Easy Sugar Plums Christmas Recipe

This quick and easy recipe for Christmas sugar plums comes together in no time! Made with dried fruits, nuts, and fragrant spices, they are a sweet treat to add to your holiday cookie platter. They also make the perfect homemade gift for family and friends.

Jump to:

• Introduction
• More reasons to love this recipe
• Let’s prep our recipe
• How to make sugar plums
• How to serve
• How to store sugarplums
• Tips
• FAQ
• Variations
• Easy no-bake Christmas treats
• Recipe origins 
• Recipe

Introduction

This one is worth exploring this holiday season, no matter what visions of sugar plums you have dancing in your head!

But what exactly is a sugar plum?

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a sugar plum as “a small candy in the shape of a ball or disk.” These sugar-coated plums originated from the popular method of boiling fruit with sugar to preserve it, typically plums.

According to Wikipedia, “sugar plum came into general usage in the 17th century.”

With time, the recipe evolved, and today it can consist of dried fruits, nuts, and warm spices.

Although the purists insist on using only plums, this recipe features a combination of dates and dried apricots, nuts, and some aromatic spices for a delicious and chewy texture. The mixture is then rolled into little balls and coated in coarse sugar.

They are similar to these healthy date energy balls without the extra sugar coating.

This is for you if you want something special to add an elegant touch to your holiday cookie platter! 

More reasons to love this recipe

• It’s a no-bake recipe (except for the roasted almonds).
• It offers a slightly healthier option to include in your holiday cookie platter.
• These delicious sugarplums only take about thirty minutes from start to finish.
• These make great hostess gifts for a Christmas party.
• You can easily swap some ingredients if you keep the nuts and dried fruit proportions constant. Dried cranberries, raisins, prunes, walnuts, etc., are all wonderful alternatives.
• They can be made well ahead of the holiday rush and frozen. When putting your holiday platter together, it’s just a question of removing them from the freezer, bringing them to room temperature, and rolling them in glittery sugar. How convenient is that!

Let’s prep our recipe

Prepping the ingredients for this easy recipe ensures that the texture and the flavor all come together perfectly.

Roasting the almonds: Preheat the oven to 325°F (162°C). Place 1 cup of almonds on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer, and roast for 9-15 minutes or until fragrant. Coarsely chop and set aside. Allow to cool down to room temperature before combining with the rest of the ingredients. 

Chop the dried fruit: Chopping the dried fruit into small pieces helps the food processor work more efficiently. For this sugar plum recipe, you will need 1 cup of dates, pits removed (140 grams) and 1 cup of dried apricots (140 grams).

If your food processor is fairly powerful, you can skip this step as it can easily handle breaking down the fruit.

How to make sugar plums

Now that our ingredients are prepped, it’s time to make our delicious Christmas sugar plums.

In a food processor or high-speed blender, add the roasted almonds, chopped dates, and apricots with 1½ teaspoons of orange zest, ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon of ground allspice, ⅛ teaspoon of ground nutmeg. Pulse until this fruit mixture breaks down and forms a sticky paste with a coarse texture. Avoid letting the mixture become one large mass.

Use a small disher to portion the sugar plum mixture (approximately 1½ tablespoons) and roll it into small round balls with slightly damp hands. Then, roll the small balls into a bowl of coarse sugar to coat them.

How to serve

There are a few festive ways to serve this sugar plum candy. They look beautiful and will be the highlight of any festive occasion!

• Place the sugar-coated balls in festive truffle liners for individual portions. Serve alongside an espresso for a delightful treat!
• Pile them in glass jars or a vintage candy tray (as we did in the photo above).
• Serve your guests these delicious treats on a silver tray for an impressive presentation.
• Add them to your holiday cookie platter as a gift for friends or a special Christmas dessert.

No matter how you decide to serve them, these sugar plums will surely be a hit!

Enjoy!

How to store sugarplums

Store these Christmas treats (without rolling in sugar) in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or freeze them for up to 3 months. Use wax or parchment paper to separate layers to prevent sticking. Note: Bring to room temperature before rolling in coarse sugar. 

Tips

• Chopping the dates and dried apricots into smaller pieces will help the food processor blend the ingredients more smoothly. Avoid letting the mixture become one large mass.
• When storing, use wax paper to separate layers to prevent sticking.
• To prevent the sugar plums from sticking to your hands, lightly dampen your palms with a bit of water before rolling them.

FAQ

Variations

Use your favorite combinations of dried fruits, nuts and spices to customize the flavor to your liking. For example:

For an interesting flavor combination, consider replacing the dates and apricots with dried raisins, currants, dried apples, cranberries, dried figs, or prunes.

Almonds are a great option, but walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and pecans could also be used.

And don’t forget the spice mixture! Allspice, anise seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, caraway seeds and pumpkin spice are good options to add flavor.

You can also roll them in sanding sugar, edible glitter, desiccated coconut, or for a more richer taste, chocolate.

For an adult version, consider adding a tablespoon of brandy or orange liqueur to the mixture before rolling.

Easy no-bake Christmas treats

Who can resist homemade holiday treats? They are a great addition to your holiday cookie platter and make the best hostess gifts.

If you’re looking for more Christmas treats that don’t involve baking, try combining chocolate with roasted almonds to create homemade chocolate almond clusters. Another no-bake chocolate recipe is to make dark chocolate bark with different combinations of ingredients like pumpkin seeds and roasted nuts.

Recipe origins 

I discovered the original recipe for these no-bake sugar plums in a Canadian magazine called Homemakers, which is now out of publication.

This has continued to be my go-to recipe for no-bake festive treats for decades. It is a simple and delicious addition to any platter of holiday cookies.

Regarding changes to the original recipe, I added a touch of cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg and included the zest of one fresh orange.

My holiday cookie platter would not be complete without these chewy, fragrant sugar plums. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does!

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★★★★★ If you have made these sugarplums, I would love to hear about it in the comments below and be sure to rate the recipe!

Recipe

This post was originally published on November 13, 2016, and republished on December 6, 2022, with updated photos, content and a video. Thanks for sharing.