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Vegan Candy Corn

Ghosts.

Goblins.

Healthier candy corn recipe you can do at home - without the artificial ingredients & corn syrup. From @choccoveredkt... Full recipe: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/10/28/vegan-candy-corn/

And… candy corn?

Think of candy corn as comic relief from Halloween.

It’s cute, it’s yummy, and it’s not the slightest bit scary.

That is, until you look at the ingredients. Gelatin, corn syrup, FDC Yellow 6 Lake, Red 40, Blue 1 Lake…

Are you scared yet?

Homemade Candy Corn

I’ve always loved candy corn, more for its festiveness and adorableness than for the actual taste.

So when I made these candies I wasn’t going for an exact copycat, but more of a fun and healthier and vegan candy corn substitute.

You might like them even better than real candy corn!

Healthier candy corn recipe you can do at home - without the artificial ingredients & corn syrup. From @choccoveredkt... Full recipe: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/10/28/vegan-candy-corn/

Vegan Candy Corn

  • 1/4 cup raw cashew butter (or peanut butter if you want pb-flavored candy corn. Who knows… it might be fun!) (58g)
  • tiny dash salt
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar or Sugar-Free Powdered Sugar (28g)
  • Either red and yellow food coloring (you can purchase natural food coloring at Whole Foods), or a tiny pinch turmeric and a few drops beet juice

Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl until it becomes a crumbly dough. (Note: if your nut butter is from the fridge, let it sit awhile or heat it up so it’s easier to mix.) If dough is too gooey (mine wasn’t), you can add a little extra sugar/sf sugar. Taste the dough and add a little more salt if desired. Now transfer the crumbles to a plastic bag and smush very hard into a ball. Remove from the bag and form three little balls, then add a few drops yellow food coloring or the turmeric to one ball and knead until it’s all one color. Do the same with the red. (For my un-edited “in process” photos, see the nutrition link below.) Roll balls into skinny strips—the skinnier the strips, the smaller the resulting candy corns, and press strips together. Cut into triangles or other shapes. As stated above in the post, these aren’t supposed to taste exactly like store-bought candy corn; they’re yummy in their own right. You can store in the fridge, but my roommate—the candy nut—says they taste best straight from the freezer. Or you can even bake them: 350 F for 3-5 minutes, then allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from tray.

View Nutrition Facts + Step-By-Step Photos

 

STEP-BY-STEP: How to make healthier candy corn at home, without all the artificial ingredients and high fructose corn syrup https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/10/28/vegan-candy-corn/ vegan candy corn!

What are you doing for Halloween this year?

Are you dressing up? Or staying home and handing out candy? Or trying to console a dog who goes berserk every time the doorbell rings? Guess I just gave away my Halloween plans…

Link Of The Day:

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Published on October 28, 2012

Meet Katie

Chocolate Covered Katie is one of the top 25 food websites in America, and Katie has been 
featured on The 
Today Show, CNN, 
Fox, The 
Huffington Post, and 
ABC's 5 O’Clock News. Her favorite food is chocolate, and she believes in eating dessert every single day.

Learn more about Katie

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82 Comments

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  1. Linde Platy says

    That is just sooo cute!
    Im definately dressing up, we’re having the party of the year! Will be a girly outfit though, not scary or slutty!

  2. Tiffany H says

    I’m glad these don’t taste exactly like candy corn, I never thought they had much flavour besides the taste of sugar. Unfortunately this Halloween I’m gonna be home by myself so I’ll just be handing out candy.

  3. Sarah says

    I love that you made hearts. We used to buy candy corn hearts every year for Halloween from a candy store near my house when I was growing up.

    But in stores around here I only see regular shaped candy corn. It makes me miss the hearts, which I always thought were cuter.

    We’d also buy them (pink candy corn!) in heart shapes from the same candy shop for Valentine’s Day. Can anyone else still find candy corn hearts, or did they discontinue them?

  4. Mary Z says

    This looks great!
    I love candy corn, but I had to give it up even before going vegan (and, more recently, dye-free) due to my corn allergy, and all the recipes I’ve seen before for making your own are basically corn-syrup cooked solid! Ick!
    I am so making these tomorrow while I wait out the storm! (You could make these by candlelight as they don’t require cooking, right?)

    • Emma says

      Ick, the storm. I like your thinking. Stay at home and make candy corn. Now, to make sure I have all the ingredients so I don’t have to go out tomorrow!

  5. Summer says

    Pure brilliance Katie! You have an amazing talent and gift~ As a health coach, I am always referencing your site. Thank you, thank you for sharing through your blog posts!

  6. Emma says

    Heck yes, this is awesome!!! I always loved candy corn, like you, for the festiveness (is that a word?) more than the taste. I am so excited to try your vegan version! I’m not even a vegan, but I try to stay away from HFCS and artiticial dyes. I think I have turmeric in my cabinet from making mac and cheese once.

    Thanks for a really adorable post!

  7. Tiffani says

    Question for any and every vegan: What do you pass out to kids when they come by? Non-vegan candy or vegan candy (home-made store-bought?)?
    I’m a new vegan (10 months and counting!) and I’m not sure how to particapte in this holiday.

  8. Katieluv4ever says

    Hey Katie! Love these candy corn! My Halloween plans this year…it will probably be cancelled for the SECOND year in a row! First a freak October snowstorm, now Hurricane Sandy! What else could go wrong???? Anyways, thanks so much for this recipe(:

  9. Olivia@ OmNom Love says

    Yay! Candy corn! I love it so much but the ingredients are pretty scary.

    I’m dressing up for Halloween & going to a costume party. I’m going as Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games. It’ll be so much fun to do the makeup. 😉

  10. Kali says

    I understand the con syrup and dyes and all that but could you explain your reasoning Katie for why beeswax is ‘scary’? Just curious, as I can imagine why but would like to hear it from you.

  11. Jessica says

    I made these! I didn’t bother with the food coloring, or shaping it like candy corn. I just rolled it into little balls, and it is really delicious! It took like 5 minutes to make, which was really cool, but the real reason I made it was because I’ve had a jar of Artisana raw cashew butter in my fridge FOREVER and didn’t know what to do with it.

    These balls are a great pre-workout snack. Thanks, Katie!

  12. Alicia in Texas says

    These are fabulous! I made them this afternoon with my 4 year old, including making our own homemade cashew butter. She kept saying “candies, candies!” It was so cute, and she loved them!

  13. Ellen says

    Oh cool! Every year I go on the hunt for candy corn without gelatin. And those little pumpkin shaped candies that come in the ‘autumn mix’. I was slightly devastated to find out that brach’s makes them with gelatin. A few grocery store brands don’t have gelatin but for true vegans they wouldn’t work because they have honey.
    Your recipe looks like fun, i might just give it a go next time I have a craving:)

  14. Laura says

    My mom has always hated Halloween, becaus of religious views, so unless my friends plan something, I usually sit at home with all the lights off and the blinds closed to discourage trick or treaters. Or we go out to eat.

    This year, however, since it falls on a Wednesday, we have youth group. I’m not sure if I will go to that and make my mom sit at home in the dark, or go to dinner with her.

  15. Anna @ The Guiltless Life says

    I’m probably one of the few people that didn’t grow up eating candy corn that much – I think it was more of a North American thing – but when I did try it I’m not nuts about it! However I majorly admire your ability to literally recreate anything, so I had to comment anyway!!

  16. Andrea says

    Ever since I hit the age where I stopped trick or treating, my Halloween plans have always been the exact same every year. I dress up in my awesome witch dress (since I can only wear it once a year!), have a horror movie marathon at home, and hand out candy when trick or treaters come. I live about 45 minutes outside of town so we usually only get the kids that live in the community here.

  17. gemma says

    beeswax is a traditionnal ingredient to coat the gummy candies. it’s also used in france for cannelles. check it out, it’s delicious.

  18. Amber with Slim Pickin's Kitchen says

    These are cute! I really need to get my hands on some cashew butter. You use it for so many of your recipes! I also wish we had Halloween plans, but we don’t 🙁 Tomorrow is our 1 yr wedding anniversary and we are both working and then studying for our real estate exam which we will be taking on Wed. Wish us luck!

    • Kara says

      I made my own tonight! Super easy! Just blend up cashews like you would to make peanut butter. So good! I added a little honey to mine for more of a candy corn taste (I’m not vegan obviously..). Good luck on your exam! I know how it feels to have studying get in the way… good thing there are many more halloweens to come!

  19. Valerie says

    I’m not certain there’s any way I could possibly explain the face I’m making right now but I assure you it’s a really really excited one. I was the one who requested this and /lfdkjg.klfjg oh my goodness! I know what I’m going to be making tomorrow! Mmmm! Thank you so much Katie 🙂 You’ve just made my whole week!

  20. Karen says

    You forgot to mention that these are addictive!

    I made them last night with my friend, and we kept eating the dough before we even formed the candy corn ;). We also got rebellious and decided to make blue and green candy corn instead. It was awesome!

  21. Jane says

    Those are super cute! Obviously, since you are vegan, you don’t eat gelatin, but I don’t think it’s bad for you. I think it’s just kind of a filler, sort of empty nutritionally. What do you think?

  22. Justin says

    I’ll be consoling our mini dauschund from going crazy. She goes nuts.

    I like the fact that these have no corn in them seeing as though corn is the most genetically modified crop going.

    And you can never go wrong with cashew butter. I can eat that stuff by the spoonful!

  23. Erin | The Law Students Wife says

    I totally want to try this with PB! I find candy corn + peanuts to be a completely addictive combo, so the nut factor in these is a total catching point for me.
    And you said it — candy corn is completely cute and fun! I might even try to go as a piece of it for halloween at some point! Maybe I’ll had these out. hmmmm. You’ve got me thinking Katie! As usual 🙂

  24. Bek @ Crave says

    Do you give out candy or your baked goods for Halloween? Halloween isn’t big here in Aus so we won’t be doing much, but for those kiddies that do come round we’ll probably give out icy poles.

    • Chocolate-Covered Katie says

      I’d love to give out homemade baked goods. Unfortunately, in this day and age where some malls won’t even allow kids to sit on Santa’s lap anymore because of potential lawsuits, I just don’t think it would work. 🙁

  25. Maya says

    Yayyy you used the turmeric idea! I think I had posted that on your last year’s candy corn post (not saying you got it from me, just excited when turmeric gets the importance it deserves!)

  26. Allison says

    Not really the right place for this comment, but I’m wondering if you could expand your candy section to include chocolate-covered things (nuts, dried fruit, etc.). That would be a lot of fun.

  27. Miss b says

    Hi Katie , I loved this idea with making the candy corn, without all the food coloring and junk in it !! But I was wondering do you have any Ideas on how I could make vegan candy canes for your vegan peppermint bark? Just wondering.. thanks

  28. Merrin says

    Hi Katie, just a quick question, how hard do these go? Like in comparison to a boiled sweet? Oh, and do you know of any vegan or healthy boiled sweet type recipes? Thanks heaps! 🙂

  29. Charlie says

    It’s that time of the year again!
    I wonder if there’s a way to make this recipe shelf stable? I’d like to make these and send them in the post to friends.

  30. Elaina says

    Thank you for the recipe. My teenage sons wants homemade butterfingers and found a recipe on Pinterest with chocolate and candy corn. I won’t make them because of the HFCS and dyes. Has anyone tried to use this recipe in place of candy corn in another recipe?

  31. Lauren says

    I so often see recipes with cashew butter, but I am allergic to most nuts (including cashews and peanuts). Is there any good substitute like sun butter etc?

    Also, there are three nuts I *can* eat: hazelnuts, almonds, and macadamia. For some reason, I think a homemade macadamia butter might be my solution. What do you think? Any advice would be much appreciated.

  32. Tara Gonzalez says

    Today I made the sugar-free version substituting xylitol and they are just terrible and make my stomach queasy. I know it’s the xylitol but I’m new to cutting refined sugar and most carbs out of my diet (about 6 weeks) and the only thing that’s killing me is I like desserts. I found some chocolate bars sweetened with stevia that are really great and actually don’t have a stevia aftertaste (for once the claim on the packaging is actually true!) which I usually snack on with a handful of macadamia nuts, but I’m actually not a huge chocolate person, I prefer cinnamony, buttery and sugary desserts ?. I’ve been following your blog for a while now and this is the first thing I’ve made off of it (I thought it would be a fun project to do with my 3 year old and it was that) because I haven’t traditionally kept a lot of the ingredients you use on hand and I’ve been a little skeptical that healthy desserts can be good, but I have a handful of other recipes I’m going to try and I hope I can find some that I love!

  33. Lisa says

    Hi Kate, the vegan candy corn’s were very tasty, but my colors didn’t come out looking like yours. Used the yellow food coloring and orange, but my dough was tan instead of white. ( I used sunbutter and powdered stevia sugar). Tasted good, but sure didn’t look yours?….any suggestions. Yours are so cute! Lisa in Arizona?

  34. Shoshonna says

    I’m allergic to cashews and my family is not big on peanut butter. Is there any alternative to the raw cashew butter?

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