Festive Sugar Plums - Old Fashioned Sweetmeats

I love the Nutcracker Ballet and the music that accompanies it, especially the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies! These fabulous little festive sweetmeats are based on a recipe that I adapted from Delia Smith's latest and BRILLIANT cookbook, "Happy Christmas". I have made these TWICE already - as a pre-Christmas dummy run, and they are SO easy as well as being extremely delicious! Sugar plums are mentioned in all forms of literature; most famously in “The Night Before Christmas”…………“The children were nestled, all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads". However, they are a VERY old kind of sweet/candy, and I have traced some recipes right back to the Middle Ages in one guise or another, usually with minced meat hence “sweet meat”. This recipe can be made as a boozy after dinner adult treat, or with orange juice so the children can dream of them dancing in their heads! NB: These are great fun to make with the children, as they are easy as well as being "no-cook". If you plan to make them for gifts or to sell, pack them into attractive cellophane bags, glass jars or boxes and add a pretty ribbon as well as a label of ingredients and storage details. This recipe is part of my Old Fashioned Sweet Shop collection of recipes, sweets, candies, fudges, sugar plums and chocolates!

• Ready In: 5 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 Sugar Plums

Ingredients

• 200  g  luxury  dried fruits (a medley of raisins, currants, citrus peel, sultanas, apricots, figs, dates etc.)
• 25  g  ground almonds
• 2  tablespoons glace ginger, chopped
• 1  orange, zest of, grated medium
• 2 -3  teaspoons brandy or 2 -3  teaspoons  orange juice
• 2  tablespoons caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 1  teaspoon mixed spice (or a mixture of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves and allspice)
• 12  pistachio nuts
• 3  red  glace cherries

Directions

1. Put all of the dried fruit, ground almonds and glace ginger into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the grated orange zest and mix well. Then add the brandy or orange juice and pulse briefly until the mixture comes together.
2. Mix the sugar and mixed spice together.
3. Divide the sugar plum fruit mixture into 12 pieces and then roll into small balls, before rolling them in the spiced sugar to coat them all thoroughly.
4. Cut the pistachios into slivers and cut the cherries into quarters, then push the pistachio slivers and cherry pieces into the top of the sugar plums, to imitate leaves and berries.
5. Place them into small paper cases if you wish and store them in an airtight tin for up to 4 weeks if made with brandy, or up to 2 weeks in the fridge if made with orange juice.
6. You may be able to perform the Nutcracker ballet now - or not!