Here we bring you eight of our most favourite easy edible festive gift recipes to spur on some gift inspiration. Make yours an even sweeter Christmas this year.
Cinnamon Christmas Biscuits
If you’re looking for a recipe to make truly beautiful, and delicious, biscuits, take inspiration from Biscuiteers, the award-winning online luxury biscuit boutique. Its blog shares a great recipe for making cinnamon Christmas biscuits – right down to their top tricks of the trade for icing them. Before you know it, you’ll be hand-icing biscuits worthy of your Instagram page. If you want to hang the biscuits as decorations on the Christmas tree, use a cocktail stick to make holes in the shape for the ribbon.
Kirstie Allsopp’s Chocolate Florentines
Is it really Christmas without having one, or two, or three chocolate florentines? We think not. Fruity, nutty and chocolatey: in short, yes please. While shop-bought florentines are not to be sniffed at, homemade treats will always be more gratefully received. Kirstie Allsopp’s chocolate Florentines recipe, which uses Carnation Condensed milk, creates chewy and sweet treats. Store and wrap in an airtight tin, add a ribbon and hey presto, job done. These lovingly handmade florentines will impress even the most discerning person in your life.
Spiced chocolate orange date balls
A Terry’s Chocolate Orange is one of our favourite things, but what about a homemade spiced chocolate orange date ball? Don’t mock it till you’ve tried it. The combination of intense chocolate and zesty orange is both nostalgic and timeless. It’s also healthy-ish and makes for a brilliant edible Yuletide gift. Wellbeing expert Liz Earle’s recipe for Spiced Chocolate Orange Date Balls are quick to make in advance and can be kept in the fridge.
Chocolate Crunch Salame
Know someone with a sweet tooth but who tries not to be ‘too naughty’? Trust Lizzie Loves Healthy to concoct a super-easy edible festive gift recipe that has a nutritious twist. Chocolate salame is a typical Portuguese and Italian dessert or crunchy snack enjoyed best alongside coffee. While the classic recipe usually contains crushed digestive biscuits, vanilla wafers and alcohol, you should note that Lizzie’s ingredients are somewhat healthier. What makes her recipe stand out is that it’s got buckwheat groats, coconut oil, dried figs and cranberries instead of amaretti biscuits and dark rum. Her simple melt and mix number makes for a brilliant festive gift and goes down an absolute storm. One slice and you’ll demand more.
Spiced Christmas Hot Chocolate Kit
Give the gift of hygge! Make your own fully loaded hot chocolate gift jar as the perfect edible DIY present for a cosy winter’s night in. Who doesn’t love a hot restorative beverage in the cold of December? Frances Atkins’ spiced Christmas hot chocolate kit is super simple. Fill an empty (sterilised) jam jar with layers of sugar, cocoa, cinammon, mixed spice and then stuff the marshmallows into the top of each jar. Create a cinnamon stick and whole star anise spice bundle and tie with a pretty ribbon and write instructions to snuggle by the fire with a homemade hot chocolate.
Home-made Chocolate Truffles
Delia Smith has been passing on culinary expertise and keeping us happy in the kitchen for over 50 years. She confidently dubs this recipe as the easiest home-made truffle recipe in the world, and who are we to argue? Following her fool-proof recipe, you can make plain truffles or edit the recipe to create ginger truffles, toasted almond truffles or chocolate truffles. You can rest assured that these truffles would make a welcome addition to a gift hamper – or simply gobble them at speed with after-dinner coffee.
Clementine, Ginger and Bay Gin
This ginfusion, the official term for a bottle of homemade flavoured gin, is a suitably decadent Christmas gift. While sloe gin is the classic infused gin of choice, there’s no reason why you can’t whizz up your own infusion using satsuma, crumbly gingerbread, cranberries – or even sprouts (seriously). Really, anything goes. This popular Clementine, Ginger and Bay gin from Olive Magazine is particularly festive. Leave it to infuse for three days, then decant into smaller bottles. Do note, the trick is to start the process with a good quality gin base that doesn’t have too many botanicals, like Gordon’s. Bring on the good times.
Salted Caramel Fudge
Salted caramel and fudge. Talk about a magnificent marriage of ingredients. Fudge, which is usually made with three main ingredients – milk, butter and sugar - can be tricky to perfect. It’s all too easy to get carried away and make it too hard or too grainy. Fret not, Jamie Oliver is here to the rescue with his easy salted caramel fudge recipe which he defines as ‘Not Too Tricky. This sweet treat is crumbly and caramel-like in flavour and will keep for two to three weeks in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Now, that’s something to celebrate.
By Annabel Jack
Updated December 2022
