Homemade gifts are, in my humble opinion, one of the nicest things you can do for people. They can be extremely simple (hello, DIY hot cocoa mix!) but show the recipient that you put a little bit of effort into their present. They’re especially perfect for co-workers, neighbors, random family friends you see three times a year — basically anyone who would otherwise get a $10 bottle of wine.
And while you could bust out the candy thermometer and make elaborate caramels and toffees and marshmallows, homemade candy can be as easy as melting chocolate, mixing some things in and then letting it cool.
Here are some great easy candy ideas:
Chocolate Almond Buttercrunch (David Lebovitz)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles
Chocolate Toffee Cracker Crunch
Hazelnut Truffles (Smitten Kitchen)
Peppermint Bark
Pistachio Cranberry White Chocolate Bark
Also popular: nuts. Buying large amounts of nuts can get a bit expensive (try buying in bulk on Amazon), but whether you make candied or spiced nuts, they’re sure to please:
Glazed Pecans (Saveur)
Spiced Herbed Nuts (Melissa Clark)
Cinnamon-Sugar Candied Pecans (Brown-Eyed Baker)
Maple Bacon (!!) Spiced Nuts (The Washington Post)
Chipotle and Rosemary Spiced Nuts (Ina Garten)
Quickbreads are also a big hit, since they can be made ahead and are easy to package and hand off to people. Obviously, the most traditional gift is fruitcake, that mythical creature that somehow combines some of my favorite things (booze, nuts, fruit) into something that is terrible and gross and indestructible.
But there’s a lot of recipes out there for fruit-and-nut-studded loaves that sound amazing, and I have it in my head to give the traditional stuff another try. If you’re not into that, here are some other options:
Arkansas Fig Fruitcake (The Wednesday Chef)
Banana-Walnut Bread
Chai-Spiced Pear Bread
Date Nut Spice Bread
Fresh Fig Cake
Ginger Persimmon Bread (Joy the Baker)
Gramercy Tavern’s Gingerbread (Smitten Kitchen)
Irish Porter Cake *I LOVED this.
Olive Oil Bread
And rounding out this little list, homemade jams and sauces. They’re so easy to make in bulk, and if you have mad foresight, you can make fruit jams during the summer and keep them for the holidays. If not, there are plenty of sweet and savory treats below:
Cranberry Mostarda (The Kitchn)
Dulce de Leche
Milk Jam (Canelle et Vanille)
Pear Refrigerator Jam
Winter Squash Butter
Also on the list — this fig-olive jam. There are few things that I make repeatedly at home (mostly because that would be very boring for blog purposes). This jam is one of them, and you should probably be a little bit pissed that I haven’t mentioned it to you already. What was originally supposed to be a relish for lamb chops became a wine-spiked savory-sweet spread for crostini, the perfect accompaniment for cheese plates, something to slather on apples or pears, or even something to eat, unadorned, with a spoon. (You could also put it on lamb chops and it will be exceedingly delicious.)
While the original recipe calls for Syrah, I’ve used everything from oaky Cabs to fruity Pinot Noirs to the always classy three-buck Chuck. They’re all good, a welcome contrast to the honey-sweet figs and the salty, briny olives (as is a hefty pinch or two of fresh black pepper). It’s a great gift … if you’re willing to let go of it.
Fig-Olive Jam
Adapted from Food & Wine
– 1-1/2 cups dried figs (12-13 whole dried figs), stems removed
– 1 cup red wine
– 1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and minced
– freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1) In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the figs and wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes, until the figs have plumped up and softened.
2) Remove the figs from the wine and add the olives. Simmer for 5 minutes while you mince the figs into small pieces. Add the minced figs to the olive-wine mixture and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced and the mixture has thickened (about 10 minutes). Stir in the ground pepper and cool completely before serving.
Note: Here’s a USDA-approved guide if you plan to can this fig and olive jam properly. I just put the jam into jars, let it cool completely and then refrigerated it, where it should stay good for 2 weeks. Though naturally, I finished it in about half that time …
Let’s say a recipient doesn’t like olives…any swap out suggestions?
Hmmm that’s tricky since there’s so few other ingredients. You could definitely double the amount of figs and do an all-fig jam (and maybe increase the amount of black pepper, to contrast the sweetness a bit).
Or you could maybe caramelize some onions until they’re nice and brown, and then add them in with the figs for a fig-onion jam. But if you make that, you have to put some on a grilled-cheese sandwich and mail it to me.
YUMMMM. I like those idea – thank you! Check your mail 😛