12 Days of Edible Gifts

Kids and adults alike love freshly roasted marshmallows stuffed between two graham crackers and layered with melted chocolate, so this holiday season, give the gift of homemade s'mores. While making your own chocolate might be too much (considering cocoa is a little hard to come by), the other ingredients are surprisingly simple.

Since they consist of graham flour, which is a whole wheat flour, the graham crackers taste more healthy than their store-bought counterparts. But, once topped with cinnamon and sugar, they're very satisfying. The homemade marshmallows, with their delicate texture, blow away the bagged version. Assemble the s'mores and package them in a decorative box or simple cellophane bag. Ready to give these gooey and sweet treats away? Read more.

Even if time or money (or both) are tight this holiday season, you can still indulge food-loving friends in a major way. Make your own homemade hot fudge sauce, then package it nicely in a recycled glass jar and gift it to all the chocoholics you know. The key to this recipe is to use high-quality chocolate; I melted down leftover Guittard blocks I had in the pantry. Once you've got the basic proportions down, you can really start experimenting with variations: Use milk chocolate in place of dark or add cayenne for kick. Want the extremely fast recipe? Then read more.

Let's face it, not everyone enjoys treats like double-chocolate cranberry cookies and peppermint patties, so for the loved one who doesn't have a sweet tooth, make beef jerky! This savory snack is great to give to people who live far away because it will keep for up to six weeks. There's not a lot of work to the recipe, but it requires time for marinating and cooking, so don't wait till the last minute. With a salt and pepper crust and rich beef flavor, the resulting jerky is better than any store-bought jerky I've tasted. It would definitely please the special man in your life! Check out the recipe now.

Nothing is better than fresh baked bread, so this holiday season, spend a little time and bake brioche. Whip up an herbed butter, package along with the buttery and traditional French buns, a cute plate, and an inexpensive butter knife to create a delectable edible gift.

If you've never made brioche, the dough is pretty simple, but it has to rise three times before it's ready for baking, so be patient. Don't have the special brioche tins? Make the bread in small ramekins or a regular bread pan. Be sure to make plenty because once you taste these, you won't want to give them all away! For the gift of bread and butter, keep reading.

Every once in a while, I unearth a dish that's good enough to be the recipe to end all other recipes. These discoveries are few and far between, but this weekend I found a baking recipe that's so delicious that it's ended my quest for the perfect savory cookie.

May I present the bacon cookie? The name says it all. Actually, it's a bacon, blue cheese, and pecan coin that's short and crumbly at first bite, then melts in your mouth with a nutty, sharp, cheese-like finish. You'll never — I repeat, never — be able to eat just one.

Serve it as a Christmas party appetizer, or wrap it up in cellophane baggies and give it to everyone you love. If you do, you're guaranteed to be a favorite this holiday season. Want the recipe? Yes, you do.

Looking for an unexpected holiday sweet that's more impressive than cookies or fudge? Then make peppermint patties! Two classic Christmasy flavors, chocolate and peppermint, come together in this delicious edible gift. The best thing about this recipe is that it's incredibly easy. It requires time, first for the peppermint filling to dry, and later for the chocolate to harden, but other than that the method is simple. No special thermometers necessary. Ready for the recipe and video? Read on!

For those friends that are into mixology or just obsessed with Mad Men, don't worry about which new cocktail tool they might need. Instead make them homemade cocktail onions! The mostly hands-off process is pretty easy but does take a little more than a day for the onions to short brine (this ensures a crisp texture).

Once you've tasted these crisp, salty, and sweet cocktail onions it will be hard to go back to the store bought ones. To create more color in the jars, I used a combination of white, yellow, and purple pearl onions. For the perfect edible gift, add a fun label and directions for a delicious Gibson, a classic gin or vodka martini served with cocktail onions rather than olives, to the jar. Ready to pickle your pearl onions? Keep reading.

Since a bottle of alcohol is a pretty standard holiday gift, every year I like to make some sort of spirit. Normally I stick to liqueurs like kahlua, Irish cream, or limoncello, but this December, I'm giving homemade gin!

Basically, gin is vodka that's been infused with juniper berries, so it's made like you would any other flavored vodka: let the aromatic seasonings infuse the vodka for a certain amount of time, strain, and then enjoy! The finished product has a cloudy color and classic herbal flavor. Give in a festive bottle or package with tonic, limes, and a couple of glasses.

To check out the easy recipe and watch a video of me making it, keep reading.

If the holiday season's left you stretched too thin, don't rule out making edible gifts; simply look for a recipe that'll take less energy and labor. Drop-and-bake cookies are one answer for the time-strapped. What could be more cheery and Christmassy than double-chocolate cranberry cookies? The large, chewy, baked goods take little time to make, and I've found the dough chills well for future baking, too. Slip them in a tissue-lined tin, and you've got your holiday gifting covered! Want the recipe? Keep reading.

With its caramel popcorn and nuts drizzled in chocolate, Harry & David Moose Munch is one of the most addictive holiday treats. Rather than order a bunch of bags to hand out this year, I decided to make my own!

Since there is a perfect state for the sugar, making caramel can be difficult; I totally botched my first batch! It didn't get me down, and I gave it another try. Be sure the caramel has your undivided attention, and that the pot is centered on the burner. If you can find someone to help out with the process, it will make it even easier to deal with molten caramel.

Once you've mastered the technique for caramel, the rest is a piece of cake. I used a little bit of olive oil and the lunch paper bag method to simply pop the popcorn. Then to complete this sweet treat, microwave quality chocolate chips and drizzle over the caramel popcorn and macadamia nuts. Ready to munch your very own chocolate caramel popcorn? Keep reading.