Healthy-ish Edible Christmas Gifts

[HeddaGobbler]

This might be a long shot but I'm after some ideas for edible gifts I can give to people that aren't too sugar-laden. I usually make fudge/brownies/truffles/biscuits but as I give the to people on Christmas Day, they're usually over the extreme indulgence and don't really want any more sugar, which I completely understand.

I could gift things earlier on in the season but ideally would love something slightly indulgent but not crazy that I can give on Christmas Day. This is the only thing I've found so far but keen for more ideas if anyone has any!

https://joyfoodsunshine.com/dark-chocolate-sea-salt-cashew-clusters/

How about some savoury biscuits to eat with cheese?

Lovely fruit basket?

Medjool dates

Flavoured, home roasted nuts. Loads of recipes online, you could buy bags of plain cashews, almonds, peanuts etc from Lidl and then make them yourself and present in a nice bag.

This is the sort of thing you can buy - I think M&S (and likely other places) will have variations that look a bit more 'gifty' but I'd have thought that it will be cheaper to make your own.

The Ultimate Cocktail Nut Mix | M&S

Olive bread (gluten free if needed)

Sausage rolls or cheese and caramelised onion roles as a veggie option (vegan and gluten free pastry options available )

savoury Parmesan cheese straws

Brie and cranberry filo pastries

Wouldn't say they are healthy as such, but certainly not sweet - my niece made these for all the adult relatives last christmas and they were utterly delicious: https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/cookies-and-biscuits/stilton-biscuits

Mix your own Dukkah and present in nice jars?

You can make amazing seeded Sourdough crackers from leftover sourdough which make an excellent gift paired with some posh cheese and potentially some home-made chutney, but you have to have some sourdough starter to begin with so only if you are already a bit of a baking fan.

Homemade Dukkah is a fantastic idea!

I’m tempted to make a fermented garlic hot honey or a pineapple & scotch bonnet relish for gifting but it seems a lot of faff I don’t have the energy for!

Strawberries dipped in chocolate! Sort of healthy.

Christmas Granola, my friend makes it every year. It's honestly my favourite present. I usually make a cranberry and orange sauce to go with turkey, but some of it gets eaten with decent yoghurt and granola

A jar of marinated olives

Not a particularly healthy thing but a cautionary tale - one of my cousins once had the idea of making home-made chilli oil by simple mechanism of putting fresh chillis into olive oil in nice bottles, to give to various aunts & uncles including my parents. I think you're actually supposed to cook them rather than just putting A into B. We think thr fresh chillis fermented in the oil. When the bottle was opened there was an explosion of escaping gas and a fountain of oil hit the kitchen ceiling. Be cautious that whatever you make won't be hazardous to thr recipients!

Fruit and nut roll to eat with cheese. It is usually lots of figs, dried fruit, almonds walnuts and brandy. Wrapped in parchment so it dries out. Lots recipes online and it is delicious

Thanks for linking these @KindlySurfiingPlatypus because I found this Parmesan and herb shortbread recipe on the same page.

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/baking/herb-and-parmesan-shortbread

@shoofly can you tell us more about the Christmas granola, please? I’ve gotten back into making granola this year and I’d love to try this.

Pickled jalapenos?

These are wonderful ideas!

@Bjorkdidit The nuts would be ideal if it wasn’t for the fact that my mum makes spiced nuts as her yearly Christmas presents to everyone.

@Twogingercats @over50andfab fruits and dates would be lovely but I’m keen to make something

@Ophy83 @Besidemyselfwithworry @JingsMahBucket @stimpy1 I’d love savoury biscuits/bread/cheese straws and a fruit/nut roll for cheese but they’re a tough crowd and those things aren’t to their taste

@KindlySurfiingPlatypus the dukkah sounds wonderful and is a solid contender. @PinkPurpleBlueGreen something would scotch bonnet would be perfect but I’m scared of sterilising jars - it never seems to work for me and things end up mouldy. A homemade chilli crisp type thing would be right up their street

@Leeds2 chocolate strawberries are great but ideally it would be something with a longer shelf life because they’ll be stuffed post-Christmas and in the past have not wanted to eat much in the way of sweet things for awhile

@shoofly christmas granola sounds lovely! Would also love a recipe if you have one

I’m realising that something that leans spicy or something that can be added to vegetables/salads as a topping but that doesn’t need to be meticulously sterilised like jam might be a good shout! For the younger, less health conscious folk, perhaps some interesting compound butters could be an option.

This might be the one!! Just need to figure out the sterilising because it never seems to work for me

If I could reliably sterilise things, I’d make little hampers with:

homemade dukkah
scotch bonnet relish
chilli crisp oil
pickled jalapeños
maybe one sweet dark chocolate item or one Christmas-themed item

You could think about including home made mint jelly and lemon curd too. The jelly is a bit of a faff because you have to let it drip from its bag for hours, but lemon curd is easy and both are so much better than shop bought.

They do contain quite a lot of sugar though!

I do a couple of things in oil.

Someone on here said it is not a good method because I can't remember apparently a few days is OK.

In a jam jar put thin slivers of peppers, sliced mushrooms, sliced olives, some herbs if you like and a clove of garlic.

Then pour over oil, olive if you can afford it and tap to get any bubbles out.

The other thing is feta cheese, cut in to chunks. Pour some dried mixed herbs on your work top and press the fetta pieces into it on all sides.

Again fill with oil.

HeddaGobbler

For sterilising jars, do you have a dishwasher? Put the jars in and put on the hottest wash.

Home made spice mixes work well.

Proper oatcakes are amazing with cheese and are pretty much ground oats and something like olive oil off the top of my head. I make biscuits using low fat marg, flour, syrup and sugar so they're actually very low in calories and carbs.

Chilli jam makes a great Xmas gift!

I often give home made chilli jam. I use Nigella’s recipe. I’ve also made her Xmas chutney. Another that has gone down well is clementine and gin marmalade, the recipe is on Sainsbury’s site. This year I’m also going to do flavoured gins.

Nuts or popcorn. I often put something savoury in my husbands stocking as well as the traditional chocolate coins. One year i put in a bag of marmite popcorn, another chilli nuts. I saw in a shop one year, they were selling sets of a cheese and tiny port on a little board, my Stepdad is diabetic and loves cheese so we usually get him a cheese based gift. I have seen in a local farm shop a gift set consisting of a pretty tea cup, tea bags and shortbread biscuits. One such set has earl grey tea which is the tea my Mum likes, so I might get her that.

I don't have the recipe, but there's pecans, cinnamon, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds. So granola with suitably Christmasy ingredients/colour.
I honestly don't know why I don't make granola, but maybe that's part of the charm!