Do you ever think about random, off-the-wall things in a stream of consciousness? Today, I was thinking about the upcoming holiday season . . . which led me to think about holiday music . . . which led me to think about Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker . . . which made me think about one of my favorite selections from The Nutcracker, “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” . . . which made me realize that I have no idea what a sugar plum is! Thus, my research (and this blog) began!
If you’ve ever seen The Nutcracker performed live or on television, or if you’ve been part of a production, you know that the Sugar Plum Fairy is a monarch ruling over The Kingdom of Sweets in the story. Her theme music is played on the celeste, a small percussion instrument with a keyboard. It has that delicate, bell-like quality that gives her an aura of elegance and fragility. Tchaikovsky’s use of the celeste in The Nutcracker was an orchestral first and quite a novelty at the time, by the way.
Like the Sugar Plum Fairy, sugar plums themselves are elegant and fragile. They used to be made all the time at Christmas years ago, but not so much in recent decades. Apparently, however, they’re making a comeback because when I went online to learn about them, I found all sorts of sugar plum recipes that sounded delicious. Most included dried fruits (apricots, figs, plums), nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts), and spices (anise, caraway, cardamon, fennel, ginger) all rolled-up together and covered in coarse sugar.
This year, I vow to make some good old-fashioned, homemade sugar plums to enjoy as I listen to The Nutcracker on WNED-Classical. (Keep an eye on WNED.org/classical for a complete schedule of this year’s holiday programming.) Candidly, I’m not much of a chef, baker or confectioner, but none of these recipes sounded particularly difficult. (Famous last words, right?) We’ll see how they turn-out.
Here’s a link to a basic sugar plum recipe in case you’d like to try making your own. It even includes a fun video to show you how to do it!