Twenty-three Cooking Days left till Christmas and I need to figure out what I’m going to make this year for people for whom “consumable stuff” is a good idea in the Christmas Present line.
Last year I did Chocolate Gingerbread Stars. I don’t want to repeat myself and get boring.
So what else can I make that:
Any suggestions?
We canned a buttload of apple butter this fall for gifts. It’s insanely easy and low maintenance if you’ve got a slow cooker. You chop up enough apples to fill the cooker, bung in some sugar, butter, spices and maybe a wee nip o’ bourbon, put the lid on, and cook on low overnight. You may need to cook it a while with the lid off in the morning to thicken it up a bit. It keeps a few weeks refrigerated, or you can can it in a boiling water bath. Put little squares of pretty holiday fabric over the lid and under the screw ring, and a nice ribbon bow around the screw ring.
I also made a batch of caramel apple jelly from a recipe on allrecipes. It didn’t set up very well for me, but it’s ridiculously tasty.
I’m also very fond of pumpkin-cranberry cookies, which less fat and more fiber than more traditional holiday cookies. And people lose their freaking minds over the things, even people who claim to hate and despise pumpkin in its every possible iteration. They hold pretty well if you wrap them fairly tightly, for a week or so. Or they freeze great. But you have to eat them within a few days of thawing, because for some reason they’re prone to mold when they’ve been frozen and thawed.
Infused oils and vinegars are nice, too. They’re always a huge hit when we give them. Heat up your oil or vinegar, then pour it over whatever sort of herb you’re using. Let it set till cool, strain, and pour into pretty bottles. I’m specially fond of using rosemary, and the oil makes the absolute most amazing popcorn ever. Or infused syrups. One to one portions water and sugar, plus mint or ginger or anything else that occurs to you.
Time is a little short to make limoncello, but you could probably swing it before Christmas.
Ooh, if you have a stand mixer (or a hand mixer and a lot of patience and strong arms) you can make your own marshmallows. Alton Brown has a great recipe on the Food Network site. Instead of using vanilla, you can put all sorts of flavors in them. Peppermint with little swirls of red food coloring across the top is very Christmas-y. I’m also very fond of using Kahlua for coffee ones, or amaretto–just amazing in hot chocolate, as are the mint ones. Heck, I made some pumpkin ones last week that make the best smore ever. You can cut them big, or make mini-marshmallows with a piping bag, or you can cut seasonal shapes with cookie cutters.
Or, if you really want to blow someone out of the water, I’ve got a recipe for triple-chocolate espresso brownies that can touch off riots. They’re rather unhealthy, though.
Peanut Brittle. And people will think you went to some ridiculous amount of trouble to make it, while in reality it’s incredibly easy.
That is exactly what I love about the marshmallows. You cook a syrup and pour it into the mixer with some gelatin, and people react like you chained yourself to a hot stove for weeks. Very ego-boosting.
There are always those layered soup-in-a-jar or cookies-in-a-jar things; you layer the dry ingredients so they look pretty and attach cooking/baking instructions. I’m there are zillions of them online.
Alton Brown’s Free-Range Fruitcake recipe is AMAZING.
Biscotti is great for gifts! I have recipes for Lemon Pistachio, Double Chocolate, Almond Anise, and Orange Chocolate biscotti. If you like this idea, I can PM you the recipes.
Little jars of fresh Lemon Curd (Cream) and Dulce de Leche are good too. DdL is just simmering a can of sweetened condensed milk in a water bath…really easy.
Oatmeal Scotchies
Seriously–they’re my favorite cookie and three years ago for the holidays, we were all talking about cookies at work. No one knew what the hell they were.
I made them. They were loved. They are a version of oatmeal cookies. Make oatmeal cookies, put butterscotch chips in instead of raisins or other addins.
They’re great. And I’m now expected to make them every year. They’re easy cookies.
PM is winging its way 
I really liked the idea of the pumpkin and cranberry cookies too, but I couldn’t find cranberries in a quick swish through the supermarket, and I’m not up for an extended search (I so hate shopping!). I shall be bookmarking this thread and keeping an eye out…
Thanks all for the suggestions
Recipe is in your inbox, Aspidistra.
Incidentally, I like checking out the thrift shops for pretty tin cans and lidded glass jars. They make great containers for the gifted biscotti.
Ooh, interesting.
Lessee, last weekend we canned a bunch of apple butter (started from purchased applesauce, though - the apple harvest wasn’t much here this year) and a bunch of shrimp cocktail sauce. My current plans are for gingerbread, pumpkin bread, cranberry-orange bread and marshmallows. That may get trimmed down, depending on how things go. 
It seems like there was something else we were planning to make, but can’t remember at the mo’.
Our original plan was for dried & frozen chile peppers and flavored vinegars. Unfortunately, the pepper plants did not cooperate. 
CrazyCatLady, any idea how much flavoring for your marshmallow variations? The ones I made last year were a huge hit; I’m thinking a variety pack would be even moreso. And how the heck do you make pumpkin marshmallows?
Did you look for dried cranberries? They’re usually shelved with other dried fruits like prunes and apricots. I’ve baked lots of cookies with dried cranberries (including the cherry-flavored ones) and they’re great. I don’t know if they’re as common in Australia, but they’re stocked year-round here.
You can do a straight-up substitution of liqueur for the vanilla in the original recipe, but if you’re using something that’s not very strongly flavored it can make for some fairly subtle marshmallows. In that case, I’d up it a bit to taste. If you’re using flavoring oils, I’d start with a few drops and add more to taste. Me, I just start sloshing it in and quit when I think it smells good.
And you make pumpkin marshmallows with pumpkin spice liqueur, of course. Last fall I ran across a bottle from one of the, er, manufacturers of less expensive schnapps-type beverages. You know, the type where a large bottle costs about $8. If you can’t find that, I have seen a recipe somewhere that used plain old canned pumpkin. I think it was on the Serious Eats blog.
I almost forgot about the margarita ones I made last spring. You use proportional amounts of triple sec, lime, and tequila–I think I wound up with about an eighth of a cup altogether. Not very Christmassy, but just the thing for fruit skewers at a spring party.
Butter toffee
Take equal volumes sugar and butter (1 cup to 1 cup or whatever) and put in pan under high heat (electric stove) or med-high (gas stove).
Stir continuously.
The butter will melt, then the mix with froth up, then start to bind together and look sticky (but still look pale white-ish).
Keep briskly stirring.
When the mixture is the color of toffee, it’s done.
If desired, quickly stir in chopped nuts (I favor pecans) and pour out onto buttered cookie sheet
Cool outside if cold, in the freezer if not.
Slather with melted chocolate of your choice, sprinkle more nuts if desired while chocolate is still melty.
Cool in fridge. Break into chunks. Store in airtight container in a cool, dry place - room temp is fine unless your home is particularly warm
I believe 1 cup volumes make a pound of toffee.
Takes 10 minutes, and you don’t even need a candy thermometer.
If not, I’ll second the biscotti. You can also half dip them in melted milk and white chocolates. If you have any chocolate left over you can dip pretzels.
Yep - we do the one at this link:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cookie-Mix-in-a-Jar-III/Detail.aspx - it’s an oatmeal raisin cookie and is very nice. As cookies go, it’s not too unhealthy, plus the recipients can make them with on-hand ingredients (most people have butter, eggs and vanilla). Nice to have around for when they’re snowed in or whatever, a week or three after the Christmas season and all the attendant goodies are long gone
That site has numerous others. The first year we did them, we tried several different recipes from the site and the oatmeal ones were the best.
We did 40 jars last year. We put each ingredient in a bowl in a circle around the kitchen island, with the appropriate sized measuring implement in it, and just do a whole assembly line with the whole family. I highly recommend getting a plastic canning funnel (your local hardware store might have that) for assembling the jars.
Another one we’ve made a few times, though almonds are pricey:
3 cups almonds, whole
1 large egg white, beaten until foamy
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon Season-All seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg ground
Toss the almonds in the foamy egg white until coated. Combine the sugar
and all the spices in a small bowl. Toss in the almonds and mix until the
nuts are coated. Spread almonds on a greased baking sheet in a single
layer. Bake at 250 F for 1 hour. Cool slightly, then break apart. Cool
completely and store in an airtight container.
(Recipe By : McCormick Schilling Spice)
Yummy and addictive. We usually put the almonds right back in the cans they came in, with bows on the top (we may have put wrapping paper on the outside of the cans, I don’t remember). Since they take up more volumn than the plain almonds, there are always some left over for, er, quality control 
Great-aunt Clara, who died last year at age 104, said this is actually her mother’s recipe but we’ve always called it “Aunt Clara’s”. We like cream cheese on it. It’s actually better if you let it age for a week or two.
Makes 4 mini size loaves. One or two normal size loaves. I haven’t made normal size in a long time and can’t remember for sure.
Aunt Clara’s Nutbread
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups brown sugar (I use dark brown)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
2 cups roughly chopped walnuts
Put a pan of water in the oven and preheat to 325.
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder & soda. Beat eggs well. Add buttermilk & sugar & beat until combined. Mix in the floury stuff. Stir in the nuts.
Bake about 45 minutes for mini loaves. I was told 90 minutes for normal size but that seems a bit long.
The original recipe calls for dissolving the baking soda in a tablespoon of hot water but I never do that. Maybe baking soda was particularly lumpy back in the day?