Tis the season for baking and entertaining, no matter what you celebrate, to ward off the darkest month of the year. These recipes will keep your heart full, your kitchen warm, and your recipients happy - many of these make great gifts to give away, too!
You can involve the kids and give them a sense of ownership over their gift giving by setting aside an afternoon and stirring up a snack mix or some hot chocolate for a friend. Include a card, tie with a pretty ribbon and include a cinnamon ornament, and you have a gift to remember long after the holiday ends.
Once you've collected your ingredients, Homemade Baileys Irish Cream is as easy as throwing everything into a blender.
Last year, after the lovely Maija posted her recipe for homemade Baileys Irish Cream, I wondered if I could make a non-dairy version. I experimented a little and came up with this recipe, which even my non-vegan, dairy-loving husband enjoyed. If that's not a high commendation, I don't know what is.
Dress up plain popcorn with a little bit of sugar and cocoa with a hint of nutmeg, and then add chocolate chips? Are you kidding? Take salt and sweet to the next level by throwing in some chopped peanuts too, if you dare. Warning: This popcorn is highly addictive.
This recipe is so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s absolutely scrumptious and unbelievably easy to make. Packaged in a festive tin or gift box, it makes a wonderful hostess gift — and no one will guess how simple it is!
I know that vanilla is easy and fairly inexpensive to buy, but when paired with a cute gift tag and a family heirloom recipe for muffins or cookies, homemade vanilla makes a super cute DIY food gift for friends, neighbours, and colleagues.
Store bought granolas are often packed full of sugar and and oil, so why not make your own? What I love about this recipe is that you can swap the nuts and fruits around to create your own unique combination. I especially love cashews and dried berries in mine.
These recipes are my go-to favourites. They have been made, tasted, perfected and gifted many times and because of how easy they are every recipe is Canned Soup Mom approved!
This year, Becel has come up with a great base recipe that lends itself well to limitless interpretations. I plan to use it as the foundation for my holiday baking and cookie dough gifting this year. Becel’s Anything Goes Cookie Dough recipe is super quick to prepare and you can add in whatever goodies suit your fancy—Skor toffee bits, coconut, ginger, butterscotch Chipits, chopped dried fruit...the sky’s the limit!
I had never made a fruitcake before. I was thinking it couldn't possibly be a big deal. Also, I heard that real, authentic, honest-to goodness fruitcake is amazeballs and totally worth it. Well, it is. Both a big deal and totally worth it. But you'll have to have a lot of patience and a little faith.
This time of year I love to package it up in little mason jars for my neighbours and friends. It looks gorgeous and makes for a great instant breakfast to have on hand in a pinch. It will keep for about 2 weeks in a jar, longer if you want to toss it in the freezer. Get a little creative with your mason jar lids and you've got an instant gourmet holiday gift!
Use your favourite dried fruit, or a combination of several for a more intriguing flavour; you can also use mint chocolate chips if that’s an appealing taste. I usually divide the crushed pretzels and fruit in half and melt half-batches of white and dark chocolate so I can package up two kinds of treats together as a much-appreciated edible gift. The salt-chocolate-fruit combination is absolutely delicious!
You could totally win at teacher gifts this year with a bottle of wine and a bag of these beauties! Even very young kids can help out with preparing the nuts; older ones could be supervised to help with stirring the mixture as it bakes. You can double the recipe, but be sure to spread the nuts over two baking sheets so they will roast evenly.
"THE BEST DESSERT YOU HAVE EVER MADE" - Quote from my husband.
Have you ever looked at the price of vanilla sugar? It's priced somewhere between "Gold per Ounce" and "Firstborn Child." And if you've ever had the pleasure of smelling vanilla sugar, it's not hard to see why they feel like they can charge prices like this. But if you're savvy, you know better. DIY vanilla sugar is something everybody can do.
That's the beauty of icebox cookies; they are very easy to make, there is no finicky rolling or shaping required, and the dough can be made in advance and either refrigerated or frozen, depending on when you want to actually bake them. These peppermint crunch icebox cookies are scrumptious and give a lot of bang for your effort-buck. They are festive enough to leave out for Santa - if they last that long!
Eight of the simplest recipes you'll ever make and nobody will know you didn't spend hours in the kitchen.
Whether it's for medical reasons like Celiac disease, or gluten intolerance and sensitivity, or simply because a loved one is cutting out gluten, it's important to know that you can still have sweets when you're cutting wheat. And gluten-free certainly does not have to be taste-free—these delicious recipes are proof of that!
These soft and fluffy eggnog cookies, with a sweet eggnog icing and a dusting of freshly ground nutmeg were a huge hit. We will be adding these to our family Christmas cookie platter. This recipe for eggnog cookies will have everyone running onto the pro-eggnog side of Christmas.
This is my grandma's recipe, and every time I make these I think of her fondly. This is such a fun recipe to make with kids, especially around the holidays when you're looking for a good indoorsy activity. For years I've recruited my kids to roll the balls of dough in the sugar and arrange the cookies out on the baking sheets properly, and they take those responsibilities SERIOUSLY, as though getting the cookies evenly coated with sugar was an integral part of the space program.
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