Candy corn technology has come a long way since the 1800’s (when it was invented). Nobody knows for sure who developed the first candy corn prototype, but by the late 1800’s the Goelitz Candy Company was distributing these delicious little treats to Illinois farmers. Back then, candy corn was made by hand pouring sugar slurry into tiny triangular molds.
Today, though candy corn production is now completely mechanized, the ingredients are still pretty much the same. Candy corn is made with fondant, a special confectionery ingredient consisting of about 20% sugar and 80% corn syrup. Fondant is solid at room temperature but becomes a nice smooth fluid as it is heated because sugars are more soluble at higher temperatures. This liquidy syrup is deposited in molds as it was around the turn of the century, but the process is slightly more efficient.
Rather than using solid molds to shape candy corn into its distinctive form, the syrupy slurry is poured into indentations in a tray of corn starch. The machinery that carries out this process is called a mogul. Moguls are absolutely awesome. They pour the starch into the trays, create indentations of any shape you can imagine in the starch and deposit the candy corn batter at the rate of approximately 25,200 pounds per hour. Well, at least that is the speed of a normal-sized mogul. Supersized moguls, yes that is actually what they are called, can pump out nearly 40,000 pounds per hour. Each of candy corn’s three colors are deposited individually by little nozzles that pump the candy corn batter into corn-shaped indentations.
Once in their corn starch mold, the candy corn must dry for at least 24 hours and nearly 48 hours in climates as delightfully damp as D.C. Not only does the corn starch used in this process provide versatility of shape but it also helps pull out moisture from the candy corn batter, accelerating this drying stage. Once dry, the corn starch is blasted off the candy corn with an air hose and the candy corn is polished off, finished and ready to enjoy.
Editor’s note: According to the NCA candy corn page, George Renninger, an employee of the Wunderlee Candy Company, invented candy corn in the 1880s and Wunderlee became the first to produce the candy. The Goelitz Candy Company (now Jelly Belly Candy Company) started producing the confection in 1900.
