Homemade food gifts

[HoneyBee42]

I make cookies and give away a dozen (3 of each of four varieties) in pretty boxes.  People have told me they look and taste like $8/dozen cookies from a bakery.

[Shopaholic]

OK, I thought about it and what's wrong with this thread is that there are no recipes!!
All of these sound yummy, so if anyone's willing to share, I'd be happy to see the recipes.
Thanks!

[afbluebelle]

Not gonna lie, I'm just posting so I can steal ideas from all of you =)

[littlelauraj]

I was at a club meeting Tuesday night and mentioned making cheesecake for Christmas.  My neighbor piped up, "And fruitcake?  You're making fruitcake again, right?"  It's Alton Brown's recipe and it's *fantastic*, not like those bricks of yuck you see in the stores.  So I guess  I'm making fruitcake, too. 

[magicdomino]

Previous years' gifts:

Chocolate Cherry fruitcake (chocolate batter with nuts, dried cherries, and chocolate chips, soaked in kirschwasser [cherry brandy] )

Vanilla extract (vanilla beans soaked for 3 months in white rum.  I like rum.  I don't like vodka.     )

Hot chocolate mix (contains both ground chocolate and cocoa.  Goooood stuff, but I can't remember where I found the recipe.  Must have mixed rum into my servings. )

Peppermint bark

[KenveeB]

I was at a club meeting Tuesday night and mentioned making cheesecake for Christmas.  My neighbor piped up, "And fruitcake?  You're making fruitcake again, right?"  It's Alton Brown's recipe and it's *fantastic*, not like those bricks of yuck you see in the stores.  So I guess  I'm making fruitcake, too. 

I suppose some people could see that as rude, but I get such a thrill whenever anyone likes my stuff enough to specially request it.

I can't post my candy recipe, Shopaholic, since it's a family secret, but here are the Oreo Truffles. They're ridiculously easy.
- Take one package of Oreos. Put them in a big ziplock bag. Smash into crumbs. This is great stress relief.
- Mix crumbs with one package of cream cheese. Form into balls. (It's easiest to do this on cookie sheets and then put in the fridge or freezer for half an hour or so to firm them up, but that's not mandatory.)
- Melt half a package of almond bark and a 12oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips. You can do this in the microwave or stovetop.
- Dip the Oreo balls in chocolate. Place on wax paper to cool.
- After they've hardened, store them in the freezer until it's time to serve.

[Hopefull]

I am making mini pies
http://livinlifepatinostyle.blogspot.com/2008/08/want-some-cherry-pie-in-jar.html

I have done apple, blueberry, and cherry!!

[ica171]

Last year I did a big variety of things--banana bread, buckeye bark, chocolate-dipped pretzel rods, Russian tea cakes (I think that's what they're called--those little balls rolled in powdered sugar; I've also heard them called Mexican wedding cakes), peanut brittle, kiss cookies, etc. I've also done monkey bread, cinnamon rolls, and other types of cookies. This year I'm not sure what I want to do. I'm torn between doing a variety of quick breads and loaf cakes--pumpkin spice bread, banana cream cheese bread, eggnog poundcake, chocolate bread, stuff like that--and doing a big variety of stuff like I did last year. I pinned a recipe for vanilla pudding cinnamon rolls, and people really loved getting cinnamon rolls, but it's obviously a lot more work for me. Good thing I have time to decide.

[LittleLou]

By far the easiest gift-type food I have made is honeycomb (cinder toffee here in the UK).

There are plenty of recipes online, but I used this (a no-thermometer required one):

200g of caster sugar
4 tablespoons of golden syrup
4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda


Add the sugar and syrup to a saucepan and place over a low heat. Wait until all of the sugar has melted and is boiling (do not stir, but you can swirl the pan as needed to break up stubborn lumps of sugar). You can do the hard crack test at this stage, as BabyMama described, although I found once all the sugar had dissolved you were at the right temp).

Add the bicarb and stir through quickly to combine. The mixture will quadruple in volume or more. Quickly pour into a greased roasting/loaf/cake tin. Leave to harden (up to an hour). Break apart with a hammer or knife.

Beware that this does revert back to a sticky mess in a few days if not protected from moisture in the air. I would recommend making very close to gift-giving time. Coating the broken pieces in chocolate also works well to keep out moisture 


I think this would also be a nice one to do with kids, as the effect of adding the bicarb is so dramatic and instant. I am also tempted to try a few variations, either adding a flavour (maybe orange?) or swapping the syrup for something more adventurous, like treacle or maple syrup.

[CrochetFanatic]

Several years ago I was short on money, so I decided to make food gifts for extended family.  Everyone (well, every household) got a small box of fudge and a small box of Turkish Delight.  I underestimated how much work it would be, and I don't know if I'd go all out again like I did that year, but everyone loved it!  I couldn't get my Nana to stop calling the Turkish Delight "gumdrops", though.  I think she did it on purpose to make us laugh.

One thing my mom makes every year is something called "cranberry walnut bread".  It's sort of like an upside-down cake made in a bread pan.  If anyone's interested, I could look for the recipe.

[littlelauraj]

KenveeB, I was very gratified to have that request.  It made me feel warm all over, just like the brandy-soaked fruitcake. 

[Outdoor Girl]

I do cookies and loaf cakes.  I have 3 kinds of shortbread (regular, whipped and cranberry white chocolate), pecan balls and almond crescents and decorated gingerbread.  The loaf cakes are zucchini, banana, pumpkin and cranberry with various combinations with chocolate chips, raisins or nuts.  I have a pan that, instead of one regular loaf, makes 9 mini loaves that are about the same size as a large muffin.

I also make some gluten free stuff for one person - usually one of the varieties of loaf cakes, using GF all purpose flour and a little Xanthan gum instead of regular flour.

The cranberry white chocolate shortbread is in the recipe folder.

[jmarvellous]

It's technically edible, though you wouldn't want to eat it: I wound up making 2 kinds of body scrub for this year's gifts (lemon shortbread and cinnamon coffee).

Six sets, including containers, mini bath poufs and wrapping, cost about $22 (less than $4 per gift!), though I didn't count the cost of coffee because it uses used grounds we'd otherwise toss.

I printed up little cards to go with them, too, and I'm pretty happy.

[shygirl]

Those sound really cool!

Do you mind sharing how you made them?

[jmarvellous]

Lemon shortbread salt scrub:
5 cups salt (I used 4 c. table salt and 1 coarser kosher salt, but that's not necessary)
1 cup grapeseed oil (plus a few tablespoons, to get a good consistency)
About 50 drops of lemon essential oil
2 tsp  or more of vanilla extract
Yellow food color and honey, optional

I just kept adding color, lemon, vanilla and scant amounts of honey till it smelled delicious. This one is easily adaptable to the scent of your choice, and you can add lemon or orange zest if you like. Mixing and filling containers with a rubber scraper is easy and clean.

Cinnamon coffee brown sugar scrub
4 cups brown sugar
2 cups used coffee grounds
1 cup grapeseed oil (plus more, to desired texture)
Cinnamon essential oil and possibly vanilla extract (could also use peppermint essential oil instead of either), till it smells terrific.

I bought 12 8 oz. (1 cup) colorful resealable plastic containers in the baby section of the dollar store for $3. My main expense was the essential oils, but you can even skip those if you want a simpler product.