Edible Gift Recipes: 5 Festive Treat Ideas from Annabel Karmel

Season’s eatings!

Christmas brings out the kid in all of us, so it’s the perfect excuse for your family to get messy in the kitchen and cook up some yummy yuletide gifts! These easy-to-prepare, edible gifts make for the perfect presents – whether for friends, family or your little one’s favourite teacher. Forget socks or selection packs, edible gifts are a lovely way to add that personal touch! Plus, it’s a great opportunity for the kids to get crafty too. Try to find glass jars and bottles, baskets and boxes to adorn with festive ribbon, twine and colourful tissue paper to decorate your Christmas creations. After all, everyone wants gifts that look as good as they taste…

Read more: Christmas Hampers: Festive Foodie Gifts for the Holidays

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 12-15 minutes
Makes: 20 cookies

Ingredients

150g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
50g light brown sugar
100g butter softened
40g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
50g white chocolate chips or white chocolate cut into small chunks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C Fan. Put all the ingredients into a bowl. Mix together.
2. Bring the dough together using your hands and knead for a few seconds.
3. Make 20 little balls out of the mixture. Put 10 balls on one baking sheet lined with non-stick paper. Push down to flatten them slightly.
4. Put the remaining 10 on another baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes.
5. Cool on a wire rack.

Prep: 50 minutes
Cook: 12 minutes
Makes: 25

Ingredients

350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp salt
100g butter
175g soft brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
Different coloured fruit flavoured boiled sweets
Narrow ribbon

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.  Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and salt into a bowl.
2. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, and then stir in the sugar. Beat together the egg and golden syrup and mix into the flour mixture to make a smooth dough, kneading lightly with your hands.
3. Crush the sweets in their wrappers using a rolling pin. Sprinkle flour on a clean work surface and roll out the dough until about 1/2cm (1/4in) thick, then cut into shapes using a selection of Christmas Cookie cutters. Transfer to lined baking sheets.
4. Cut out shapes in the centre of each biscuit, making sure you leave a good edge all around the biscuit.  Completely fill the hole in each biscuit with crushed boiled sweets.
5. Make a hole at the top of each biscuit using a drinking straw so that you will be able to thread a ribbon through it later. Bake for 11-12 minutes until golden.
6. While the biscuits are still warm, check the holes are still there, otherwise push a straw through again.  Do not remove the biscuits from the baking tray until they have cooled as the boiled sweets need to harden. Once the sweets have hardened, gently lift the biscuits onto a wire rack with a palette knife to finish cooling.
7. You can decorate the biscuits with piped white icing.
8. Thread ribbons through the holes to make loops for hanging.

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20-25 minutes
Makes: 9 Christmas tree

Ingredients
3 eggs
175g self-raising flour
150g caster sugar
25g cocoa powder
175g soft butter
50g plain chocolate melted
50g milk chocolate melted
1 tsp baking powder

Decoration
Writing icing pens
Candy canes
Mini Smarties

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C Fan. Line a square tin 24 x 24cm with parchment paper and grease.
2. Measure all of the cake ingredients into a bowl and mix using an electric hand whisk until smooth.
3. Spoon into the tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes until springy to the touch (a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean). Leave to cool.
4. Slice into 9 squares and then slice into triangles, then decorate with writing icing pens or piped icing and Mini Smarties. Push short lengths of candy canes into the base of the chocolate triangles to make the tree trunks.

Prep: 50 mins (plus 1 hour chilling time)
Makes: 18 large truffles

Ingredients
125g dark chocolate
75g unsalted butter
200g Madeira cake (or loaf cake)
50g glace cherries, halved
50g raisins
25g pecans
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp icing sugar

Decoration
50g ready to use fondant icing
Red & green food colour
110g icing sugar or Tate & Lyle royal icing sugar
½ tsp meringue powder or dried egg white powder (Supercook) – omit if using royal icing sugar
4 tsp water

Method

1. Put the butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and melt together over a saucepan of warm water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water), stirring occasionally. You can also melt the chocolate in a microwave using 15 second bursts and stirring between each burst (it will probably take 3-4 bursts). Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Put the Madeira cake in a food processor and whiz to crumbs. Add the cherries, raisins and pecans and pulse 5-6 times until roughly chopped (if you like larger pieces then chop the fruit and nuts by hand). Tip the crumb mixture into the bowl of chocolate and add the vanilla and icing sugar. Stir until thoroughly combined. Put the truffle mixture into the fridge for around 1 hour, to firm up.
3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment or Clingfilm. Take tablespoonfuls of the truffle mixture and roll them into balls, using the palms of your hands. Sit the rolled truffles on the prepared baking sheet. When you have finished rolling the truffles put the baking sheet in the fridge for another hour, or overnight, to allow the mixture to firm up again.
4. To decorate the truffles first make the “holly”. Colour 1/4 of the fondant icing red and then roll out 36 small balls. Colour the remaining fondant green and roll out thinly (you can do this between two pieces of Clingfilm if it gets too sticky. Cut out 36 holly leaves. Sit the decorations on a plate lined with Clingfilm.
5. Put the icing sugar in a bowl (and stir in the egg white powder, if using). Add half of the water and stir in, then add extra water, a couple of drops at a time, to make a stiff icing.
6. Drop ½ teaspoon icing on the top of a truffle and use a cocktail stick or the tip of a knife to spread the icing out a little. Allow to dry slightly, then sit two holly berries and leaves on the top of the truffle. Repeat with remaining truffles then return the truffles to the fridge and leave for 3-4 hours, or overnight, to allow the icing to set. If any of the decorations drop off then they can be fixed back with a little extra icing.

Prep: 45 minutes (excluding chill time)
Cook: 15 minutes
Makes: 10 angel cookies

Ingredients
225g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp mixed spice
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
50g unsalted butter
100g dark brown soft sugar
100g golden syrup
1 tbsp milk

Icing
150g icing sugar
1 tbsp water

Decoration
Edible Glitter
Edible mini pearls
Sugar Snowflakes
Yoghurt covered pretzels

Method

1. Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, ginger and mixed spice. Heat the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a small pan, stirring frequently until dissolved, then allow to cool for five minutes. Stir the syrup mixture, egg yolk and milk into the dry ingredients and form into a ball of dough. Cover with plastic film and chill for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350F/ Gas Mark 4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface until about 5 mm / ¼ in thick. Cut into angel shapes. Bake the biscuits for about 12 minutes or until golden. Allow them to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
3. To prepare the icing. Mix the icing sugar and water together to make a smooth paste.
4. Spoon the icing onto the body of the angels.
5. Stick on the yoghurt coated pretzels to make the wings.
6. Sprinkle with the edible glitter and decorate with edible pearls and sugar snowflakes.

Looking to learn more? Stay up to date with Annabel Karmel Recipes with Sassy Mama’s monthly posts, and check out Annabel’s handy Baby & Toddler Recipe App. New and updated with over 200 delicious recipes, this is the must-have app for delicious mealtimes (and clean plates)! Available via the app store. Visit www.annabelkarmel.com for more information.