Could I please ask for your fool proof and easy home made food gift ideas?

[wibblyjelly]

Need some ideas for cheap but lovely home made foodie items to give as gifts, please.

google chocolate slab recipes- it's really just melting bars of nice chocolate (buy dark stuff when it's on special offer-often get it for £1 a bar) and then either shaping with foil/biscuit cutters or doing a free form shape and throwing any sweet/sprinkle/whatever you can think of on it. Cellophane, tag to shout it's home made and ribbon= nice cheap present!

Fudge also good-very easy and cheapish ingredients.
I make jam as fil loves it, but unless fruit off hedgerow it's not cheap. Lots of apple trees in fruit at moment-apple chutney?
Vanilla sugar?

I find alcohol expensive, same for oils.

Chocolate truffles
peppermint creams
Jam
cookies/gingerbread
cakes
Mincepies
gingerbread house - buy a kit from IKEA/ ALDI make it up & then put it in a cellophane bag/gift box

Chutney, there's a 'Rich Fruit chutney' in a Nigella Christmas book that's made from dried fruit. Or if you have an apple glut going on at the moment - Apple and Cranberry chutney (Nigella again) or Roast garlic and Apple chutney, find it on the Able&Cole web site.
Anything with chocolate - truffles (chocolate with biscuit crumbs or coconut) - there are masses of recipes. I've just discovered how easy fudge is too.
I also make lots of biscuits, simple shortbread types, and spiced Christmassy ones.
One year I made cookie/muffin mixes in a jar, there are some on the BBC web site and also google them from else where. They went down really well, once I had found some good flip-top glass jars (Asda or Ikea should be good sources)

Bramble Jelly is a winner for me. now is the time to get picking blackberries, elderberries, sloes, rosehips, sorbus berries and haws. The only cost to you is the sugar and the electric/gas to boil it all up, I collect jars through the year to use for autumn jam making :) I also like to make sloe gin and blackberry vodka, I use the cheapest I can find and it still tastes great, don't stint on the berries

Peanut brittle in a nice jar.