Good ideas needed for gift hampers (home made food)

[MrsBobHale]

So far we plan to make:

Shortbread biscuits
Truffles
Honeycomb (if it works)
Cranberry sauce
mince pies

Could do with about 3 or 4 other ideas, but nothing mega expensive to make. I think something savoury would be good. DD wants to make breadsticks, but they will have to be made very last minute so we can't rely on them in case other plans get in the way.

We are making 5 hampers, one for each grandparent / auntie household. One recipient is vegetarian and teetotal. All others eat anything!

lots of ideas here

www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/edible_gifts

Nigellas recipe for honeycomb is good, just make sure you don't overbeat it when mixing in the bicarb. Mix vigorously until you can't see anymore white and then stop!

I am putting mango chutney and chilli jam in my hampers, and cranberry and white chocolate fudge. I am also making sesame and poppy seed crackers, but haven't tried them before, so that will be an experiment.

Oh and instead of breadsticks, why don't you make some cheese straws using ready made puff, some parmesan, a little salt and pepper and some paprika. Just brush strips of puff with a little beaten egg, and then dust generously with your parmesan mix. Twist and bake.

Much quicker than breadsticks.

White chocolate and cranberry fudge. dead easy to make and yum!

We make honeycomb quite often, dead easy to do but it never keeps more than a couple of days as it collapses and goes soft. Might be the recipe I'm using but if you haven't made it before do a trial and see how long it keeps before going soft. Everything else sounds yummy.

I'm making chili jam
Oatcakes
Fudge
Shortbread
Hot chocolate mix with marshmallows and choc drops on sticks.
Cranberry and white chocolate cookie mix in a jar with instructions on the label.

And inc some nice cheeses, which are on offer for a little set in tesco.

I'd make some digestive biscuits and provide a few bits of carefully selected cheese. You could try spicy home roasted almonds. Posh crisps. Marinaded olives.
Problem with lots of home cooked food in a hamper this time of year is that it's likely to go off before people get around to eating it or they'll feel obliged to before it goes off, encouraging them to overeat - there's so much food around. I make sure that all my homemade stuff can be frozen or kept in the cupboard for at least a month. I freeze biscuits, cheese, cakes and truffles and it might be worth mentioning to the recipient which items would be suitable for freezing - It would be a shame to see all that effort go to waste.