Tea Room Tales & Tidbits
Table of Contents
Victorian Sugar Plums
I often wondered what sugar plums were. The famous Twas the Night Before Christmas poem with the line while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads always left me thinking of a sugar-coated gumdrop. Who would have guessed that they are really small balls of mixed and mashed sweetmeats? Often these are laced with a potent, double distilled, Morella cherry liqueur called Kirsch. Victorians loved these sugar plums nearly as much as chocolate.
After reading up on the subject I discovered that there are many versions of the fabled sugar plum. Some sources say that they are not made with plums at all and have a sugar-glazed caraway seed hiding within a small fleshy ball of ground raisins, currants, and apricots. Other recipes claim to be from the 16th century and state that they are in fact boiled and dried plums. This is a nine-day process, with the best plums coming from Italy. They are reportedly only to be consumed on Twelfth Night.
Most recipes indicate the sweet treats are wrapped in elaborate boxes and tins with a ribbon tied in bows. These are given as gifts around Christmas time.
We ended our search by choosing a simplified recipe containing
ingredients that we found interesting and obtainable. Only some of
the tearoom clientèle enjoyed the wee morsels served during our
Victorian Christmas Special Tea Luncheon. One Lady politely said,
It's a bit of an acquired taste isn't it?
To my surprise, even some
grade two students enjoyed them while they visited for a Victorian
Christmas one afternoon.
- 1 cup toasted pecans
- 1 cup chopped, dried apricots
- 1/2 cup pitted dates
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 2 tbsp Kirsch liqueur
- 1 zest of lemon
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 cup fine coconut or ground almonds
- Toast pecans at 375 F for about 3 minutes.
- Place ingredients, excluding coconut (ground almonds) into a food processor.
- Blend until well mixed and sticky looking.
- Wet hands and a teaspoon.
- Form mixture in one inch balls, rolling each individually in fine coconut or ground almonds.
- Place on waxed paper and allow them to set for at least one hour before storing in an airtight container.