Anyone else doing home made foody Christmas gifts this year?

[notjustme]

We're pretty tight on funds this year so I'm planning on putting together a nice little 'hamper' type thing for each person, nothing daftly huge but a nice selection. Going to get some nice ribbon and some cellophane bags and make them all christmassy

Anyone else doing the same? What are you making? My mum specifically prefers savoury nibbles, so planning on making her more cheesy biscuit type things than sweet things, but MIL likes fudge and peanut brittle and that kind of thing so I'll be making that kind of thing for her...not sure what to make for my gran though!, she is the queen of christmas cakes etc so can't even try to compare to those!

I've made some of the recipes from the November and December Good Food magazines as there's a feature on foody gifts to make (there'll be more in the Jan issue too). Also made some little Christmas puds, a few containers of nice granola and have done what someone above did with dividing a big tin of chocolates into cellophane packages. If I find I need to make something else, I've got plenty to think about with these suggestions!

marzipan that's just it, I wouldn't, you see. Buttered toast is perfection, I never have jam, marmalade or anything sweet on toast.

mmmmm lemon curd.

Delia has a fab iced lemon curd layer cake that is gorgeous.

Lemon curd also makes a great easy cheesecake mixed with mascarpone and ginger nut biscuit base.

Or yum swirled through natural yoghurt etc etc

Cheerio, seriously, it couldn't be easier; it's basically the same as you would do sloe gin. A bottle of all-rightish vodka (not Tesco stripy but not Grey Goose either; I like the Buffalo Grass vodka which you can buy in Lidl). Drink decant about half of it into another bottle then top them up with a few handfuls of blueberries, a handful of mint and a shed load of sugar.

I have heard tell that fruit that is frozen makes better booze as it will split and has a more concentrated flavour. I always freeze sloes for gin first but it's kind of just a tradition iyswim.

Put your bottles in a cupboard for a few weeks, shake them and taste every few days, adding more sugar if it's not to your taste. Mine has taken about four weeks to get really good but I reckon it'll be spot on by Christmas. Strain it through muslin or kitchen roll when you're ready to drink it.

My grandad always used to dip the sloes from his sloe gin in chocolate and then eat them like sweeties; I reckon the blueberries from the vodka might be quite nice with ice cream (the raspberry sludge from my raspberry vodka was yum - hic) but I'm yet to experiment.

I have Christmas rocky road (white choc, marshmallows, shortbread, cranberries and freeze dried strawbs) for teachers, mini christmas cakes and christmas puddings, chilli jam, sage jelly, salted pretzel truffles, baileys and white choc fudge, christmas chutney, smoked paprika nuts and home made 'baileys' for others....still got to make the home made baileys as it doesn't keep long.

Ok, I've decided on my list of what I'm making! Now I need help from you clever people as to when I should make it all as I have absolutely no idea how long these things keep for and the recipes don't mention either :(

Mince Pies
Fudge
Peanut Brittle
Lemon Curd
Cheese & Sage Biscuits
Shortbread
Chilli Jam
Pretzels
Iced Biscuits (just normal biscuits cut into xmas shapes with the icing on top like these

Can anyone give me some guidance as to when these should be made and how to store them?

I'm having trouble finding nice, classy, affordable packaging for my homemade stuff. Lakeland seems quite overpriced. Anyone got any tips?

I've spent hours looking for packaging! Wanted some nice boxes but they are all too expensive (And lakeland was 7 working days delivery!) . So I'm going to make boxes from cardboard (have lots from all the amazon orders and then wrap with printed cellophane and tie the neck with rafia. Will also have cardboard labels.

And try the pound shops. Often find decent gift wrapping stuff in there at a fraction of the price of the I-saw-you-coming merchants.

Jer79 I have just bought 5m of cellophane and 12m of nice enough ribbon for £5.43 including postage on Ebay - if you are happy to spend more there are some lovely types of ribbon on there, but unfortunately I need 10m and it was going to cost too much to wrap all the presents in nice ribbon :(

I have made lemon curd, care of good ol Delia Smith (fab recipe and very easynto do) to give as presents and will also make some fudge from Nigella Lawson, wrapped up in some clear bags and tied with a ribbon. i think people appreciate a homemade gift. Merry Making!!

"Miranda, do you know if the florist's type cellophane is suitable for food use though?"
notjustme Don't know - probably not. I use it over jars & packets so not a problem.
Could you put a layer of clingfilm underneath? Personally I would risk it on, say, biscuits but not lemon curd!

In ASDA, they have the large (would hold a bag or sugar) pull close top thingy jars, for a £1.

The cellophane for florests, you can use for biscuits.Anythig thing that has been cooked or around jars really.

o dear!!! feeling a bit of a christmas failure after reading all of your delicious ideas...the gift of hand soap ad cream for mum doesn't seem so special now!!! whoops

Miranda - too late, bought some anyway - it's going to be more biscuits anyway than anything else, lemon curd would be in a jar anyway!

Sorry late into this post.... does anyone have a good truffle recipe they would be willing to share... and how long do they keep/ do they need to be kept in the fridge. I was going to make my dds teachers brownies (but now not sure in case they are overloaded with things that I shouldn't do something that keeps for longer).

Delia Smith has a truffle recipe but it says they should be eaten within 3 days. Let me know if you want it....

I've been inspired by this thread so I'm making spiced pickled pears and Christmas chutney for my Grandma who has forbidden me to buy her anything this year. Homemade gifts don't count!

Anyway, Tesco doesn't seem to sell cider vinegar. Anybody know where I can get some? Or is there another vinegar I can use instead? And they don't sell allspice berries either....any ideas please?

Dougal I got sine cider vinegar in Sainsburys & the allspice berries in Waitrose. But I think you may be able to use White wine vinegar instead?

Thank you Zeeky

Ooh yummy ideas every one - I'm making stained glass window tree biscuits this year. Yum yum yum

Dougal yes please to the truffle recipe..... maybe I will make those for my neighbours instead. When I get the baby down I will come back here hopefully with the time to read all the ideas more closely and decide what will work best for my other daughter's teachers. Doesn't help that one of her teachers is the grouchiest person on earth (it is hard to bake love into something for a grumpy person... although maybe she needs it more than most!).

Started typing it and then found a copy online! Phew!

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/autumn/home-made-chocolate-truffles.html

pocket I am planning to make Christmas pudding truffles which technically use left over Christmas pudding but I am planning to use Christmas cake or you could just buy v cheap Christmas puddings and use those...they can be made up to 2 weeks in advance providing you keep them cool and suggest to your gift recipients that they eat them within 3 days. HTH

I'm making christmas pudding truffles too using christmas cake, you can freeze them which makes life a bit easier.