Sugar plums are a type of dragée or other hard candy made into small round or oval shapes.

[3] The menu for Henry IV of England's 1403 wedding feast included sugar plums, which were probably fruit preserves or suckets.

During that time, adding layers of sweet which give sugar plums and comfits their hard shell was done through a slow and labor-intensive process called panning.

In fact, in the 18th century the word plum became British slang for a large pile of money[6] or a bribe.

[citation needed] Another 21st-century take on the sugar plum instructs home cooks to combine dried fruits and almonds with honey and aromatic seeds (anise, fennel, caraway, cardamom), form this mixture into balls, then coat in sugar or shredded coconut.