To Make A Shortcut Version Of Tanghulu, Use Fruit Roll-Ups

China is a country rich in culture, and as the world has learned, diverse cuisine. But as much as sweet and sour sauce, fried rice, and the Chinese-inspired dish of General Tso's takeout chicken deserve the love they receive, there's far more food to explore. One of these is tanghulu, a traditional Chinese dessert that has circulated social media in recent years. The process for making it can sometimes be a bit messy and even time-consuming, though. Luckily, there's a shortcut using Fruit Roll-ups that can get tanghulu in your stomach faster.

Tanghulu consists of a variety of fruit pieces covered in a hardened sugar syrup and stacked upon a wooden skewer. Creating it requires bringing a pot of water and sugar to a boil until a sweet syrup forms. You then dip the skewer of fruit, such as grapes, strawberries, and mandarin slices, into the liquid and give it time to harden on a tray afterward. However, between boiling and cooling time, this whole operation can take up to almost an hour. But as many TikTok users have discovered, a box of Fruit Roll-ups from your local grocery store is an easy way to shave down some of that time by omitting the need to make syrup.

The extremely crunchy texture and sweet flavor of the boiled sugar can be mimicked using the store-bought candy. Fruit Roll-ups are corn syrup-based, meaning they contain the sugars needed to provide that same candied taste. They're also fruit-flavored, as the snack's name reveals, which will complement the real fruits that are being used in the recipe.

As TikTok user @ongsquad demonstrated in popular video, all you have to do to start is unravel one of your Fruit Roll-ups sheets and stretch it out as much as possible, being sure not to tear it. Depending on how large your fruit is, cut the sheet into small squares of the appropriate size. Keep in mind that the squares need to be big enough to cover the fruit, whether it's kiwis, blueberries, pineapple chunks, or the previously mentioned grapes or strawberries. Wrap each individual piece of fruit in the Fruit Roll-ups squares, and once complete, stick them onto your skewer in whatever order you'd like. From there, simply pop the skewers into the freezer for about 20 minutes. The end result is a delightfully unique, convenient snack that still yields a bit of nutritional value even with its candy-coating.