Sugar Plums

What are sugar plums?

Perhaps best known for their appearance in Clement Moore's iconic Christmas poem and Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, sugar plums are inextricably linked to yuletide festivities. But what exactly are they?

Naturally, you might think they're simply sugar-coated plums, but the truth is a little hazier than that.

Sugar plums are sweet holiday treats made with dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and they're delicious when you serve them alongside a mug of hot mulled cider.

They're easy to make and can be a pleasant (and healthier) alternative to all the sugary, floury treats of the season and a great option to add to a holiday cookie plate.

It seems rather simple and straightforward, doesn't it? But it's not quite right. The sugar plums we know today as little round balls of spiced fruit and nuts are very different from the sort that the children in A Visit from St. Nicholas dreamt of on Christmas Eve.

So, what's the history?

The roots of sugar plums, and their connection to festivals and holidays, stretch nearly 500 years. In 16th-century England, the word plum not only referred to the summer stone fruit that we're familiar with today but to anything sweet, pleasant, and desirable.

At this time, sugar was both rare and precious and often used to preserve summer fruit - including plums. Cooks would boil them in a sugar syrup, similar to the way we still make candied ginger today. Sugaring fruit, such as plums, made them resistant to spoilage so that they could be enjoyed year-round.

A 17th-century cookbook specifically references sugaring plums in this way, calling it the "most kindly" way to preserve them as well as other small stonefruits, such as cherries (1). Whether these were the original sugar plums is still questionable.

A century later, candy makers were preparing sugar plums through a long process called panning. They'd progressively glaze seeds, aromatic spices such as coriander or fennel, and nuts in layers of sugar. The result was something similar to a Jordan almond (a hard nut encased in a hard shell of sugar).

It was a tedious process that could take days as each layer of sugar had to harden before the next could be applied.

This made sugar plums both expensive and largely inaccessible to most people. Accordingly, they were largely reserved for times of great celebration - such as Christmastime.

By the time Clement Moore's poem was published in the 1820s, advances in candy making made them less expensive (and faster) to produce. This made them as well as other candies more accessible. Certainly, children might have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

Nearly 200 years later, this technique is largely forgotten as other candies fill stockings today. But, an attempt to revive the sugar plum in the 1960s yielded a new version, the one we know today: filled with dried fruit, nuts, and spices.

Key Ingredients

The ingredients for sugar plums are straightforward and uncomplicated, and you can find them in the bulk bins of just about any grocery store.

Dates make the bulk of the sugar plum and other dried fruits and help provide flavor and balance. Adding other fruit also improves the texture because too many dates make them unpleasantly sticky.

• Dates are the foundation of a sugar plum. Any date will work. Both Medjool and Deglet dates are easy to find and popular choices. I prefer using Honey Dates which have a creamy texture and honey-like flavor.
• Dried fruit can include just about any option. Prunes (dried plums) and Turkish apricots are my favorite choices. Turkish apricots taste like butterscotch and work well in this recipe. Dried cranberries, cherries, and even raisins can work, too.
• Nuts lend a little texture and buttery richness to this treat. Walnuts work well, but almonds are popular too. Pecans could certainly work well.
• Aromatic spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom are lovely additions to Christmas recipes. But fennel, coriander, and even caraway seeds can be nice choices.
• Honey provides added sweetness and helps all the dried fruit and nuts pull together when you form them into balls.
• Sparkling sugar, dried coconut, or even cocoa powder are essential for finishing the sugar plums. Minimally processed can sugars, such as Turbinado or Demerara, also work well.

How to Make Sugar Plums

Fortunately, modern sugar plums are infinitely easier to make than their centuries-old counterparts. It takes less than 10 minutes instead of days, and there's a lot less sugar involved, too.

• You'll combine all the ingredients (dried fruit, nuts, spices, and a spoonful of honey) in a food processor and process until well-mixed and coarse in texture, just shy of a sticky paste.
• Next, form the dried fruit mixture into small balls.
• Then, dredge them in sugar (sparkling sugar works well here, but I prefer Turbinado sugar). That's it. You're done.

Recipe Tips

This sugar plum recipe is especially easy to make. There's no cooking, no baking, and you can be a little sloppy in your measurements, and they'll still turn out fine. It's an excellent choice for making with small children, too.

• Dates are the foundation of the recipe but should only make up about half of the dried fruit. Too many dates produce a sticky mixture, and you'll have trouble forming it into balls.
• If your dried fruit is particularly moist, you might be able to skip the honey.
• Two small spoons work well to portion the dried fruit mixture so that you have evenly sized balls.
• Dredging the sugar plums in sugar, cocoa, or dried coconut is an essential step. The sugar coating (or similar coatings) prevents the treats from sticking together.
• It's a good thing to consider wearing gloves when forming the balls, as they're quite sticky.

Recipe Questions

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References

1. Dugard, William (1651) Ladies Delights: To Adorn Their Persons, Tables, Closets and Distilleries.