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COOKING VIDEO: How Is Candy Corn Made

October 30, 2011 at 6:00 am · Filed under Candy & Confections, Food Facts - Food History, Food Holidays, Halloween & Fall, Videos

October 30th is National Candy Corn Day. According to the National Confectioners Association, more than 20 million pounds of candy corn are sold during the Halloween season.

The iconic Halloween confection was created in the late 1880s by George Roniger of the Wunderlee Candy Company, in Philadelphia. The first three-layer candy, it was made laboriously, by hand.

CANDY CORN HISTORY

Even with today’s machinery, it takes 4 to 5 days to create each piece of candy corn. Each kernel has 3.57 calories, and they’re all sugar (the ingredients are corn syrup, honey, sugar and food coloring, coated with carnauba wax, a wax from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree).

The orange, yellow and white colors of the candy corn can actually be found in fresh corn kernels—though the colors are intensified by the candymakers.

Some companies create an “Indian corn” version, substituting brown for the yellow base color and a bit of caramel flavor (photo #2).

See candy corn being made in this video.

CANDY CORN TRIVIA

The leading manufacturer of candy corn is Brach’s. Each year, the company sells enough candy corn to circle the earth 4.25 times.

The Goelitz Confectionery Company, now called Jelly Belly Candy, started making candy corn at the turn of the 20th century. They called it Chicken Feed, illustrated with a rooster and the slogan, “Something worth crowing for.”

One kernel of candy corn has about 5 calories. But load them up into a one-ounce serving and you have 110 calories.

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