Down to the wire, Friends. Fortunately, there’s still time to give the gift of something homemade.
Cookies, truffles, fudge—you can never have too many sweet treats around this time of year. BUT! I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t rejoice over receiving a homemade savory gift. This weekend, I’m making a trip to Asian Supermarket in Albany to stock up on cumin, coriander, and sesame seeds, which I’ll toast upon returning home, season with a little salt, sugar and crushed red pepper flakes, then divvy into jars to give as gifts. Dukkah! It was my favorite discovery of 2017, and I continue to find new ways to use it — avocado toast namely (so good!) — and I love nothing more than introducing others to this addictive, smoky, spice blend.
Friends, do you make savory gifts? I’d love to know your go-to homemade savory gift.
PS: 25 Homemade Gifts To Make Today (This list includes sweet treats such as Chocolate-Studded Panettone , Vanilla-Almond Biscotti , Brown Butter Blondies with Sea Salt and more.)
15 Ideas for Savory Homemade Gifts:
- $0.54 Loaf of Peasant Bread : No baked good is friendlier on the wallet than a loaf of bread. Yes, making bread takes time, but most of the time is hands off. Last year, I priced out the cost of 1 loaf of peasant bread and estimated it to be, at the most, 54 cents. Fifty. Four. Cents. And yet to the receiver, a loaf of homemade bread may as well be gold.
- Three seed crackers : These are surprisingly simple to make, and one recipe yields many, many crackers—perfect for divvying up into jars and passing along to friends and family.
Don’t they look pretty on a cheese board?
- Sweet and Salty Candied Pepitas : These three-ingredient candied pepitas, also pictured on the cheese board above, are addictive and very simple and fast to make. They are so nice to have on hand to sprinkle into salads or to nibble on before or after dinner with cheese.
- Salsa di Parmigiano : An old Michael Chiarello recipe, this salsa comes together very quickly in the food processor and is incredibly delicious. It’s good on bread but also delicious tossed with pasta or spooned over roasted vegetables.
- Harissa : Do you have a friend who loves Moroccan food? A jar of harissa, a brilliantly hued, fiery condiment, carrying the flavors of smoky, toasted cumin and coriander, would make a perfect gift. Send your loved one on a Moroccan-cooking-at-home journey.
- While the spirit moves you, you may as well whip up a batch of preserved lemons . They won’t be ready in time for Christmas, but you’ll jumpstart the process for that friend who has never found time to make his/her own. You can include instructions for finishing the process.
- And you may also consider making a batch of skhug , which in essence is a green harissa. Skhug is easier to make than harissa, because there are no peppers to roast or onions to sauté — everything goes into the food processor uncooked. I love spooning it over roasted cauliflower with lemony yogurt sauce.
- Dukkah (My favorite!), an Egyptian spice blend, can be made in countless ways, but typically it contains toasted seeds such as cumin, coriander, and sesame as well as a mix of nuts. I first tasted an untraditional preparation made without nuts , which I loved, but I recently made a batch with toasted almonds , which I also loved. Here’s how you use it: serve it as an appetizer with olive oil and bread; garnish any number of soups with it (—it complements the family of squash soups particularly well); sprinkle if over avocado toast (the best!). If you make the peasant bread, you can also coat the inside of your buttered Pyrex bowls with dukkah , plop your dough over top, and bake the loaves as usual, which will leave you with two beautiful dukkah-coated loaves of bread.
- A big jar of muesli or coconut oil granola . These two cereals are staples in our house. A jar of either would make a great gift. Coconut Oil Granola
- Limoncello : So festive this time of year. This is the recipe of Antonietta Fazzone, the Italian mother of a friend of my husband, who also taught us how to make wine, prosciutto, and soppressata, to name a few. She’s the best. I like to drink limoncello with a little cream on top.
- Homemade Salad Dressing . Who wouldn’t love, this time of year especially, to receive a jar of homemade salad dressing? Make a batch of this Large Batch Shallot Vinaigrette , divide it among a few small jam jars, tie a ribbon around it, and wish your friends, “Happy Salading!”
- A big batch of Soup . As with the dressing above, who, especially this time of year, doesn’t need a quart of soup stashed in the fridge or freezer, ready to be heated up for an easy dinner or lunch? This lentil soup is still one of my absolute favorites. The recipe multiplies very well. The soup is always well received. It’s vegan, one pot, and completely delicious. More soups here.
You have a stash of these quart containers on hand, right? They make gifting soup so easy.
- Homemade Quince Paste (Membrillo) . If you can get your hands on some quince, this is a really fun one, though it does take some time (though much of the time is hands off). Gift your homemade quince paste with a wedge of Zamorano, Idiazabal, Roncal or Manchego (readily available nearly everywhere).
- Rhubarb Schnapps : Should you be so lucky to find some rhubarb this time of year, you could give the gift of future cheer. This schnapps recipe calls for soaking cut rhubarb in vodka in sugar for 3 to 4 weeks. No rhubarb? You could gift the bottles + vodka + sugar with the recipe—something to look forward to next spring?
In early December, I taught a holiday baking class at the Vischer Ferry General Store. We made three recipes and baked each in mini loaf pans, perfect for holiday gifting. Each of the three cakes — orange-ricotta pound cake , pumpkin bread , and coffee cake (more on this soon) — was whisked together in one bowl, and each used oil (as opposed to butter).
This got me thinking about my favorite cakes and how many of them are made with oil. And it made me wonder about the butter-cakes in my life and if they, too, could work well with oil? ( Chez Panisse Almond Torte —I’ve got my eye on you.) And it also made me wonder if my favorite oil-based cakes could be given the one-bowl treatment?
I get lazier and lazier.
The thing is, when cakes are leavened by baking soda or powder, as opposed to beaten whole eggs or whipped egg whites, not as much care needs to be taken with the mixing process: beat eggs, add wet ingredients, add dry ingredients, don’t over mix. Right? Let’s review:
The Case for Making (Winter) Cakes with Oil
- No need to wait for butter to soften . If you have a microwave, softening butter is likely no big deal. If you don’t, it’s a pain in the rear. This time of year, butter doesn’t soften quickly on the countertop, so other tricks must be employed.
- No need to beat butter. Many cake recipes call for beating butter till it’s light and fluffy. No such instruction is called for with oil-based cakes.
- Speed . Without having to soften butter or beat it, oil-based cakes come together very quickly.
- One-bowl potential . I have not tried the one-bowl method with all of my favorite oil-based cakes, but I have with a number of them— orange-ricotta , pumpkin , zucchini —and it works beautifully.
- Texture. This is a personal thing: I prefer (often) the texture of oil-based cakes.
- Longevity . In my experience, cakes made with oil keep longer, which is a boon this time of year, when anything that can be made ahead of time holds strong appeal. Often, too, the flavor of cakes made with oil improves over time.
I’ve rounded up 9 of my favorite oil-based cakes below. Do you have a favorite oil-based cake? Let me know if so. Happy Holiday Baking, Friends!
Holiday Baking at theVischer Ferry General Store
Orange and Olive Oil Cake : This was the cake that introduced me to olive oil-based cakes, and it is still one of my absolute favorites. So good this time of year.
Teddie’s Apple Cake: Another long-time favorite recipe.
- Pumpkin Bread : I’ve given this one the one-bowl treatment, and it works beautifully.
- One-Bowl Orange-Ricotta Pound Cake : The original recipe for this one calls for butter, and it’s delicious, but oil allows it to come together in a snap. This one’s flavored with Grand Marnier—so good.
- Geri’s Applesauce Yogurt Cake : A dear friend and neighbor made this for nearly every gathering she hosted. It’s super moist thanks to yogurt, applesauce and oil.
- Gourmet’s Double Chocolate Cake with Black Velvet Icing: One of my favorite chocolate cakes—this one’s got buttermilk, coffee, cocoa, and oil… so much goodness.
- Beatty’s Chocolate Cake —An Ina Garten recipe; another favorite chocolate cake made with coffee, cocoa, buttermilk, and oil. Unlike the cake above, this one uses cocoa powder exclusively.
- Zucchini Bread (Award Winning 🎉🎉🎉)
- Yotam Ottolenghi’s lemon-semolina cake : Here’s another one made with olive oil. The color is so pretty and the flavor and texture are lovely as well.
