Northern Chinese · Dessert
Bingtang Hulu
- Intermediate
- 25 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, real fire that builds and stays.
Ingredients
- 400 g fresh hawthorn (shanzha), stems removed and cores pushed out
- 300 g caster sugar
- 150 g water
- 20 g maltose
- 10 g toasted white sesame seeds
- 12 bamboo skewers
Equipment
Parchment · Sheet pan
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: sesame
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Dry every hawthorn thoroughly on a cloth and thread 5 or 6 onto each skewer, all facing the same way. Any surface water left on the fruit will seize the syrup into a cloudy crust.
- Put sugar, water and maltose in a wide pan, bring it to the boil and then leave the spoon out of it entirely, washing stray crystals down the sides with a wet brush.
- Cook to 150C (300F): the syrup goes still, the bubbles turn small and slow, and a drop into cold water sets to a shard that snaps cleanly rather than bending.
- Tilt the pan, roll each skewer through the syrup in a single unbroken pass and lay it on oiled parchment, scattering sesame while the coat is still wet.
- Leave 5 minutes, until the glass has gone clear and rings against a fingernail. 5 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sugar stages & caramel 53 recipes
- Nothing is stirred once it is boiling, and any crystals clinging to the side of the pan are brushed down rather than left to fall in.
- Judged by temperature or by a tested stage rather than by time: consecutive stages are a few degrees apart and look identical in the pan.
- Colour is read off the heat and in good light, remembering that sugar keeps darkening after the flame is out.
- Stopped decisively at the point wanted: off the heat and into the next liquid or onto a cold surface, rather than left to coast in a hot pan.
- The result is clear and smooth rather than grainy, cloudy, or seized into a solid mass.
Where it goes wrong It was stirred after coming to the boil, or a stray crystal from the side of the pan fell back in. One crystal seeds the whole pan and the syrup turns grainy within seconds, and once sugar has crystallised the only cure is more water and starting the whole thing again.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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