Bing Tang Hulu

Ingredients

• 400 g fresh Chinese hawthorns, about 30 fruit
• 6 bamboo skewers
• 300 g caster sugar
• 150 ml water
• 1 tbsp glucose syrup or golden syrup
• 1 tsp white sesame seeds (optional)
• 1 tsp neutral oil, for the tray

Before you cook

• Wash the hawthorns and dry them completely, because any water on the skin will make the sugar slide off.
• Trim the stem and blossom ends from each fruit.
• Thread five fruit onto each skewer, leaving a little space at the blunt end to hold.
• Oil a sheet of baking parchment and lay it on a tray.
• Fill a small bowl with cold water for testing the syrup.

Steps

1. Put the sugar, water and syrup in a small deep saucepan and stir once to wet the sugar evenly.
2. Bring it to the boil over medium-high heat and then stop stirring altogether.
3. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, until the syrup turns the palest gold.
4. Drop a little syrup into the cold water and check that it sets instantly into a shard that snaps rather than bends.
5. Take the pan off the heat the moment it reaches that stage.
6. Tilt the pan to one side and roll each skewer through the syrup in one quick pass.
7. Sweep the skewer along the pan rim to shed the drip.
8. Lay it on the oiled parchment with the tail of syrup trailing away.
9. Scatter a few sesame seeds over the wet coating if you like.
10. Leave the skewers for 5 minutes, until the shell is hard and glassy.
11. Eat them within a few hours, before the juice of the fruit softens the shell.