Today's featured edible gift (although you might want to keep at least one batch for yourself) is from Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake. It's her mom's recipe and looks to be simple and addictively tasty. It's just freshly popped corn, a couple of cups of nuts (your choice - Rebecca used pecans, but I bet it would be delicious with almonds or peanuts) and a homemade caramel syrup. You mix the popcorn and nuts with the caramel sauce and bake in a low oven for an hour. Get the exact recipe over at Ezra Pound Cake.
I've gone a little crazy for the Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe's this year. In previous years, I've managed to avoid their siren call, but this year, my will power just wasn't strong enough and a box of those delicious, minty, better-than-Oreos, cookies leaped from the shelf into my shopping basket. I've been pretty good, rationing them out in sets of two every night as an end-of-day treat but really, what I want to do is dive head first into the box and devour them all.
I have about half a box left and I'm planning on transforming them into a small batch of this chocolate bark from the girls at Fries With That Shake. They've used white and dark chocolate in addition to the crushed cookies to awesome, chocolately, minty effect.
Homemade butter may not naturally spring to mind as a good holiday gift, but I've found that paired with a small jar of jam or honey, it makes a wonderful present that people are thrilled to receive. Making butter is easy, especially if you have a stand mixer. I use the paddle attachment to agitate one pint of cream for approximately 10 minutes, until the whey begins to separate from fat globules (until it looks like this).
Strain the butter, put it into a small bowl and rinse with icy cold water. Using a wooden spoon, work the butter to smooth it and squeeze any remaining water out of the butter. The more moisture you can remove, the better. Pack the butter into a small jar (I used an wide mouth, eight ounce canning jar) and refrigerate. If you want to get fancy, just prior to gifting, sprinkle the top of the butter with flaky sea salt.
My dad's cousin used to keep chickens in her backyard and each year, she'd use some of her egg-y bounty to whip up jars of lemon curd to send out to family for the holidays. I looked forward to this jar arriving in the mail because it was essentially a little jar of lemon pie filling and I would sneak it away and eat tiny bites of it with a spoon until one of my parents caught me and took it away.
This year, I found myself with an abundance of Meyer lemons and so decided to combine their juice and zest with some good farmers market eggs and butter to make a batch of lemon curd to add to my edible gift stash. I adapted a recipe from The Martha Stewart Cookbook and got to work. It's sort of a fussy recipe, because all the lemons need to be zested and juiced and a dozen eggs needed to be divided into whites and yolks. However, once that's done, the rest is a breeze and it worth it for the giddy reaction you'll get from people when you tell them that you've got homemade lemon curd for them to spread on their morning toast. The recipe is after the jump.
Must like the Rosemary Scented Salt I mentioned earlier in the month, Vanilla Sugar is one those things that requires very little effort for a whole lot of payout. All it takes is a jar, sugar and a vanilla bean. When making vanilla sugar at home for your own use, you can use beans that you've already split and scraped for other baking projects. However, when you're giving it as a gift, it's nice to use fresh beans. They can be a little spendy, but it's possible to get some really terrific deals on vanilla beans if you shop around.
To make the sugar, lay a vanilla bean down on a cutting board. Using the tip of a paring knife, score the bean, leaving the ends intact so that it holds together but releases its fragrance and flavor. Fill a jar with sugar (I like to use the less-processed cane sugar) and nestle the vanilla bean down into the sugar. Let it sit for at least a couple days before using or gifting.
When I was growing up, Christmas time was just about the only time of year when my sister and I would be allowed to have hot chocolate. It was a super special treat and we looked forward to it with great anticipation, reminding our mom repeatedly in the weeks before the holiday to pick up the box of mix at Safeway or Fred Meyers.
Homemade hot chocolate mix makes a wonderful holiday gift, especially for families with young kids who look forward to a mug of cocoa before Santa comes to make his yearly visit. Alison Lewis has posted a terrific recipe for homemade mix on her site, Ingredients, Inc. that makes an excellent holiday gift. Packaged in pint-sized canning jars, deliciousness will ensue if you make this for your friends and family.
For more of our edible gift suggestions, click on the image below.
This particular edible gift suggestion is designed especially for those among you who love food but hate to cook. Buy a unique or charming bowl or basket (if you're gift-giving on the cheap, I suggest hitting thrift stores for your vessel) and then filling it with mandarin oranges. Don't buy a pre-packed bag or box when prepping for these gifts, as often you'll find some rotten fruit in with the good ones. Instead, spend a few minutes sorting through the display at your grocery store, hand selecting the best fruit. For a more visually interesting offering, get several different kinds of citrus. Tie an old-fashioned cloth ribbon (or a handmade cloth napkin, if you want to get fancy) around the bowl for added holiday cheer.
For more of our edible gift suggestions, click on the image below.
Today's homemade edible gift suggestion comes to us from Marie of Make and Takes. Instead of baking of a batch of cookies to give to a friend, co-worker or family member, she suggests that you make up a batch of your favorite cookie dough, roll it into a log, wrap it well and present it to them. Sounds like a great gift to me, because while there are always a host of treats and temptations around during December, sometimes you want a little taste of Christmas or Hanukkah when the harsh, frigid days of January have settled in. This way, the recipient can stash their cookie dough away for a day when they really need a sweet pick-me-up.
If you want to further jazz up the gift, and you've made a batch of dough that could be rolled out, you could attach a cute cutter or a jar of colored sprinkles to the log. These would also make great gifts for friends who are expecting a baby.
The holiday season can be a hectic and overwhelming time of the year, but it's always nice to take a couple of hours to make up a batch of roll-out butter cookies. They're a little fussy in the making, but frosted with a quick powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar dissolved in a little water and flavored with a dash of vanilla extract), they make an elegant addition to a holiday table and are sure to delight anyone you give them to.
I posted my favorite sugar/butter cookie recipe last year and it's the one I use for these types of cookies. I like to use smaller cutters for cookies that I'm going to give away, because them mean that you can get more cookies out of each roll and they look more delicate and appealing. To glaze, I make a small bowl of the frosting I described above and then quickly dip the top of the cookie into it. Let the glaze harden completely before stacking, otherwise they'll stick together and will lose the beauty and elegance you've worked so hard to create.
I'm going to let you all in on a little secret. Fudge is one of the easiest things in the world to make and it never fails to delight a chocolate lover. My favorite recipe requires just three ingredients - 1 pound of chocolate, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and half a stick of butter (you can also add a couple of glugs of booze for a more adult treat). Sure, there are more complex recipes that require you to work harder, but everyone I've ever served this quick fudge to happily laps it up and then comes back for more.
Simply melt the ingredients together in double boiler until smooth and combined. While it's melting, line a 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper. When the chocolate mixture is melted, pour into the lined pan and smooth with spatula. Let sit until cool (I put it into a pan of cold water to speed the process) and then refrigerate for at least two hours to let it set. Cutting while cold will ease the process and keep the cuts smooth. Give to chocolate loving friends and family in small boxes or tins.
By this time of the year, most jammable fruit has long since left the produce and farmers markets. However, the humble pear makes a mighty good butter that's simple to prepare, delicious on toast and makes a great gift. This year, I was lucky enough to receive a gift of pears from a friend's neighbor's tree. They were a little bruised up (they were all windfall pears), but a little careful knife work left them free of spots and they cooked up some of the sweetest, evenly textured pear butter I've ever tasted.
I don't have a specific recipe for pear butter, I just chop the fruit and let it cook down in a slow cooker for 6-8 hours (I often do it overnight) until it is reduced by half. Then I run the fruit through a food mill or strainer to get rid of the skins into a smaller pot. Puree it with a hand mixer, stir in some cinnamon, nutmeg and a little lemon juice and taste for sweetness.
Sometimes pear butter is sweet enough all on its own that no sugar is required, but sometimes it needs a little perking up. Brown sugar or maple syrup plays best with the pear flavor. You can can and process if you feel comfortable doing that, or you can simply spoon the pear butter into jars and refrigerate until it's time to distribute them to friends and family. In the fridge, it will last up to a month. The more sugar you put into the butter, the longer its shelf life will be.
For most of my childhood, my dad had a business partner who was famous for her holiday goodies. Mid-December, she's arrive at the door with a bag bursting with sugar cookies, homemade caramels and a huge zip-top bag bursting with her take on the classic Chex Party Mix. We looked forward to that Chex Mix for months before it arrived and my mom would ration it out, making sure it lasted at least a week.
Part of the appeal of Eleanor's Chex Mix was that she included Cheerios and let it toast until everything was a uniform nutty brown. It's been years since I've had it, but I can still conjure up the flavor and crunch. If you choose to give your friends and family some Chex Mix for the holidays, you can package it up in plastic bags like Eleanor always did, or you could add a festive accent with some holiday-themed tins. My favorite Chex Mix recipe, which is based on the one we used to receive, is after the jump.
The picture above is from my mom's recipe book, a half-size three-ring binder that she's been filling with delicious favorites since 1970. Her granola recipe originally came from her dear friend Melinda and makes some of the best granola I've ever tasted. It is endlessly customizable and makes a wonderful holiday gift, especially because it's easy to make it in fairly large quantities.
To dress up this granola for holiday giving, I would stir in mini-chocolate chips and some dried cranberries. Seasoning the whole mix with cinnamon prior to baking is also a wonderful, seasonal way to go. I would package it canning jars or lined paper bags. Decorate with ribbon or handmade labels.
All month long, we'll be featuring homemade gifts and treats that you can create for your friends and family this holiday season. Today's offering is a jar of rosemary scented kosher salt and it couldn't be easier to make. Fill a canning jar half full with kosher salt and then tuck several sprigs of fresh rosemary down into the salt. Fill the jar the rest of the way up and then let it sit at least overnight (but a week or so is even better). Prior to gifting, remove the original rosemary and pop in some fresh sprigs to ensure maximum scent.
When you go to wrap the jars, tie an additional sprig of fresh rosemary on with a ribbon or some twine to make it even prettier.
When I was growing up, Christmas time was just about the only time of year when my sister and I would be allowed to have hot chocolate. It was a super special treat and we looked forward to it with great anticipation, reminding our mom repeatedly in the weeks before the holiday to pick up the box of mix at Safeway or Fred Meyers. 
10 More Dirty Restaurant Tricks
5 Things You Didn't Know About Turducken
10 Catchiest Food Jingles We Love to Hate
