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This easy sugar plums recipe blends dried fruit, toasted nuts, and a variety of spices for a healthy 15-minute Christmas candy that’s full of traditional flavor.
Sugarplums conjure up two iconic holiday images.
First, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s classical ballet, The Nutcracker.
And also, the line from Clement Clarke Moore’s poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (also called ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas):
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads…
But sugar plums are actually a real thing with an interesting history; and the original confection didn’t even contain plums!
A Brief History of Sugar Plums
As early as the 1600’s through the 1800’s (including Victorian-era England), traditional sugarplums were a type of hard candy known as “comfit” or “dragée”. (If you’re familiar with Jordan almonds, then you’ve had dragée candy.)
Comfit is an old-fashioned candy that’s made by coating a seed, spice, or nut (frequently a caraway seed, cardamom seed, or almond) in layers of sugar that forms a hard shell-like exterior. The process is known as panning, and it’s quite a process indeed. In this time and labor-intensive procedure that requires a great deal of skill, liquid sugar is poured over the center object until a hard coating forms, and this is repeated until there are around 30 sugar layers! The resulting candy ends up being around the size of a plum, hence the name.
It’s speculated that this type of candy-making process originated in the Middle East. Arabian apothecaries originally invented this confection as a digestive medicine, a type of edible digestif meant to be eaten after dinner to settle the stomach. In the Middle Ages, Italian traders brought the idea to Europe, and from there it flourished. It gained popularity in France and England, supposedly even making royal appearances in King Henry VIII’s court!
These sweet treats were time-consuming and difficult to make. Additionally, their main component was a luxury ingredient (i.e., sugar). Because of this, sugar plums were originally an aristocratic indulgence or a treat reserved for special occasions. However, by the mid-19th century, factories started mass-producing comfit, which boosted its popularity and made it available to a broader audience for consumption.
You can read more about the origin and history of sugar plums on Tasting Table, Time, Mental Floss, and Wikipedia.
What is a Sugar Plum?
So, what are sugar plums today? They’ve had quite the evolution! Unlike the traditional comfit candy of the Victorian era, a modern sugar plum frequently contains a blend of dried fruit, nuts, and spices that’s rolled into a ball and coated in sugar.
Ingredients
Breaking It Down
Ingredients Explained
In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.
- Almonds – Toast the almonds first to bring out their nutty flavor and aroma.
- Prunes – Also called dried plums, prunes are the base of this recipe and the star of the show.
- Honey – Honey adds a floral sweetness to mellow out the spices, and also acts as a binder to help the mixture form balls of candy. If your prunes are fresh and soft, you can omit the honey if you want to reduce the sugar content a bit.
- Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom – This is the Christmasy spice blend we use, and it’s what makes this sugar plum candy special.
- Salt – To create a balanced flavor profile.
- Coarse sugar – This is to coat the balls. You can also use finely chopped nuts if you don’t want added sugar. You can also find coarse sugar labeled sanding sugar, shimmer sugar, glitter sugar, cocktail sugar, and sparkling sugar. Another option is to use turbinado sugar. Here I rolled some of the candy in purple sanding sugar and some in white sanding sugar.
Pro Tip: How to Toast Nuts
You aren’t limited to almonds in this recipe. However, whatever type of nuts you use, be sure to lightly toast them first to develop their nutty flavor and aroma.
To do so, preheat the oven to 350F. Spread the nuts out onto a baking tray, and bake until they start to turn golden and smell nutty, about 8 minutes, giving the tray a shake once halfway through. Cool, and then continue with the recipe.
Note that it’s best to lightly toast the nuts for this recipe. If they’re over-toasted they can become bitter.
How to Make This Easy Sugar Plums Recipe
- Add the toasted almonds to a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Add all remaining ingredients except the coarse sugar.
- Pulse a few times, and then process until it forms a ball (the mixture will not be completely smooth; this is fine).
- Use a 1-tablespoon scoop to measure out the prune mixture, then roll each into a ball in the coarse sugar or finely chopped nuts to coat. (Double roll to fully coat the sugar plums.)
Variations
- Nuts – If almonds aren’t your thing, you can swap them out for just about any type of nut you like: walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, etc. all work well. Another option is to use a combination of different nuts.
- Dried fruit – You aren’t limited to prunes (aka dried plums) here! Any kind of soft dried fruit is as good contender; dates work especially well. Another option is to mix and match dried fruit, such as cherries, raisins, cranberries, apricots, figs, etc.
- Coating – Here I went with sanding sugar, which adds a delicious crunch that’s a wink and a nod to the hard sugar coating on traditional sugarplum candy. Another of my favorite coatings for this candy is dark chocolate with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. If you want to reduce the added sugar for a healthy holiday snack or dessert, you can roll them in finely chopped nuts or unsweetened shredded coconut.
Storage
Store this candy layered between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for about 10 days (or longer if your kitchen is cool), or in the fridge for up to 2 months.
Pro Tip: Special Diet Friendly
This Christmas candy recipe is surprisingly healthy! As written, it is naturally gluten free. For the vegan version, use maple syrup or agave nectar instead of honey. And to make it paleo, roll the candy in finely chopped nuts instead of coarse sugar.
FAQs
For the traditional comfit, the main ingredient is sugar. However, the main ingredient of this recipe is prunes (aka dried plums), followed by almonds. It’s a healthy holiday candy, and you can make it even healthier by skipping the sugar coating! Instead, roll the candy in finely chopped nuts or unsweetened shredded coconut.
No! You can store them at room temperature for about 10 days, or longer if your kitchen is on the cool side. Layer them between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container for best results.
For clarification, there’s a variety of stone fruit that’s called a sugar plum. It’s sweeter than a regular plum with a mildly tart flavor.
To disambiguate, here we’re talking about sugarplum candy! This candy has a sweet/tart fruity flavor with notes of toasted nuts and rich spices. Its texture is chewy (similar to a Larabar or energy balls, such as chocolate date balls), and it frequently has a crunchy sugar coating.
More Easy No-Bake Christmas Desserts to Try
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Sugar Plum Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup whole almonds lightly toasted (see Notes)
- 1 cup prunes dried plums
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons coarse sugar or finely chopped nuts (to coat the balls; see Notes)
Instructions
- Add the toasted almonds to a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add all remaining ingredients (except the coarse sugar), pulse a few times, and then process until it forms a ball (the mixture will not be completely smooth; this is fine).
- Use a 1-tablespoon scoop to measure out the prune mixture, then roll each into a ball in the coarse sugar or finely chopped nuts to coat. (Double roll to fully coat the sugar plums.)
Video
Notes
- To Toast the Nuts: If your almonds aren’t already toasted, toast them first. To do so, preheat the oven to 350F. Spread the nuts out onto a baking tray, and bake until they start to turn golden and smell nutty, about 8 minutes, giving the tray a shake once halfway through. Cool, and then continue with the recipe. (Also, feel free to swap out the almonds for any type of nut you like!)
- Coarse Sugar and Other Coatings: Here I went with sanding sugar, which adds a delicious crunch that’s a wink and a nod to the hard sugar coating on traditional sugarplum candy. Another of my favorite coatings for this candy is dark chocolate with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. If you want to reduce the added sugar for a healthy holiday snack or dessert, you can roll them in finely chopped nuts or unsweetened shredded coconut.
- Storage: Store this candy layered between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for about 10 days (or longer if your kitchen is cool), or in the fridge for up to 2 months.
- Special Diet Friendly: This Christmas candy recipe is surprisingly healthy! As written, it is naturally gluten free. For the vegan version, use maple syrup or agave nectar instead of honey. And to make it paleo, roll the candy in finely chopped nuts instead of coarse sugar.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximate.
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I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.
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