Home Made Food Gifts - merged

SugarSpun

I'm just organising my various folders (at 9:30 on a Sunday morning in August...) and I realise that I have some lovely recipes that would be nice if people wanted to give them as presents.

So here is a list of the things I have, and if a recipe catches your eye I'll post the whole thing (I don't want to post all of them right off in case you all get RSI from scrolling).

If you have something you're willing to share please post it too - I'd be interested in a chutney recipe if anyone has one.

Cake in a Mug (stolen from on here!)
Hot Pepper Fudge
Hobnob-a-likes
Butterscotch brownies
Minty Chocolate Christmas Cookies
Lebkuchen
Rosemary Pine Nut Shortbread
Simple Fudge
Spiced Coffee
Mediterranean Coffee
Sweet Fennel Coffee
Spiced Hot Chocolate

rainmac

I'd love to see some of those recipes sugarspun

Really intrigued what cake in a mug is, please tell us more...

Is the simple fudge the recipe from the Nestle site? This is the recipe I was planning on trying but haven't made fudge before so if you can recommend yours, I'd love to give it a go

SugarSpun

The cake in a mug is sort of an instant gift, bit of cheating is involved since it uses an instant cake mix. But you could easily mix the dry ingredients for a cake together and then use a 1/2 cup for each recipe:

1
box cake mix, flavor of your choice
1
small instant pudding mix, flavour of your choice (not sugar free)
Glaze Mix

1/3
cup icing sugar

1 1/2
teaspoons cocoa powder or vanilla powder

1. Combine cake mix ingredients and blend well.
2. Measure 1/2 cup of mix into a sandwich bag.
3. Label this bag Cake Mix.
4. Place the glaze mix ingredients into a sandwich bag.
5. Label this bag glaze mix and attach it to the other bag with a twist tie.
6. Place one bag cake mix and one bag glaze mix in each coffee cup and attach the baking instructions.
7. Tip: Be sure to select a large mug that can hold 1 1/2 cups of water.
8. The mug must be microwavable.
9. Attach the following note to the gift:
10. Mist inside of coffee mug with cooking spray.
11. Empty cake mix into cup.
12. Add 1 egg white, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon water.
13. Mix well.
14. Microwave on full power 2 minutes.
15. Empty Glaze Mix into a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon water.
16. Mix well.
17. Pour glaze over baked cake.

Fudge:


1lb 2oz (500g) dark or white chocolate (have never tried milk so don't know if it works)
2 ¾ oz (75g) unsalted butter
14oz (400g) condensed milk
½ teaspoon flavouring eg vanilla essence, rum, orange, brandy flavouring

• Break chocolate into pieces and place in a saucepan with butter and condensed milk.
• Heat gently, stirring until the chocolate and butter melts and the mixture is smooth. Be careful not to overheat as chocolate gets gritty
• Remove from heat. Beat in the flavouring, then beat the mixture for a few minutes until thickened. Pour it into container.

Chill until firm. It turned out pretty well when I did it, although I overheated it and it went a bit gritty (just like it says!).

rainmac

Thanks sugarspun, both sound great!

Kzlnd

Hi Sugarspun!
If you have time would you mind posting recipes for your Butterscotch brownies and Minty Chocolate Christmas Cookies please?

SugarSpun

Sure thing, kzlnd

Butterscotch brownies

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C, butter a baking pan.

2. Melt 1 cup of brown sugar with 1/4 cup of butter over a very gentle heat, taking care not to burn. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little (this is important).

3. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 egg, beat in hard with a wooden spoon.

4. Sift in 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir to mix. This is also a good time to put in any nuts or coconut or other things you might want in there.

5. Spread out in baking pan and bake for 20-30 minutes.

6. This is the point at which I say you're meant to cool them before eating. You won't.

Minty cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder
1 egg white
3/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (I don’t think wholewheat pastry is essential – self raising regular is probably just fine!)
Peppermint cream filling:
1 3/4 - 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
10 - 15 drops peppermint oil/ 1 tsp peppermint essence
1/4 cup cream

Pre-heat the oven to 350F degrees, position the racks in the middle of the oven, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cream some more, scraping the sides of the bowl a time or two. Stir in the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, egg white, and salt and mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy and the consistency of a thick frosting. Add the flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking. It might still be a bit crumbly, and that's okay.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, gather it into a ball, and knead it just once or twice to bring it together into a smooth mass. Divide into two pieces place each into a plastic bag and flatten into disks roughly 1 inch thick. Put the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.
One bag at a time remove the dough from the freezer. On a well floured surface roll it out very thin (remember these are going to be sandwich cookies) - roughly 1/8 inch thick. Or you might find it easiest to roll it out between to Silpats or pieces of plastic. Stamp out cookies in whatever shape you like - I used tiny scalloped circles here. Place on the prepared baking sheets, and bake for 7-10 minutes, or until they small of deep warm chocolate with toasty overtones. Larger cookies will take longer to cook than smaller ones. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack (if you have one).
While the cookies are baking, go ahead and make the filling. Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, whisk together the sugar and half and half until nice and fluffy. You want the filling to be thick enough that it doesn't ooze out the sides of the cookies after they are filled, so if you need to add more powdered sugar, do so in small increments. If you need to thin out your filling, add more half and half a few drops at a time. Whisk in the peppermint oil a bit at a time, and taste as you go, the peppermint flavor shouldn't be overwhelming. When the cookies have completely cooled slather a bit of filling on half of the cookies. Top each slather with another cookie and enjoy!
Makes about 3 dozen 1 1/2-inch sandwich cookies.

maria_and_the_imps

thanks will definatly do the cake in a cup idea thats great
xx

happy1234

I would like to recieve gifts like that - good idea:T

Siren137

Hi sugarspun!

Have already pinched the fudge and brownie recipes! Just wondered if you knew the conversion from cups into grams as I've had a look online and keep getting different amounts. Do you use cups in that recipe or fo you measure in grams?

Also could I have the recipes for Hobnob-a-likes and Spiced Hot Choclate?

Thanks!!

Juliav_2

Hi Sugar Spun

Thank you for this! Would really love the recipes for the

Hot Pepper Fudge
Hobnob-a-likes
Rosemary Pine Nut Shortbread
Spiced Coffee

Thank you!