Alton Brown's Homemade Candy Corn

This homemade candy corn recipe from Alton Brown is super easy to make, and you will never want to buy store bought candy corn again!

Usually candy making is very intimidating for me. Dealing with thermometers and boiling sugar is not my cup of te until I tried this recipe for homemade candy corn. I'd rather just mix something in a stand mixer and bake that in the oven. It was really fun to roll the sugar mess into ropes and make the ropes look yellow and orange. You have to work fast while making these and the sugar has to be somewhat warm. Once it starts cooling down, it's even harder to work with. Oh yah, and they taste even better than store-bought candy corn!  Alton used a butter cutter to make his candy corn shapes, I just used a knife and cut them into little triangle pieces.

 How to make Homemade Candy Corn 

To print the full recipe please see the recipe card below. 

1. Combine the powdered sugar, dry milk and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 4 to 5 times until the mixture is smooth and well combined. Set aside.
2. Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a 2-quart pot. Put over medium heat, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Add the butter, clip on a candy thermometer, and bring the mixture to 230 degrees F, about 1 to 2 minutes. When the sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees F, take the pot off the heat and remove the thermometer. Add the vanilla and the dry mixture, stirring continuously with a silicone spatula until well combined. Pour onto a half sheet pan lined with a silicone baking mat. Cool until the mixture is cool enough to handle, about 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Add 2 drops of yellow food coloring to 1 piece and knead the dough until the color is consistent throughout. Add 2 drops of orange to the second piece, and knead until the color is consistent throughout. Leave the third piece white. Roll each piece of dough into a strand, about 18-inches long. Cut each strand in half.
4. Roll 1 of the white pieces into a strand that is about ½-inch thick and about 22-inches long. Repeat with a yellow piece and orange piece. Lay the strands side by side and press them together using your fingers. Cut the strand into 4-inch pieces. Lay the strands, 1 at a time, onto the silicone mat and press into a wedge shape, like a triangle. Use a wire butter slicer to cut the candies into pieces. If you don't have a wire butter slicer, use a knife, metal bench scraper or pizza cutter to slice the dough into small pieces. Repeat the procedure with remaining dough. Lay the finished pieces on a piece of parchment or waxed paper to dry for 1 hour. Store in an airtight container with parchment paper between each layer.

Other Recipes to Try 

Cinnamon Roll Cake 

Milky Way Ice Cream Pie 

Air Fryer Garlic Parmesan Knots 

Trisha Yearwood’s Charleston Cheese Dip 

Baked French Toast 

Sour Cream Noodle Bake 

If you’ve tried this Homemade Candy Corn recipe or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. Snap a picture and upload it to Pinterest. 

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