Sugar plums, round and humble, evoke a sense of otherworldly fancy – of mystic lore, ancient yuletide celebrations, of poetry. From Clement C. Moore’s much-cherished ‘Twas the Night before Christmas to sugar plum fairies of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, these beloved confections have woven themselves in and out of the culinary traditions of Christmas and Yule. And while sugar plums still hold a place of fanciful whimsy in our poetry and plays, the confections are little more than a vestige of the bygone days of the old-world, all but forgotten in modern kitchens. A simple sugar plum recipe contains but nuts and dried fruit – wholesome ingredients, that, in their humility, may lack cloying sweetness that modern holiday treats like sugar cookies, marshmallow fudge and peppermint bark offer to contemporary tastebuds.
With culinary tradition, of course, comes nourishment and while the complex sweetness of a traditional sugar plum may pale in comparison to modern-day sweets, the confections offer a greater and more complex depth of flavor – combining allspice and coriander, cinnamon and fennel or other spices with dates, dried cherries, figs, prunes and apricots. There was a time when prunes, wrinkled and plain, served as a treat and a time when sugar plums made up the stuff of children’s dreams.
The term sugar plum is a bit of a misnomer by today’s standards as it once applied to nearly any small, round treat – from dried fruit to hard candy made of sugar and coriander. Today we think of a plum strictly as a summer stone fruit, with the sugar plum itself being one of the sweetest varieties of fruit – lacking the mouth-puckering sour skin of other plums.
In the sugar plum recipe below, we call for soaking walnuts overnight in slightly salty warm water – a traditional process that not only improves flavor by releasing some of the nuts’ bitter tannins into the water, but also improves digestion of these foods by neutralizing enzyme inhibitors naturally present in nuts and seeds; moreover, the simple process also helps to facilitate the degradation of food phytate – a naturally occurring antinutrient which binds minerals in the digestive tract preventing your body from reaping the full complement of minerals offered by nuts, seeds, grains and legumes. We couple soaked walnuts with dates, prunes and unsulphured apricots as well as an assortment of old-world spices: cinnamon, allspice and coriander for a treat that is wonderfully nourishing and truly special.
Sugar Plum Recipe
Sugar plums, wholesome and humble, are easy to prepare at home – combining nuts with once exotic spices and dried fruits. Perhaps this Christmas Eve, you can find a little room on your supper table for these nourishing treats from a time gone by. You can purchase organic and wild-crafted spices online.
Sugar Plum Recipe: Ingredients
- 1 cup shelled walnuts (see sources)
- 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt (see sources)
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 cup chopped pitted dates (see sources)
- 1/2 cup chopped unsulphured apricots (see sources)
- 1/2 cup chopped pitted prunes (see sources)
- powdered unrefined cane sugar (see sources) or unsweetened dessicated coconut (see sources), optional
Sugar Plum Recipe: Equipment
- mixing bowl
- colander
- kitchen towel
- food processor
Sugar Plum Recipe: Method
- Toss walnuts into a mixing bowl with one-half teaspoon unrefined sea salt and add warm water to cover by two inches. Allow the nuts to soak, covered, in salty water overnight between eight and twelve hours.
- After the nuts have soaked between eight and twelve hours, drain them in a colander and rinse them well. Pat them dry with a kitchen towel.
- Toss the soaked nuts into a food processor with the zest of one orange, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, coriander as well as chopped pitted dates, unsulphured apricots and pitted prunes.
- Pulse the mixture three to four times to combine, then process the dried fruit, walnuts and spices until a paste forms – about four or five minutes.
- Transfer the paste to a mixing bowl and form the sugar plums by rolling about two tablespoons of the paste in the palms of your hands until a round ball forms. Dredge the sugar plum in powdered unrefined cane sugar or unsweetened dessicated coconut.
YIELD: about 3 dozen sugar plums.
TIME: 10 minutes (active), 8 to 12 hours (soaking)
VARIATIONS: Substitute any nut or seed for walnuts and use the spices of your choice.
These sound amazing! I may win the cookie contest this year afterall!!!
Great post! I never was sure what a sugar plum really was!
Thanks for sharing!! Can’t wait to try these….maybe I will make these for the cookie exchange..hmmm…
Very creative. That photo is to die for. Love it.
Oh, these are definitely on the Christmas Goodie list for this year!
Thanks so much.
Blessings & Bliss,
Catherine
Absolutely beautiful Jenny. I can’t wait to try these! Thank you yet again for another lovely recipe!
I love these kinds of treats – a perfect nibble that can’t be neatly categorized as candy or cookie or nut… I think these are a perfect additiion to a holiday kitchen! Lovely pics too.
Am I right to assume that by “unsulphured apricots” you mean dried apricots that haven’t been artificially dried?
Christine, I think unsulphured means that there are no sulfites added to the dried fruit to keep their freshness and color. Sulphured dried apricots are orange in color, while unsulphured are brown. Health food stores and natural aisles of supermarkets carry unsulphared apricots these days.
Wow – these are so simple and healthy, and they look delicious! What a great little treat for kids!
these look GREAT. i have all the ingredients except the prunes. i’m wondering if raisins would be a good substitute.
i made a similar recipe: equal parts by volume of raisins, dates, soaked & dried cashews, soaked & dried almonds put into a processor until a paste. add a bit of water so they will form into balls and roll in coconut. yummy and healthy.
Too weird Jenny! I posted something similar on my blog today, but didn’t realize what sugar plums really mean! These are beautiful!
Thank you for making this holiday more meaningfull
I love the nutrient denseness of traditional foods.
I dried my own plums this summer, here is a recipe worthy of them.
xoL
Ok, going to try sunflower seeds, dates, coconut, and raisins. It’s what we’ve got. And my daughter is allergic to nuts. Spices will be an experiment too!
One can really have fun experimenting with these.Dried:Cherries, Blueberries, Raisins Apricots & Prunes. Some people insist prunes must be part of a Sugar Plum recipe. My parents are both sensitiveto certain Nut meats so; I used Rice Krispies instead. My Mom purchases Pearzipan paste instead of Marzipan paste(almonds) for baking. Would like to try adding in Pearzipan into this recipe. They do stay out well for several days as there is no butter,eggs or milk involved. Some folks add alcohol to help “preserve them”. Another blogger makes small squares or bars out of these as they are a healthy pick me up for athletic kiddoes. Minus the alcohol of course!;p A well sealed tin or plastic container works well. I like to line mine with parchment paper to keep them neat & tidy!
These look great. Any suggestions for making them without a food processor?
Traditionally, you’d make them with a mortar and pestle. I need to get a new set.
Oh Gosh! We had a food processor that fritzed out on us! This was a bit tedious. Sanitized a few pair of scissors & sprayed them down w/PAM cooking spray. Kept some wet paper towels on hand as finger towels & to wipe down scissors. Cut by hand all the dried fruits. My six year old helped as it was his idea to make them. Mixed all the fruits together with honey & orange peel & microwaved until soft. Put in blender, added nut meats into blender. Started on chop &worked up to blend using each setting for a brief time. Had a nice paste with some small pieces for texture. Rolled into balls or flattened into nutrition bars. For decorative touch, powdered sugar, coconut, ground nuts or ground Rice Krispies works well. My 6 year old boy stiill wants a Sugar Plum that is plum-ish or purple-ish in nature. Maybe I’ll have to experiment with a fondant coating or glaze tinted purple!!! lol
Is it possible to tint powdered sugar?? Oh the things we do for kids. ;p
I’ve been hunting for holiday recipies for our family traditions that I could feel good about- I am so excited about these! Heading to get some walnuts soaking right now! Thanks.
Do you think these will need to be stored in the fridge? I am wondering about sending them in a care package? i think it is the wet nuts going in that has be worried.
They look AWESOME!
I personally do not soak the nut meats as I use the milder ones.(pecans hazlenuts) I find it important to buy good quality items, especially nut meats. Hazlenuts from the health store are not bitter & lend a sweet mild flavor and un-sulfered apricots are better from a health food store. In Nebraska, we have Herman’s Nut House. For years my Mom has purchased excellent shelled nuts & dried, candied fruits. (Makes fro great Stollen-Holiday Bread) We often have sent cookies & nut macaroons to Germany & to friends stationed overseas. We would use mini- marshmallows to layer between the baked items. It keeps everything sweet & fairly moist. Coffe tins, decorative tins & quality plastic containers work well. If going someplace warm, lining the container w/parchment paper before layering in the mini marshmallows & cookies really helps keep the integrity of the flavors.Plus the marshmallows are fun to nibble on as well
Hope this helps! 
Actually, we encourage everyone to soak nutmeats primarily because all nuts contain enzyme-inhibitors and phytic acid, which are antinutrients. Enzyme inhibitors interfere with the body’s ability to digest the proteins in nuts, when properly soaked the enzyme inhibitors are degraded, rendering the full complement of enzymes available. This is particularly important since this recipe is otherwise raw. Phytic acid is an antinutrient which binds up minerals including iron and zinc in the digestive tract preventing their full absorption, by soaking the nuts, the phytic acid is degraded, and your body can better absorb the minerals. Regardless of whether you use good quality nuts or poor, or strong tasting nuts or weak, they all should be soaked for the reasons listed above.
I think the idea of marshmallows as packing material is great, but we tend to avoid all processed foods – in fact, the whole site is dedicated to the avoidance of processed foods, refined sugars etc. Take a look at our healthy sweets – not a one contains refined sugar, flour or refined oils and fats.
Hope you enjoy the site!
I want to make these! They look awesome. I went to my kitchen to start cooking but realized I don’t have dates, so they’ll have to go on my next shopping list. The photo is very pretty!
I made them last night and they are to DIE for! Thanks again. I’ll let you know how they do in the contest
Please do! I’d love to know. We’re taking some to a friend’s house tomorrow.
Got half way through the mix & my food proc. went – kaput! Hopefully I can get a new one soon- can’t wait to try these. Hopefully my friends will forgive me for showing up empty handed.
My processor bogged down, too. I ended up dividing the mixture in half to do smaller batches. One of the comments below mentioned a meat grinder; I’ll try that next time.
Hey Jenny, I made these today and they were delicious! I made them in one tablespoon balls and they only made 17 – you mentioned using about 2 tablespoons – did you mean teaspoons?
I tried using my blender but it wasn’t working well, so I put the mixture through my meat grinder, worked fantastic. I rolled some in coconut and some in cane sugar with cocoa. The votes went for the cocoa. Both are great though!
To Jenny or anyone that has made these:
How far in advance can these be made? How should they be stored? How long do you think they’ll last? Thanks!! Eager to hear back!
This is a delicious recipe. I had some apricots and plums that I dehydrated myself. They were very dry, so I chopped them up into small pieces and soaked them in a small amount of fresh orange juice first (and for the nuts, I used some ground crispy walnuts that I had in my freezer). Love to find grain-free treats for Christmas!
I made these for our Christmas Eve dinner and they were a BIG hit. This treat is sure to become an annual tradition. Thank for sharing, Jenny!
I’ve been making sugarplums for years. I’m going to try this variation out of curiosity. My recipe uses crispy almonds instead of freshly soaked walnuts and dates instead of prunes.
First of all, I’d love to know some of your historical references, the definition of sugar plum as requiring coriander for example. I know the concept is ancient but you have some details I’ve not come across, I suspect you have (access to) a book I’ll now wish for!
For those worried about long term storage, in the day, this sort of thing was meant to be stored against later need or taken on trips. You could use unsoaked nuts, the enzymes meant to preserve the nuts until prime sprouting time will assist in preserving the product ( though you lose some nutrional qualities). Alternatively, re-dry the nuts in dehydrator or low oven. In which case you may need to add a bit more liquid when making up the recipe, something boozy is traditional, as mentioned, and wine or old beer would be historically apprpriate. (a bit of yeasty homemade beer with fermentation possibilities sounds like something to try, IMO) A bit of honey would also work, adding sweetness and a minor level of the preservative affects of sugar. I’m on my phone and it’s hard to scroll up to recall if there was salt other than in the nut soaking water, if not, a pinch might add preservative effect.
If storing them, keep tightly covered and expect some drying even so. If they get too, too dry, sprinkle with a bit of something. Water, juice, rosewater, wine, or something stronger and reseat for a few hours.
Looks yummy and like a fun thing to make with the kids. I have all the dry fruit, but not sure about whether there are any walnuts on hand. Wonder if I could use raw pecans or cashews instead?
These turned out yummy. I didn’t have an orange, so used a bit of orange essence instead of zest. I also didn’t have apricots, so subbed some dried figs and apples for those. The kids helped me roll the balls. They are basically a powder-sugar-coated larabar.
These went right on the top of my Christmas cookie to-bake list! What kind of alcohol would you recommend for this combination of spaces and dried fruit? Rum? Cognac? Thanks for kick-starting my holiday spirit!
I’m always partial to rum. It just sings “Holidays” to me.
I love the sugar plum recipe and I will make them as a surpise for my father’s 92 birhtday without
informing my sister who is preparing the meal and would probably tell me not to.
I’m not sure what a sugar plum is but will try to find them at Whole Foods or Central Market
in Houston. I imagine they do not have seeds in them?
Nanette Tashnek
These sound wonderful!
I had a question – I want to go sugar free in our home, using things like honey, molasses, and maple syrup instead for sweeteners. How do I replace dozens of recipes we love that call for sugar? It just seems such a daunting task.
Please share your recipes with Chowstalker and Dessertstalker! These sugar plums are wonderful, and I know that Patty would be very happy to share this recipe and a lot of your other recipes with the Primal/Paleo crowd. http://www.dessertstalker.com/share-your-treats/
Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes! You’ve helped me find new ways of cooking healthy meals for my family.
I Love these Sugar Plums! Made them for the holidays and shared some with the neighbors. One of them told me today that they’re just like the ones her Irish grandmother used to make (validating their authenticity)……except those were covered in powdered sugar. Mine were, too, but the sugar dissolved. HOW do you keep the sugar from dissolving?
Thanks for this wonderful recipe!