Make some edible gifts this Christmas!
Continuing gift ideas for food lovers – this week we are looking into homemade edible gifts.
You might think that it is too late now to prepare chutneys and jams but you can simply add a note to the gift tag explaining the optimal time to devour your creation.
Away from the usual chutneys, there is so much that you can give. A few years ago, I created a Christmas vodka – simply infuse a bottle of vodka with cinnamon sticks, orange zest, brown sugar (to add a bit of colour and support the other flavours), cloves and star anise. I left that to infuse for a few weeks in a Kilner jar and then portioned it into smaller bottles, printed out nice labels (if you have MS Word, you can use create them easily) and created gift tags from old Christmas cards and gave them to friends.
One friend told me afterwards that she wouldn’t normally drink vodka but she drank the whole lot over Christmas – the best compliment.
For cheese lovers, you can make your own labneh (a Middle Eastern soft cheese) by adding a bit of salt to full fat yogurt (I like using Greek yogurt) and straining (line a colander with a cheesecloth or white cotton handkerchief and place the yogurt into the cloth) it for up to two days (the longer you strain it the firmer the result).
After the two days, roll walnut size balls from the cheese and dip in dried mixed herbs. Take a clean Kilner jar and place the balls of cheese carefully in and top up with a good olive oil. Seal the lid, place a nice bow around. It keeps for a few weeks as long as the balls are submerged in the olive oil.
Why not bake a bread and create a nice gift box (crackers also go nicely with it)? Biscotti are Italian hard biscuits – that have been baked twice (the name literally means twice baked) and are a great gift as you can keep them in an airtight container for quite some time.
Traditionally, they are made with almonds but you can vary the ingredients by adding dried fruit or simply play around with some Christmas spices. First, you bake the biscuit dough as a loaf, after baking you slice it and return the slices back to the oven (turning once to crispen up both sides). The result is a hard biscuit that is perfect for dunking (if that’s how you eat your biscuits).
Take a cellophane bag and place the slices in and tie with a ribbon and a tag (or simply get a really nice tin).
If all that is a bit too labour-intense for you, grab some coarse sea salt, orange zest, fresh thyme and rosemary (both finely chopped) and mix well together. Place the mix in a nice Killner jar (or any airtight glass jar), seal the lid and tie a ribbon around.
This flavoured salt is good to use after a few days, lasts a long time in the fridge and adds a nice note to any cooking.
Make your gifts edible this year!