Getting creative with candy corn

"Nothing on Earth is so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night," declares Steve Almond, author and self-confessed candy freak whose book on the subject reveals that he has eaten at least one piece of candy "every single day of his entire life."

Tonight millions of trick or treaters, even those not so obsessed, will likely acknowledge that he has a point. Candy really is, as Ogden Nash once put it, dandy.

No wonder, then, that just about every major holiday in America is associated with its own signature version of what Jonathan Bartlett, author of "The Cook's Dictionary and Culinary Reference," calls "those sugary confections that feed our 'sweet tooth,' rot our teeth, and lift our spirits."

Candy Corn Dessert Pizza is made with the Indian corn version of the tri-color candy. (Fred Lynch)

At Christmas it's the candy cane. On Valentine's Day it's the chocolate heart. For Easter it's marshmallow Peeps. And come Halloween, it's candy corn. As Patrick Carlin, former CEO of Brach's, observes, "Halloween without candy corn, that most delicious of all Halloween treats, would be cold, bleak and spiritually unsatisfying."

Carlin might, understandably, be a bit prejudiced, but consumers seem to agree with him. They spend a couple of billion dollars on Halloween candy annually, making the holiday the biggest one of the year for candy makers, and with that money they buy some 35 million pounds of candy corn -- which works out to about 9 billion kernels, according to the National Confectioners Association. Though candy corn is available year round, 75 percent of its annual sales occur around Halloween. Moreover, it's not just children who love the candy. The majority of it is actually eaten by adults nostalgic for their childhood.

Candy corn has even achieved something of a cult status. There are well over 200 videos on YouTube which feature it, including one of a candy corn figure dancing to Michael Jackson's hit recording of "Thriller." Comedian Lewis Black incorporates a rant about the stuff into his act while poet and illustrator James Stevenson has put out a collection of his works under the title "Candy Corn."

All of this would no doubt have surprised George Renninger, the employee of Philadelphia's now defunct Wunderlee Candy Company, who invented the tricolor white, yellow and orange candy back in the 1880s using a tedious process in which kernel-shaped molds were filled by hand, one color at a time, with a candy mixture made mainly from sugar, water and corn syrup. (So candy corn actually does contain real corn, albeit after a fashion.)

Around the turn of the century the Goelitz Confectionary Company of Cincinnati got into the act. Their version of the confection became so popular they even tried other vegetable shapes, though none of them caught on quite like the corn. Now a founding part of the Jelly Belly Candy Company, they are the oldest producer of candy corn.

No doubt the best thing to do with candy corn is simply eat it out of hand, but you can use it as an ingredient in other confections such as fudge or cookies. Gale Gand, arguably the best pastry chef in America, even makes candy corn lollipops for patrons of her fashionable Chicago restaurant Tru. My favorite preparation is candy corn on the cob made by pressing rows of the stuff into a fresh Twinkie. That trick produces the ultimate Halloween treat.

Candy Corn Dessert Pizza

Around 35 million pounds of candy corn are sold at Halloween. That's about 9 billion kernels. (Fred Lynch)

This recipe calls for Indian candy corn, which substitutes a chocolate-flavored section for the traditional yellow, but the regular variety would work well too.

1 roll (16.5-ounce) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

1 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

2 cups Indian candy corn

1 cup roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

2 ounces white chocolate

Break cookie dough into small pieces and arrange evenly in greased pizza pan. With floured fingers press together to form crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes until golden. Cool completely. Spread Nutella over crust. Sprinkle with Indian corn and hazelnuts. Melt white chocolate and drizzle decoratively over top of pizza.

Tom Harte's book, "Stirring Words," is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Fridays 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699.