I’m planning to give gift baskets at Christmas this year. I’ve made a lot of jam, and I’d like to give some breads. I think banana bread for sure, but can you all pitch in with recipes for your favourite loaf cakes and scones, that sort of thing?
From the way this thread has sunk, I’m thinking Stone Soup might be a good start.
You already have most of my best recipes, but I will pipe in to say that since you taught me to make jam it’s been on my list of things to give.
Are you thinking of things like “Brownies in a Jar” as well, or just ready to eat foods?
Pumpkin Bread(from the kitchens of Mrs. Know) :
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
Beat together, then add 1/2 tsp salt
The last four ingredients have to be added in order:
1 cup pumpkin
2/3 cup water
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
Bake at 350 for 1 hr or until done. Makes 3 1-lb. coffee cans full.
Explanation: Mrs. Know uses 1-lb metal coffee cans to bake these. A small loaf pan will do if you don’t have them.
Note: I hate pumpkin, but these are absolutely heavenly! I bring these to work during the holidays and everyone absolutely raves !
Just ready-to-eat.
Anyone? Surely someone has suggestions?
My favorite (after BlueKangaroo’s pumpkin bread) is cranberry bread, which I’ve never found a really great recipe for, so if anyone has one, pls. post it!
You left out the 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts!
When my husband was in the Navy, I’d make these to send to the ship. They travel well, and everyone liked them.
Coconut Macaroons
1 pkg. (14 oz.) flaked coconut (5-1/3 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
4 egg whites
1 tsp. almond extract
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Grease and flour baking sheets; set aside. Mix coconut, sugar, flour and salt in large bowl. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended.
Drop coconut mixture into 36 mounds, 2 inches apart, on prepared baking sheets, using about 1 tablespoonful of the coconut mixture for each mound.
Bake 20 min. or until edges are golden brown. Immediately remove from baking sheets to wire racks. Cool completely.
Blueberry Scones
2 cups unbleached flour, plus more for rolling berries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut in chunks
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 pint fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar; mix thoroughly. Cut in butter using 2 forks or a pastry blender (note: I just use my hands). Then thoroughly mixed, the flour will start to look like crumbs.
In another bowl, mix buttermilk and egg together, and then add to the flour mixture. Mix just to incorporate, do no overwork the dough.
Roll blueberries in flour to coat. This will help prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the scone when baked. Gently fold the blueberries into batter. Drop large tablespoons of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until brown.
I actually want to make some gifts like this for Christmas this year, but I’m sort of at a loss by the process (sometimes the most simple things are over my head!). Perhaps I should start another thread, rather than hijack this one?
And to the OP: what about cupcakes? Cupcakes are totally the in food at the moment and there are lots of seriously amazing and different types of recipes. There are oodles of blogs with specialty recipes and with a little Googling, you can find some interesting stuff.
One interesting blog.
This person decided to try to make a new kind of cupcake each week with some interesting and tasty results.
Cheese straws might be appreciated in your gift baskets. A nice, little savory snack among your sweet gifts and the flavor improves with age.
Cheese Straws
2 cups all purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper
4 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, softened
Combine the flour, salt, pepper and spices with a whisk. In another bowl, cream together the cheddar cheese and butter. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients and mix well. Put the dough into a cookie press fitted with a star tip and pipe 2-3" ‘straws’ onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake the straws in a 375 degree oven for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned.
The last time I made these I substituted 1 teaspoon ground chipotle powder for the cayenne pepper and they had a pleasant smokey flavor.
I doubt GingerOfTheNorth would mind if you hitched onto her thread, DiosaBellissima, so long as she gets some recipes of her own. She’s a very cool and gracious lady.
I don’t have any of those types of recipes myself, as I’ve never done them, but I have heard they are terribly easy. I’ll be following this thread for both types!
Most excellent. Ginger, if you want me to high tail it out of here, just let me know!
In particular, I’d like to make little jar goodies for my grandmothers and my mother. One grandmother is a HUGE soup fan, so I’d like to do something in the soup-family. That said, I don’t eat soup, let alone make it, so I have no good recipes.
Other grandma is a bit of a food snob- a big Italian cook, so I’d like to throw something together that is good, but that she’d actually use. Let’s see. . . she’s in to wine, though I doubt that helps. heh
Diosa, I’ve used this recipe to good reviews.
I hereby nominate this post for non-sequitur of the day.
Ginger, I don’t know if these cranberry scones will work for you, but I think they look amazing and they probably would go in a basket fairly well.
I also recently got some interesting cookie recipes in my e-mail, they’re supposed to be healthier, and still tasty. Would you be interested in those?
Oh, and a friend recently pointed me to this website of chocolate goodness, and I bet there’s some recipes there that will work for you.
Hmmm. It’s already too late for Amish Friendship Bread, which is what I’m “doing” this year. In past years I’ve “done” banana nut bread and pecan pies.