Recipe: Sugarplums

Every Thursday on the Good Food Blog we share a recipe from our archives.

Lou Pappas is the author of The Christmas Candy Book published by Chronicle Books. He first shared this recipe for Sugarplums on December 14, 2002.

Keep reading for the full recipe…

Sugarplums

About 4 dozen candies

1 1/3 cups pitted dates

2/3 cup apricots

1 cup almonds, toasted

1/3 cup raw pistachios

1/3 cup candied ginger

2 tablespoons grated orange zest

About 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or brandy

Demerara sugar, turbinado sugar or confectioner’s sugar (optional)

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.

Place the dates, apricots, nuts, ginger, and orange zest in a food processor and process until finely minced. Add just enough lemon juice or brandy to enable the mixture to stick together and process to blend.

Shape the mixture into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar to coat evenly, if edsired. Place on the prepared baking sheet and let airdry until no longer sticky, 1-2 hours.

Store in airtight container with waxed paper and layer the balls in between the sheets. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks.