12 Days of Edible Gifts

Homemade peppermint patties are the perfect sweet for the Winter holidays. With just powdered sugar, egg whites, dark chocolate, and peppermint extract, they're surprisingly easy to make. Plus, when it comes to delicious edible gifts, these patties are a refreshing change from fudge and fruitcake! Watch our video, which we shot at Hip Cooks, to see how it's done.

If you scratched your head at the words "chocolate hazelnut spread" let me turn it into a phrase that you'll understand: homemade Nutella! This rich, addictive spread that's wildly popular in Europe makes for a luxurious and slightly rustic edible gift. It's absolutely delicious to eat and surprisingly uncomplicated to make. To turn the hazelnuts into a butter, you will need a food processor, but other than that the ingredients are common and the technique easy. Although the recipe calls for hazelnut oil, I didn't feel like buying a whole bottle of the specialty item, so I used canola oil instead. And my Nutella came out scrumptious! Look at the recipe after the break.

Our 12 Days of Edible Gifts series is here! Over the next dozen days, we'll be sharing our favorite new homemade gifts for the holidays. Make them for loved ones as a budget-friendly heartfelt gift — but be sure to make extra to enjoy for yourself.

First up: the easiest edible gift of all, an all-purpose spice rub that comes together in one single, five-second step. Think of this rub as a magic elixir for everything from roasted vegetables to grilled chicken and pan-fried fish.

You could even sprinkle some on top of ramen, or add a spoonful to oil and vinegar for an intriguing salad dressing. If you've got lots of friends and family, multiply the batch and hand out tins as a thoughtful stocking stuffer. You can't go wrong! Now, for the recipe.

When YumSugar suggested I make crackers as an edible gift, I immediately envisioned a cheesy cracker that would pair nicely with a bottle of bubbly. However, I realized that if I made a light, crisp herb-infused cracker instead, then I could gift it with a beautiful chunk of cheese. Who doesn't want homemade crackers and artisanal cheese?!

Although the thought of cracker dough can be a little intimidating, this recipe is surprisingly simple and straightforward. After chilling in the fridge for a couple of hours, the dough was no trouble to roll out. The more rustic the better — these crackers should look homemade. Package in a cellophane bag and give with a nice circle of brie or my favorite cheese, Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam. Get the recipe now.

After getting several requests from readers for dessert sauce recipes, I added caramel sauce to my lineup of this year's edible gifts. Little did I know what I was getting myself into! On my first try, the sauce turned into a hardened mass of sugar — and the second time, too. The third mixture was grainy. After reading your suggestions, I gave Alton Brown's tried-and-true methods a chance, adding corn syrup and cream of tartar to prevent crystallization. Without a candy thermometer, I missed the mark a bit on trial four, and the sauce turned out creamy but slightly burnt. And the fifth time was the charm!

Through my many trials, I've learned the following: Have everything ready to go; don't turn away for a second; corn syrup and cream of tartar are your allies. You can succeed sans thermometer if you rely on sight and smell. And, most important, don't be afraid! It's not nearly as difficult as it sounds — and, once you nail it, you're golden forever. See my foolproof recipe when you read more.

Last Christmas I really wanted to make the cookies that were on the final page of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living. It was a recipe for chocolate peppermint cookies dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies. Unfortunately, I never got around to baking them.

Fast forward 11 months, and a package from Williams-Sonoma arrives addressed to YumSugar. Inside is a box of wildly delicious peppermint bark cookies — the exact cookies I had wanted to make.

I quickly found the recipe and set out to create the homemade version of the addictive and decadent cookies. Although they take a little time, the effort is worth it, as these cookies are to die for. I served them at a holiday happy hour, but packaged in a pretty tin, they are a wonderful edible gift. Look at the recipe when you read more

Whether it's sweet, spicy pecans or smoky cashews, nuts have always been a part of my holiday tradition. This year, I decided, would be no different, only I would combine my nut of choice, crunchy roasted almonds, with all of my favorite flavor profiles — smoky, spicy, slightly garlicky — to create the most satisfying holiday snack ever. Because these nuts don't require a lot of energy, they're fantastic to give away as edible gifts over and over again. See the recipe when you read more.

Latkes, Russian tea cakes, and plenty of other treats remind me of the holidays — but nothing feels more like Christmas than making my mother's date balls. Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has given friends, neighbors, and co-workers her date balls. When I was a child and my main role was that of date-ball-roller, I thought the whole process was a big production.

But once I grew up and learned to make them, I realized that these no-bake crispy confections actually aren't that hard to put together — which explains why they became a regular part of our holiday cookie circuit. If you're pressed for time to make an edible gift, or you want to set yourself apart at a cookie exchange, then wow your loved ones with these festive date balls. Get my mother's recipe when you read more.