Awesome, Home-Made Last Minute Gifts – Part 1

You can totally whip up some fancy gifts at home. We’ll show you how to surprise family and friends with some personal DIY hostess or Christmas gifts for parties and get-togethers.

Classy Chocolates

You’ll need:

• • • 300g oatmeal (or ground nuts)
    • 50g butter, softened
    • 50g chocolate (of your choice)
    • 50g sugar
    • grated coconut, nuts or cocoa to toss your chocolates in
    • optional: 2-4 Tbsp coffee, milk, liqueur,…

Directions:
Mix butter and sugar, then add oatmeal and chocolate. Add a dash of coffee, milk or liqueur to reach your desired consistency. If you overdo it, just add some more oats or nuts. You’re looking for a consistency that allows you to easily form little balls. When you’re done, toss your chocolate balls in cocoa powder, grated coconut or ground nuts… and voilà, you just made some fancy chocolates all by yourself!

Fluffy Cake in a Jar

You’ll need:

• • • • 70g margarine
      • 90g sugar
      • 1 sachet vanilla sugar (8g or approx. 1 Tbsp)
      • 2-3 eggs (depending on their size)
      • 125g flour
      • 1 tsp baking powder
      • 3 Tbsp cocoa
      • 50g ground hazelnuts
      • icing sugar for dusting, oil for the jars
      • heat-resistant jars

Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 200° C / 390° F.

Beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla sugar and mix until frothy. Then, add the eggs one by one.

Mix flour, baking powder and cocoa in another bowl, then stir in your wet ingredients. Lastly, add the ground nuts, then coat your heat-resistant glass jars with oil and pour in the batter. Make sure you just fill only half the glass, or up until ⅔ as the dough will rise in th oven. Depending on the size of your jars, bake for about 20 minutes.

You can spoon your mini cakes directly from the jar or seal the jars with an air-tight lid (just like you would do with jam) and store your jar cakes for about 1 to 2 months.

Crunchy, Golden Cereal Bars  

You’ll need:

• • • • • 75g sunflower seeds
        • 150g oats
        • 5 Tbsp milk
        • 1 egg
        • 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (rapeseed works well)
        • 100g nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts)
        • 2 Tbsp honey
        • dried fruits (to your taste)

Directions:
For these crunchy granola bars, start by chopping your sunflower seeds and nuts. Brown the nuts and oats in a pan with a little oil for 5 minutes, then leave to cool.

In the meantime, pre-heat your oven and line a baking sheet. Chop the dried fruits, then mix with egg, milk, honey and your roasted oats and nuts. Aim for a consistency that allows spreading the mixture onto the baking sheet. Spread and press down, making sure it’s evenly distributed. Bake at 170° C / 340° F for about 30 minutes. Cut into bars, squares or whatever shape you like (you can also use cookie cutters!) immediately, then leave to cool.

Layered Cookie Cake Mix

You’ll need:

• • • • • • 190g flour
          • ½ sachet baking powder (8g or approx. 1 Tbsp)
          • 90g sugar
          • 70g nuts, chopped
          • 70g dairy chocolate, finely chopped
          • 70g dark chocolate, ground
          • 1 pinch of salt
          • 1 (mason) jar

For the cookie recipe, 1 egg, 80ml milk and 70g margarine have to be added to the dry ingredients.

Directions:
Let’s start off with a tip: For even layers, it works best if you tap the bottom of the the jar against a flat surface a few times so that every layer can set before you add a new one.

Then start layering: First, the flour mixed with baking powder and salt. Then, the nuts. Then, the sugar. Top it off with your chocolate. If you want to get all creative with your layers, you can also try to fill your jar unevenly to create patterns and some serious artwork – just make sure the jar is big enough for all ingredients, yet not too big so that everything mixed up when moving the jar.

Since we can only add all dry ingredients to the jar, the lucky recipients have to add 70g margarine, 80ml milk and 1 egg themselves. As soon as all ingredients are whipped together, drop the batter onto a lined baking sheet using a table spoon for the perfect cookie size. Bake at 190° C / 375° F for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Add a hand-written note with all ingredients and instructions to your layered cookie cake mix and give it to a special someone!

Sweet’n’Creamy Hot Chocolate Popsicles

You’ll need:

• • • • • • • dark chocolate (1-2 pieces for each popsicle)
            • dairy and/or white chocolate, to taste
            • cinnamon, to taste
            • honey (1 tsp per popsicle)
            • milk, if necessary
            • wooden sticks or spoons (1 for each popsicle)
            • flexible ice cube tray

Directions:
Start by melting the chocolate (each variety separately) in a double boiler or hot water bath on a low heat, stirring constantly. If necessary, add a dash of milk. Then, add honey and cinnamon and keep stirring until smooth. Fill your ice cube tray with the hot chocolate – use either just dark chocolate or create patterns by mixing different kinds. Pop the tray into your freezer. As soon as the chocolate starts setting, add the wooden sticks or spoons. Just put them in the center of each cube; now they should stay upright. Leave the tray in your freezer for another hour or until the chocolate is completely set and solid. Cautiously peel your popsicles out of the tray, wrap them in transparent paper and surprise someone with a home-made sweet treat.

PS: Need help with the measurements? Check out this conversion chart: http://cookieswapping.com/tips.html

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