Candy corn is one of those Halloween treats that you either love or hate. We happen to enjoy those stratified orange triangles, and have been excited to try out hand at making them at home. But we quickly realized, making candy corn at home it is a great deal like art class in 3rd grade: a little messy, a little fun, but mainly...
...boring!!
Now we're sure most of you are saying, "Hey! I liked art class in 3rd grade!" and to be quite honest, we did too. But we also felt bound and restricted by the "projects" our teacher always had us make, when all we wanted to do was make grand creations from our own imagination. So in that way, this trial run in candy corn making is exactly like 3rd grade art class. Sure you can make the designated project, but the real fun happens when you get creative.
The recipe below makes enough dough for... well... we don't really know how many candy corns per se, because after we rolled and cut our first length (roughly 1/16th of the dough) of dough we were done with the adventure. There's some things to be made at home, but unless you are REALLY into making candy corn, this isn't the project for you.
On that same note, we greatly applaud those home cooks who have knuckled down to create and photograph their own work that so inspired us. Our hats are tipped to you on this one! As you can see above, we didn't have the same attention span all of you did!
Not all was lost, however; the dough that is created can be dyed, shaped and formed into whatever shape you so desire. It would be a blast for a group of children or other little hands helping you along the way. Kids like repetitive things right? This recipe, even if you don't end up making candy corn with it, has a wonderful texture that is perfect for making quick adornments for cupcakes or traditional cakes and sweets. It takes slightly less sweet than storebought candy corn, but in a good way. Also, it's only tasty when the dough has cooled (trust us on this one).
Ready to make some yourself? Here's how.
Homemade Candy Corn
yields aprox. 300 3/4-inch pieces
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup powdered milk
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
10-40 drops red and yellow food coloring
Heat white sugar, corn syrup and butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir until all ingredients are dissolved. Turn heat to high until mixture comes to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and let bubble (uncovered) for 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla extract and remove from heat. Allow to cool until warm to the touch. 15 minutes should do the trick.
In a large bowl sift powdered sugar, powdered milk and salt. Add cooled mixture from sauce pan and stir until you can no longer do so. It will be cool enough to work with your hands at this point (which we highly suggest, a spoon will get you nowhere) , work dough until all traces of powdered sugar have been absorbed. If there is some left in the bowl, it's not the end of the world.
Divide dough into 3 sections, make a dent in 2 pieces and add 20 drops of yellow food coloring to each. In one of those, add 9 drops of red food coloring to create orange. Mix each until colors are even throughout. You can wear gloves, but honestly, we didn't need them, just wash your hands well when finished with the entire activity.
To make candy corns, eyeball 1/8th of the dough from each piece. Roll each color into long "snakes" and press together. Cut with a bench scraper or knife and allow to cool and air dry. Trust us when we say you want to start small or else your kitchen will look like the snake pit from Raiders of the Lost Ark. As you're rolling out your dough, if it gets too long, no worries, just chop it off and throw it back in the pile and continue rolling remaining dough.
Once dry, keep your pieces in an airtight container.
If you'd like to make a vegan version, check out The Urban Housewife as hers has some great results around the web! Have fun!
Related: Trick or Treat! What's Your Favorite Halloween Candy?
(Images: Sarah Rae Trover)





Peeler by Normann C...

Comments (17)
Thanks for posting this! I've been keeping my eyes open for a cooking project for my homeschooled 5th grader to do on Halloween and this is right up her alley.
Ha ha - this was exactly my experience making candy corn! The candy making process was fine, but then rolling everything out, shaping it, cutting it... It got really monotonous and I chucked the rest of the dough in the fridge! I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way.
If you add cocoa to this mixture you get tootsie rolls! We made them all the time in girl scouts.
i might try this, but i'm thinking about substituting beet syrup for corn syrup. has anyone tried this?
There are actually a few accounts of that same substitution floating around in the blogosphere pedalpowered... go for it!
What a great idea.
I am addicted to candy corn and the only time that i get it is during Halloween (maybe that is a good thing) and now I can make it whenever I would like to!
Even though I wasn't into the labor of making individual candy corns, I will admit -- I have been snacking on a mixture of small pieces of dough and peanuts this morning! It's a fun Fall snack!
Well. If you're out of margarine, and you just spent all the cash you had on hand at the grocery store getting icing sugar and powdered milk (expensive! jeez) don't try substituting shortening for the butter/margarine. It doesn't work. I'm sitting here shamefully munching on what is unabashedly a bowl of lumpy melted sugar curds, coated in powdered sugar. I am pretty terrible at candy making. The saddest thing is, occasionally I hit one with the perfect texture/flavour of candy corn, and it only serves as a reminder that I could've succeeded. Oh well. Another attempt!
PreludeInz- That would have been a logical substitution if that's what you had on hand! Good to know! At least you have some tasty bits in there!
Sarahrae- I thought so too. I was working with my sister and we both couldn't think of any reason why it wouldn't work...but when I was melting it with the sugar, it didn't really combine. I ended up with melted shortening and melted sugar, even after bubbling to the two together, they stayed separate, like oil and water. I chalked it up to ignorance about the way shortening behaves, and tried mixing it with the powdered sugar anyway. No dice. Oh well. I'll do it right this time.
How on EARTH do you get the cooled mixture out of the saucepan and into the dry ingredients??? I'm making it right now and need help. HELP! As soon as it hits cool air it hardens.
If anyone has been successful at this recipe please tell me how you did it. I followed the recipe exactly and got a big old sticky caramel mess in my pan that would not come out. I'm really mad and frustrated!! I was going to spend the evening making candy for my friends but instead I wasted money and have a big mess to clean up! Please enlighten me!! Thanks!!
Kit_Kat if you had a big caramel mess, then your heat was up too high. If the sugar went over softball stage then it would have turned into the disaster you're talking about.
I didn't have any problems as long as it only boiled for the above time and then the heat was turned down so it barely simmered for the rest of the time and was then taken off the heat.
I'm sure you followed it all, but maybe your stovetop was hotter than you thought it was? (Having lost 4 batches of caramels in the last month to high heat, I've been there, it couldn't be more frustrating!)
I have just made two batches of this and they both failed!! I very carefully followed the instructions and each time when I mix the wet with the dry, I can only mix it so far before it turns into clumps of sugar. I thought this was normal and waited for it to cool for 10 min, but I can't knead it because it's lumps of hardened sugar! I measured and stirred on high until a good boil then reduced to medium for 5 min and mixed and it never works! Any help? do I have to mix it over heat or something?
Spongyfishy one of two things is happening. Either it was boiling for too long (which doesn't sound like it's the case) or you just need to keep kneading. I had to knead mine for almost 10 minutes to get it to come together like that. You can also try wetting your hands slightly as you work the dough, that can help it mix a little better and will evaporate as you continue combing.
Was it hard solid pieces of sugar like rock candy? Or just too difficult to knead through (because it will be at first)?
thanks so much for the link to the vegan version too! even though it's after halloween, these look like tons of fun and i'm going to make them asap!
Alton Brown just made this last night on Good Eats. His recipe is slightly different, and makes a smaller batch: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/candy-corn-recipe/index.html
One good shortcut was he used a butter slicer to cut the candy corn into individual pieces, which I would imagine would reduce the tedium quite a bit.