The Christmas season is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. I haven’t even thought about my Christmas menu yet, but what I have been thinking about is gifting. I love gifting! If you’re not very good at giving thanks daily or perhaps you are and you just want to do that extra little thing to say to someone, “I value you, I thank you, I see you,” then giving someone something is the answer. I also believe that gifting shouldn’t take a significant chunk out of your holiday budget – we all work very hard and everything is so expensive already.
Enter: homemade gifts. I have yet to meet someone that isn’t absolutely delighted by being gifted something that is homemade, especially when it’s something you can eat. A lovely box of cookies or sweet, salty and spicy nuts in a lovely little box or jar with a nice piece of ribbon feels truly special. Not only will it look lovely and taste delicious but the giftee will recognize that, with this gift, you have given some of the most precious thing we have – time. For the ultra-time-poor at this time of year, a homemade gift is a terrible idea, but for those of you that enjoy baking or cooking, and perhaps have a couple of hours on a weekend ahead of the holidays, making a homemade gift might be a fun exercise. Do as I did and turn up the Christmas carols, spike your coffee (jokes…or not?) and get in the kitchen. The point is to make it fun, and take your time, so it doesn’t feel like a chore.
Regarding cookies, Santa’s gift to the culinary world, the key to the best cookie box is variety so I’m sharing three recipes. What can I say? Im feeling generous. One is a pistachio and sour cherry ricciarelli. It is adapted from the recipe in my cookbook Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking – which (insert shameless plug) also makes a wonderful purchased gift! This recipe is the easiest one bowl mix-up you will ever make. Made with almond flour, egg white and sugar, they are gluten- and dairy-free, so I love to gift them when I know someone may have some intolerances. They also stay chewy and fresh for several days which gives you flexibility with when you want to bake and gift. The sour cherries and pistachios are a festive and welcome addition to these classic beauties, which are quickly becoming my favorite cookie.
The other recipe is for pecan and cinnamon polvorones. A cookie with Spanish origins, the word “polvo” means “dust” referencing their dusting in icing sugar after they are baked. You can make these with walnuts too but I love pecans for their sweet nutty flavour. I’ve also added cinnamon as I love how those flavours compliment each other but I know its not traditional. This is a recipe I have been baking since I was a child. It’s essentially a butter rich, crumbly, nutty shortbread -meaning there is no leavening – one of the main reasons why I like it. You can make the dough, shape it into balls, wrap and chill it in the fridge for several days or for weeks in the freezer. Then you just pull them out and bake (if baking from frozen they take a few more minutes of baking time). I find this to be ultra-convenient, if you only have small pockets of time here and there, rather than several hours to bake a few different varieties of cookies, at once.
The third cookie recipe I am sharing today is for my chewy brown butter ginger cookies. Made quite spicy by the addition of fresh and dried ginger (and optional crystallised ginger for the ginger freaks among us), they are chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside and a ginger flavour bomb. I absolutely adore these at Christmas time all times of the year.
The sweet, salty and spicy nuts are also from my cookbook and I highly recommend you gift them, but also be sure to gift yourself a jar for easy entertaining snacks. They are highly addictive and much loved.
For any homemade gift, I believe that thoughtful packaging isn’t completely essential (you’re already making something!) – but it’s a really nice touch. I like to re-purpose clean jam jars for the nuts and, for the cookies, I purchased some cardboard cookie boxes online. Buy some festive ribbon and pretty gift tags and that’s it!
Gifting is a luxury. Even things like butter are much more expensive than they used to be. But if you want to gift and have a little extra cash, I think you can make something which would overjoy someone with your thoughtfulness… I literally cried last year when I was gifted a thoughtful box of cookies from a friend, so I know.
As always, please send me any questions, comments or feedback that might come up as you are making these recipes. I try to respond as quickly as possible.
Have a wonderful holiday season my friends, and happy baking!
Out now: Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please reach out via instagram @daniellemariealvarez or via my website.