomes smooth. Now divide the fondant into three equal parts.

Add orange food color (by mixing red and yellow food color) to one part and yellow food color to the other. Don't add any color to the third ball. This would be the white part of the candy. Knead each ball till the color spreads evenly throughout the balls.

Now roll out each ball into thin ropes of equal length and place them side by side with the orange rope lying in the middle. The fondant ropes would be sticky enough to form a rectangular piece when they are pressed together. In case they do not stick well, brush them with a little water using a pastry brush.

You can cut the rectangular strip of the three ropes into triangular pieces at this stage. This would give it a rounded surface along each differently colored strip. For a flatter shape, roll a rolling pin gently over the rectangular tri-colored strip of fondant before cutting it. Round off the edges if you wish to.

These recipes are easy to follow. They can be made in large amounts at home and if stored properly in air tight containers, they can last for about a month or two.