Christmas Cheer #8: Gifts from the Kitchen

Like I said earlier, I wanted to do all homemade gifts this year. I figured that one "craft" was enough (those hand warmers took a really long time), so I decided that my other gifts should come from the kitchen. I get bored with making cookies, so I wanted to do something a little different. After scouring Pinterest, as per usual, I came up with some really good ideas and narrowed it down to

1. Peppermint Hot Fudge

2. Cinnamon Honey Butter

3. Cinnamon Sugar Almonds

4. White Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Check out the recipes after the jump!

Peppermint Hot Fudge

The recipe I used is from thekitchn.com (check it out here). I ended up making a double batch, but I do NOT recommend doing that unless you honestly have the world's largest pot. I thought mine was big enough, and it was full to the top, which made it VERY difficult to stir without spilling and burning chocolate all over my stove (which, p.s. smells disgusting). Also, I don't have a double boiler, so I just kept mine at a much lower heat than it recommended. It turned out really well, and I'm so happy I made extra!

This tastes great on: sugar cookies, ice cream, cheesecake, milkshakes, pound cake, and more! If you put some in your coffee, it makes it a chocolate mint mocha. Yum!

Packaging: I bought 8oz wide canning jars that worked GREAT! I used a ladle to put it in the jars, and a double recipe filled 12 of them. I made labels that said: "Peppermint Hot Fudge" on one side, and on the back, I wrote, "Heat, then pour over your favorite ice cream, pound cake, or cheese cake. Also tastes great with coffee! Enjoy!" I tied the labels on with string, and viola! Gift!

Cinnamon Honey Butter

The recipe I used is from Erica's BloggityBlog (check it out here). This was another situation that I made a double recipe, and sort of regretted it. I ended up mixing everything in my KitchenAid, which was okay, but it did not have the same consistency that her pictures showed. It probably had something to do with the fact that two of my sticks of butter were much more melted than they should've been. I also ended up using two extra sticks of butter because the amount of honey that the recipe called for just seemed SO extreme, and it was way too sweet for my liking (it also made the texture kind of weird). It is possible that I just didn't whip it enough, too. Once I had it in jars, I put it outside and it hardened a little bit, so that was good, and it was a huge hit at Christmas.

This tastes great on: Toast, bagels, muffins, breads, pancakes, French toast, and warmed tortillas.

Packaging: I used the same jars for the butter as I did for the hot fudge. To get it into the jars, I used Erica's recommendation and put it into a gallon sized zip lock, cut of the tip, and used it as a piping bag. It was so much easier to control how much went into each jar. Once they were all full, I put them outside (it's cold enough here that it's like a refrigerator on my porch), and that helped with the texture, but it ended up separating and there was a honey layer and a butter layer. There really wasn't anything I could to about it at that point, so on the label I wrote, "Mix well, then spread on toast, pancakes, muffins, or warm tortillas!"

Cinnamon Sugar Almonds

The recipe I used was from onecharmingparty.com (check it out here). I love cinnamon sugar almonds- I get them at the fair every year and they are so delicious! I never thought it would be SO easy to make them! This was one of the easiest recipes I have used- in fact, my husband made these! We just followed the directions completely, and they took maybe 10 minutes to cook, and 30 minutes to cool on the refrigerator porch. Awesome.

These are great for: any occasion. Seriously! Birthdays, Superbowl, Christmas, Poker night! You name it, they're delicious, sweet, and easy to eat.

Packaging: We ended up using 1/2 - 3/4 cup for each person. We used snack size Ziplock bags, but we wanted to dress them up a bit. I bought festive scrapbook paper and folded it over the top of the bag to hide the "Zip-lock" part, stapled it on, and wrote, "Merry Christmas!" at the top. My grandparents actually thought they were purchased at the store just because of the label. Awesome.

White Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I didn't use a recipe for these, because they are some of my favorite treats! I did dress them up a bit with sprinkles though. I used big blocks of white chocolate purchased from the grocery store in the baking aisle. I (okay, Cory) chopped it up into tiny pieces and I microwaved it for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between each round. Once the chocolate was melted, I dipped the pretzels (normal twisted pretzels) into the chocolate, sprinkled green sugar sprinkles on them, and put them on waxed paper to harden (which took about 5-10 minutes).

These are great for: pretty much everything again! Gifts, holidays, football parties (sprinkle with your team's colored sprinkles!). They would also be cute for a baby shower with pink or blue sprinkles.

Packaging: We ended up running out of white chocolate and I didn't want to go to the store, so we only put 12-15 pretzels in each bag. We used the same snack sized ziplocks from the almonds, and I put a label on those as well. They were super cute, and super delicious!