Homemade Food Gifts that will become Pantry Staples!
This year for Christmas, we made a goal to make as many of our gifts for others ourselves. There were a few that were store bought, but for the most part, we made them! We went through a lot of flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate this year, but it was a lot of fun! I realized as I was starting to write all this down that I didn't take very many pictures at all of this entire process....so if I gave you one of these gifts and you have pictures, send them my way and I'll add them to this haha!
The boys helped out baking and making mixes, as well as coming up with their own gifts to give their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Cole worked with Adam to make wooden coasters as some gifts, and he designed and whittled mallets for his Paw & Grandpa to keep in their workshops. He also found coupons to places in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and gave those to some family who he thought would enjoy certain stores or restaurants. :) Blake painted pictures for his grandparents and aunts and uncles. He says he will be the next Bob Ross. :) Beau and Peyton were encouragers to their big brothers, and mighty cute encouragers, if we say so!
For one of my nephews, we put together a dry erase coloring book (by laminating pages then binding it with our coil binding machine) and added some colorful washable dry erase markers (perfect for a road trip or a quiet activity). My niece got a dry erase hand lettering book and a few beginner calligraphy markers (my calligraphy buddy!!). The boys helped me clean out their playroom closet and picked out some of their favorite toys that they haven't played with to create BIG gifts to their two younger cousins. We also made three batches of homemade play dough in Christmas scents and wrapped them with cookie cutters for a few friends to play with all month long! We plan to make more of that later with some new scents, and when we do, I'll post those recipes!
We taste-tested all the food and drink recipes before we made batches to wrap, and they were all so good! Some really will become pantry staples for us! I wanted to write down the recipes we used for the baked goods and mixes so we could have them all in one place. So, this will be a "wordy" blog post, but also a long overdue once, since I haven't posted anything here in a few years!
Blake helped me mix up Instant Mocha Mix for the grandmas and aunts. I tested this as an instant coffee, but also as a creamer. It's a good instant drink! As a creamer, it was a big strong simply because there is already coffee in the mix, but I still thought it was tasty! I was inspired by a recipe for instant cappuccino mix on another blog (right here, if you want to check it out!), but wanted to use dry powdered milk instead of powdered creamer. Here's the version we mixed up!
In a large bowl, mix together:
- 3/4 cup instant coffee
- 1 cup hot cocoa mix
- 1/2 sugar
- 1 cup dry powdered milk
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Once everything is well incorporated, scoop into a jar or other container with a lid for storage. (We used these 16oz plastic airtight deli containers, but you could also use a mason jar or a larger container if you aren't dividing it up). When you're ready to have an instant cup of mocha, add 3 tablespoons of the mix to hot water or milk and whisk!
Cole made a simple Mug Cake Mix for his grandmas and aunts. Of course, we made enough for all of us to test (and we will be keeping this in the cabinet too!) This wasn't necessarily from another website, it's something I'd had before years ago. You can customize it to be whatever flavor you like, but we chose chocolate!
In a large bowl, combine
- 1 box angel food cake mix
- 2 boxes chocolate cake mix.
That's it! So simple! Scoop the new mix into an airtight container (we used those same deli containers and made labels for them) and when you're ready for a quick dessert, mix 3 Tablespoons cake mix with 2 Tablespoons of water in a coffee mug. Add some chocolate chips on top, then microwave for 1 minute. We included a small bag of chocolate chips with the cake mix, but white chocolate chips or butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips would be good too!
Back to the seasonings! For a No-Salt All-Purpose Seasoning, we mixed:
- 1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
- 2 Tablespoons Onion Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Paprika
- 1 Tablespoon Parsley
- 1.5 Teaspoons Black Pepper
And then I decided it was so good, I needed to double that. :) We poured some in a spice jar and labeled it, then poured the remaining seasoning in a washed jar that chicken bouillon originally came in. It was the perfect size for a refill jar!
Then he helped me make a delicious Ranch Seasoning (which I'm going to use as a base to make Ranch Dressing Mix later this week). Learning my lesson from the all purpose seasoning, we went ahead and doubled this one and made it as low-salt as possible. Combine in a bowl:
- 5 Tablespoons Parsley
- 4 teaspoons dried Dill
- 5 teaspoons Garlic Salt
- 5 teaspoons Onion Powder
- 4 teaspoons dried Minced Onion
- 2 teaspoons Black Pepper
The original recipe also had salt listed as an ingredient, but we omitted that. I didn't label it as a No-Salt Ranch Seasoning though since we used garlic salt. You could swap Garlic Powder in place of Garlic Salt though, and have a lower sodium seasoning.
My dad loves Vanilla Wafers, so when I saw this recipe from The Baker Upstairs, I had to try it. I doubled the recipe as it was written on that blog, and that was a good idea haha! When it was time to bake, I tried scooping the dough and rolling it then pressing it down. Those came out nice little circles, but I felt like I was losing a lot of the dough to the scoop and my hands and the bottom of the jar pressing the cookie. I decided to try just scooping the batter by the spoonful onto the cookie sheet and it worked *almost* perfect (much like the original blogger said herself). Then I scooped the batter by the *half spoonful* and they were **perfect** according to the boys. They weren't as smooth as the ones you buy in the store, but they sure did taste great! The larger cookies still tasted the same, of course, but they were fluffier, and we were aiming for something a little more crisp. I do think if you wanted to make a filled cookie (with cream or jelly or peanut butter), the larger cookie would be good for that.
So, for the perfect (double recipe) homemade vanilla wafer, you'll need:
- 1 stick of softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. You can use an electric mixer, or by hand with a whisk or fork. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until your batter is smooth, then stir in your dry ingredients and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. While the dough chills, preheat your oven to 350. Once firm, scoop about a half of a spoonful of batter and use another spoon to place it on your baking sheet and bake 15-20 minutes. They will harden a little more as they cool on a cooling rack.
I have this oversized baking sheet that my dad gave me a few years ago, and I love to use it when I want to make sure that the cookies have plenty of room to bake without getting squished!
A cookie that I've made for quite a few years is 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies. It became a family favorite so fast that it made it into my cookbook (and on the last page so it's easy to find!). I try to remember to make them anytime I'm signed up to bring dessert to dinner when my brother-in-law will be eating (and I've made batches while at their house since I know both him and my sister love them!) They are super simple, quick, and easy to change up a little if you're feeling creative. We've added chocolate curls on top, put buttercream icing between two cookies, or added a few sprinkles for color!
All you need is:
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sugar (can be reduced to 1/2 cup brown sugar)
- 1 cup peanut butter
Mix those three ingredients and bake at 350 for 8 minutes, then take them out and let them cool on the baking sheet. I'm sure they would last a few days on the counter or in the fridge, but they never have the chance to last more than 24 hours at our house!
When I asked my youngest sister what kind of snack I should make for my brother-in-law, she was quick to say Chocolate Chip Cookies. I wasn't really surprised! I found this recipe for "the best chocolate chip cookies ever" at JoyFoodSunshine, and it was perfectly named. Reading the recipe was so informative too! Scroll to the bottom of her post and read about various reason for why your cookies may come out looking different each time based on ingredient temperature or type.
My brothers-in-law aren't big coffee drinkers, but I knew they would all like some Hot Chocolate Mix, so I found this simple recipe, that I do believe tastes better than store bought! It's a simple mix using cocoa, dry milk, powdered sugar, and granulated sugar. You can mix it with water or milk, but I always prefer milk! :)
I made a plate of snacks for our parents and sisters' families with Christmas Tree Pretzels & Spritz Cookies.
For the Pretzels, I used a candy mold I've had for several years. I can't find the same one in stock in the US online, but it's this one. I think I bought it on clearance after Christmas one year, along with the cookie press I started using for the Spritz Cookies and a candy mold meant to be used with Oreo-type cookies. I put a few sprinkles in the mold, then melted green candy melts and poured into the mold. I twisted the pretzels as I put them in the mold so that they would be covered with candy and hold the tree in place. They were a perfect mix of sweet and salty.
Now the Spritz Cookies come with a funny story, First off all, I decided to use this recipe. It's a nice basic one (but I added a little green food coloring because I planned to use the tree shape disc). Like I said, I bought my cookie press several years ago during an after Christmas clearance. I paid about $1.50 for it, so I'm pretty surprised it has lasted as long as it did. I pressed two cookies onto the baking sheet and as I was pressing the third....the cookie press cracked. Thankfully, it cracked in the part of the press that didn't come into contact with the dough, so I didn't have to toss the batter. But I needed a quick solution because I really wanted these cookies to look like trees! Adam told me to try the jerky press. It wasn't quite the same size as the cookie press, and it didn't "click" to only release a specific amount of dough....so my Christmas tree cookies looked quite unique haha! I finished them off by drizzling melted white chocolate across them and adding some pink sugar sprinkles on top. In the end, they kinda reminded me of Little Debbie Tree cakes!
All that said, I'm searching for a good cookie press to add to my wish list haha!
I know that was a REALLY long post, and if you read the entire thing, I just might owe you a batch of cookies if I live near you! Let me know if you've tried one of these recipes or if you plan to make one to keep in your pantry!
Comments
Post a Comment