Candy Corn Cookies

Do you cringe at the mere thought or start salivating in anticipation? There doesn’t seem to be much in between. You either love it or hate it. Friday, Oct 30 is National Candy Corn Day and those who love it can hardly wait to celebrate this odd treat.

In the 1880s, George Renninger of Wunderle Candy Company created candy corn. His sweet treat represented the bright colors of corn kernels in white, orange and yellow. The cooking process was done by hand: a sugar and corn syrup-based mixture was cooked into a slurry (a semi-liquid mixture) in a large kettle, dumped into buckets called runners, and men, dubbed stringers, walked backwards, pouring the hot concoction into a tray of molds in the shape of corn kernels.

It wasn’t until 1889 the candy actually came into popularity. The Goelitz Candy Company (now the Jelly Belly Candy Company) obtained the recipe and started marketing the kernels as a candy called Chicken Feed. Before World War I, most Americans didn’t really think of corn as people food. Even after World War I, candy corn maintained its association with chickens. Packages of Goelitz’s candy corn from the 1920’s displayed a rooster and the motto, “King of the Candy Corn Fields.”

In the first half of the 20th century, candy corn became a common “penny candy.” These were the types of treats kids could buy in bulk for very little money. Beginning in the 50’s, Halloween became more and more candy centered. Candy corn started becoming more and more a candy associated with Halloween as advertising for candy corn spiked in October every year. While all candy was advertised, the other candies were advertised all year whereas the candy corn was really only advertised in October.

Today, Jelly Belly can make 3,500 pounds of this candy every hour, and the National Confectioners Association estimates they sell 9 billion kernels every year. That’s more than 35 million pounds! Wow! This week, I made a few goodies with this - Halloween’s most popular candy. Make your grocery list and meet me in the kitchen for candy corn confections!