Cherry Sugar Plums
Purple, green, yellow, red, blue, and white hard candies with cherry centers
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1865
Sugar plums go hand-in-hand with Christmas, but what exactly are they? There are recipes out there for a confection made of dried fruit and nuts that’s rolled into balls, but true Victorian sugar plums were a kind of candy made up of layers of hardened sugar syrup and gum arabic surrounding a fruit or nut core. They were pretty much the same thing as Jordan almonds.
You won’t find many recipes for them in Victorian-era cookbooks because no one really made them at home. The specialized equipment and labor involved meant that most people bought them from a confectioner, and I can see why.
Making these was a 3 day endeavor for me, and I had to get a panning machine attachment for my stand mixer, and gum arabic, which I surprisingly didn’t already have in my pantry. They’re a nice sweet treat, but really more trouble than they’re worth to make at home.
“Cherry Sugar-Plums. Set preserved cherries on a sieve in the stove. When they are partly dry, mix them with pounded sugar, and rub them over a sieve; dry them again, and proceed as with barberry sugar-plums.
Barberry Sugar-Plums. Take perfectly ripe barberries, stem them, dry them in a stove, and add the gum and sugar in the swinging basin. To accomplish this, after being heated in the stove, give them a coating of one part sugar, and one part gum arabic; and, when thoroughly moistened, powder with sifted sugar. Dry the coating in a stove; add a second on the next day, so as to completely cover the fruit; then thicken, and finish like the verdun sugar-plums. The fruit must be coated away from the fire. They are colored like the rose sugar-plums, and pearled like the lemon.”
Ingredients:
- Glacé cherries*, I used around 40 to 50, but the number is up to you
- Confectioner’s sugar (with starch added)
Initial Gum Arabic Coating
- 4 tablespoons gum arabic powder*
- 4 tablespoons warm water
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Super Saturated Sugar Solution
- 1 cup (250 ml) water
- 2 tablespoons orange blossom water or rose water, OR 1 tablespoon vanilla, optional
- 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar, divided
Decorative Gum Arabic Coating
- 2 cups (500 ml) water, divided
- 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar, divided
- 1 cup gum arabic powder*
- Food coloring, gel works well
*See Notes below.
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 200°F (95°C).
- Rinse the glacé cherries, trying to get as much of the syrup off as possible. Spread them out in a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Remove any cherries that are broken or smushed. Set the cherries in the oven for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, the cherries should be fairly dry but still sticky. Place them in a sieve and toss them in confectioner’s sugar. You want powdered sugar that has some starch added for this recipe (as opposed to kinds that are pure sugar and no starch).
- When the cherries are evenly coated with sugar, place them back on the baking sheet. Return the cherries to the oven for 2 hours.
- While the cherries are in the oven, make the initial gum arabic coating by whisking together the 4 tablespoons of gum arabic powder with 4 tablespoons of warm water. It’ll take a little effort, but it will eventually become smooth. Take about 2 tablespoons of the gum arabic mixture and mix it with 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar until the sugar dissolves.
- When the cherries have been in the oven for 2 hours, place them in your panning machine and turn it on to its lowest setting. While the cherries are tumbling, drizzle a small amount of the gum arabic mixture back and forth over the cherries, it doesn’t take very much to get a coating. You also don’t want to put a glob of it in, a thin drizzle is better. The cherries may stick to the sides of the panning machine, so gently dislodge them with a spatula if they do. Tumble for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the gum arabic coating has dried (they’ll still be a little bit sticky).
- Return the cherries to the sieve and toss them in confectioner’s sugar until they’re evenly coated. Return the cherries to the panning machine and coat them in another layer of the gum arabic mixture, just like in the previous step. They shouldn’t stick to the pan as much this time.
- Put the cherries in the sieve and give them yet another coating of confectioner’s sugar. Place them back on the baking sheet and return to the oven for 2 hours, then turn the oven off and let them sit in it overnight, or at least 8 hours.
- The next day, there should be a sugary crust on the cherries, and it’s time to make the super saturated sugar solution. If you’re using a flavoring, add it to 1 cup (250 ml) of water in a saucepan and bring it to a gentle boil.
- Add 1 cup (200 g) of the granulated sugar and stir it to dissolve. Once it’s dissolved, add another cup of sugar and stir until it is dissolved. Add the third cup of sugar and stir until it’s dissolved.
- Let the syrup slowly heat up over medium heat, undisturbed, until it reaches between 225°F and 230°F (107-110°C). This will happen after the syrup boils up and then calms back down.
- Take the syrup off the heat and let it cool to between 170°F and 190°F (76-88°C). It’s helpful if you have a hot plate or something that will help keep the syrup in this range.
- Add a handful of the cherries to the panning machine and turn it on. Drizzle a generous tablespoon (figuring out how much to use for your batch will probably take some trial and error, as it did for me) of the syrup over the cherries and let them tumble until they’re completely dry, about 10 to 12 minutes. You can also use a hair dryer pointed at the cherries to speed this process up to about 2 to 3 minutes. This is one layer of syrup, and you want 12 to 15 layers, so repeat the process 11 to 14 times. The sugar will start to crystallize and turn white, the cherries will get bigger, and they won’t stick together as much.
- After you have the 12 to 15 layers of sugar syrup on the cherries, set them aside for 12 to 24 hours to fully dry and harden.
- To make the decorative gum arabic coating, use 1 cup (250 ml) of the water and the sugar to make a syrup just like in steps 9-11, just without flavoring.
- Heat the remaining cup (250 ml) of water in a large saucepan. When it steams, add the gum arabic and whisk until it dissolves. Like before, it will take a little while, but it will eventually become smooth.
- Add the sugar syrup and stir to combine. Heat to 225°F (107°C). It will boil up quite a bit, so be sure you’re using a large enough pot. After it reaches 225°F (107°C), let it cool to 170°F (76°C).
- If you want to make multiple colors of sugar plums, ladle out some of the syrup into separate dishes and whisk in the food colorings of your choosing. If you’re making one color, then you can do it all in the pan you cooked it in.
- Now repeat the drizzling and tumbling process as in step 13 with the colored gum arabic syrup. 5 to 7 layers should give you a nice color on the sugar plums.
- Take a break from all your hard work, and serve them forth.
Notes
- Aieve Snack Coater Panning Attachment for KitchenAid - https://amzn.to/49lfgQ9
- Gum Arabic - https://amzn.to/4idoh1P
- Glace Cherries - https://amzn.to/3CY0SS4
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