5 edible gifts for Christmas

By Hannah Lewry, 26 November 2015

Home-made cordial and no-knead bread are just a few edible gifts that will win over your foodie friends and family this Christmas. Hannah Lewry shares five of her favourites.

Edible Christmas gifts never go out of style. The better the jar, the better the gift looks, but at the end of the day it’s what you put into it that counts. Anything from Christmas spiced butter to handmade flavoured salt or sugar will always be well received. Here’s my round-up of the best recipes for gifts in a jar this Christmas.

Top tips for jar gifting:

• Use clean sterilised jars with tight-fitting lids.

• Think about how long your home-made gift will last for, if it’s cordial or relish, don’t choose a large jar as you want to be able to finish the contents before they expire.

• Add an extra wow factor by providing complementary elements. For example, no-knead bread with flavoured salt or honey glaze, relish with a beautiful fresh loaf of bread, popcorn with a delicious cake or malva pudding from Woolworths, a locally made yoghurt for granola and a bottle of Champagne or lemonade with coridal.

• Place the dry ingredients for a cake or biscuits in a jar, and inlude the recipe so your recipient just needs to add the remaining ingredients.

No-knead bread

Make this recipe your own by including a sachet of home-made flavoured salt to sprinkle onto the bread before baking.

No-knead soda bread

Relish

The colours are so beautiful in both these delicious recipes – they’re fantastic for entertaining and gifting.

Green pepper relish

Beetroot mousse

Granola

Everyone is always searching for the best granola and, much like the perfect cup of tea, if it’s made by someone else it always tastes fantastic! Give one of these a try this season even if it’s just for your own consumption.

Basic granola here

Granola with strained vanilla yoghurt

Flavoured popcorn

If you’re going to give this as a gift there are two ways of doing it. Either fill the jar with flavourings (grated biltong, nut brittle or Parmesan), then attach the popcorn kernels in a separate bag or microwaveable popcorn bag. Or make the popcorn the morning you’re giving it away and pack it into jars when it’s cool. Make sure you give them to your friends the same day.

Buttered popcorn flavoured with biltong and peanut brittle

Chilli-and-Parmesan popcorn

Salted caramel popcorn

Cordial

Home-made cordials are deliciously refreshing in summer. Serve them with Champagne, gin and tonic, or sparkling water.

Quick raspberry cordial

Granadilla cordial and lemon sorbet floats

DISCOVER MORE EDIBLE CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS HERE

Hannah Lewry

Article by Hannah Lewry

Woolworths TASTE’s Food Editor is passionate about conjuring up fresh ideas for fast and easy dishes that taste as great as they look. Turn to her expertise for everything from time-saving mid-week food to lazy weekend meals. You’ll have a lot of fun in the kitchen while you’re about it.
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