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To Drie Apricocks, Peaches, Pippins or Pearplums

To Drie Apricocks, Peaches, Pippins or Pearplums is a traditional English recipe from the Elizabethan period for a candy (sweet) of fruit dried in sugar that were dried before being coated in sugar and which were typically stored until the Christmas-time festival of Twelfth Night. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic English version of: To Drie Apricocks, Peaches, Pippins or Pearplums.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

50 minutes

Total Time:

70 minutes

Additional Time:

(+12 days infusing and drying)

Makes:

2 jars

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesBritish RecipesEnglish Recipes

The recipe presented here comes from Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book (1604)

TO DRIE APRICOCKS, PEACHES, PIPPINS OR PEARPLUMS

Take your apricocks or pearplums, & let them boile one walme in as much clarified sugar as will cover them, so let them lie infused in an earthen pan three days, then take out your fruits, & boile your syrupe againe, when you have thus used them three times then put half a pound of drie sugar into your syrupe, & so let it boile till it comes to a very thick syrup, wherein let your fruits boile leysurelie 3 or 4 walmes, then take them foorth of the syrup, then plant them on a lettice of rods or wyer, & so put them into yor stewe, & every second day turne them & when they be through dry you may box them & keep them all the year; before you set them to drying you must wash them in a litlle warme water, when they are half drie you must dust a little sugar upon them throw a fine Lawne.

Modern Redaction

These are traditional sugared plums, the 'sugarplums' of Christmas fare. Originally these were fruit preserved by boiling in sugar. Only later, in the Georgian and Victorian periods did sugarplums become blends of nuts and fruit bound with sugar and formed into ball or fruit shapes.

Ingredients:

500g to 1kg plums (Damsons would be traditional) or apricots, washed, halved and with stones removed
caster sugar
200g caster sugar

Method:

Take a large, heavy-based saucepan and strew a layer of sugar in the base. Add a layer of fruit, cut side down and cover with sugar. Now keep adding layers of fruit and sugar until all the fruit have been added.

Place on the lowest possible heat, so that the sugar has a chance to dissolve naturally in the fruit juices. Every now and then scrape the sugar from the sides of the pan, and stir as gently as possible to prevent the base from burning (try to move the fruit as little as possible, to prevent them from burning).

As soon as all the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat a little and gently bring the mixture to a boil (do not boil too hard, or the fruit will disintegrate). Continue boiling gently for 1 minute then take off the heat. Use a slotted spoon to gently remove the fruit from the syrup and arrange in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Carefully pour over the syrup then set a plat on top so that the fruit remains submerged in the syrup.

Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside to infuse at room temperature for 3 days. After this time, remove the fruit then strain the syrup into a pan. Bring the liquid to a boil, then carefully place the fruit in the pan. Boil gently for 1 minute then take off the heat and repeat the soaking process. Repeat this boiling and soaking procedure 1 more time (so that the fruit will have sat in the syrup for a total of 9 days).

After the final soaking, remove the fruit from the dish, pour the syrup into a pan then add 200g more sugar. Bring to a boil, return the fruit to the pan and continue boiling until the syrup becomes thick. At this point carefully remove the plums, one by one, from the syrup then rinse any excess syrup from their surfaces under cool, gently running, water.

Arrange the plums on a wire rack then place in an oven at the lowest setting (a gas oven with just the pilot light on is ideal) and allow to dry for 2 hours. After this time turn over and dry for 2 hours more. Repeat this process until the plums are dry on the surface, but still feel very slightly tacky [drying times vary depending on the plum variety and can be anything from a few days up to a week; you can also dry for only an hour per day if you wish), sprinkle them all over with granulated sugar.

Store in an air-tight container. If the fruit are preserved when ripe, they will keep until Christmas (these sugared plums or 'sugarplums' were traditionally served on Twelfth Night and will last up to a year).

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