Christmas Gift Recipes

Grandma's Christmas Gift Recipes Make Perfect Gifts

It appears to have been the custom formerly, in England, to make New Year's presents with oranges stuck full with cloves. We read in one of Ben Jonson's pieces, "The Christmas Masque": "He has an orange and rosemary, but not a clove to stick in it."

Christmas Gift Recipes

Shortbread From Aberdeen

This Scottish shortbread recipe makes delicious shortbreads for gift giving.

One pound flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/2 pound butter, 1/4 pound fruit sugar, 2 teaspoons finely shredded candied orange peel. Mix and beat well together the butter and sugar, add flour gradually, and salt, then orange peel. Knead well with the hands. Mold into rounds, 1 inch in thickness, and bake in a moderate oven until a golden brown, and well cooked. Decorate with mistletoe and holly by means of white of egg.

Candied Dried Apricots

Wash 2 cups dried apricots and boil in sufficient water to cover until tender, yet firm (about 15 minutes). Put into a colander or wire strainer to drain. Combine 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar and bring to a boil. Add the apricots and cook to 218ºF as registered on a candy thermometer, when the syrup sheets off the spoon like jelly. Skim out the fruit and place it upon a rack to drain and dry. If a rack is not available, stick a toothpick into each piece of fruit and place other end of toothpick into hole of inverted wire strainer. Sprinkle with sugar after drying, or roll in sugar when partly dried.

These apricots are delicious, and their preparation is extremely simple using this Christmas gift recipe. They can be presented in crinkled paper cups of red, yellow, blue, white, brown, and pink design. All placed in a copper bowl which gleams in the light of a Christmas candle.

Gingerbread Animals For The Children

This easy gingerbread cookie recipe is a wonderful Christmas gift recipe, and although its title says "for the children," adults like them too!

Beat 2 cups molasses and 1 cup softened butter in a bowl until well blended. Add 1 cup sour milk. Next stir in 1/4 cup hot water in which 1 level dessertspoon soda has been dissolved. Add the grated rind of a lemon, a level dessertspoon of ground cloves, ginger to taste, and enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll out and cut into shapes of animals. Sometimes tin cutters for this can be bought. Bake and frost with pink or white frosting.

Christmas Fondant Candy

Two cups granulated sugar, 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/2 cup water. Put sugar and cream of tartar into a perfectly smooth saucepan. Stir well and add water. Stir until well mixed and let stand a few minutes until the sugar melts. Put over a low fire and bring slowly to the boiling point. Watch carefully that sugar does not burn on the bottom of the pan.

Have a pan of cold water close to the pan of sirup. As crystals form on the sides of the pan wipe them off with a piece of cloth dipped in the pan of cold water. Dip frequently into the pan of cold water and swab a few crystals at a time. Continue this until the sides are clear.

Cover and let boil rapidly for two minutes. Remove cover and swab off crystals. Boil uncovered, until a few drops tried in a saucer of cold water form a soft ball when picked up with fingers. Remove instantly from the fire and put the pan into a larger pan of cold water. Let stand until cool and beat with a wooden spoon until creamy. When too stiff to stir, turn onto a large platter and knead until soft. Put into an oiled bowl, cover tightly and let stand twenty-four hours. Then flavor and use as wanted.

Neapolitan Mints

This Christmas gift recipe may be used with the fondant recipe above to make elegant, old-fashioned candies for gift giving.

Flavor and color fondant as liked, and drop into mint shapes, on heavy paraffin paper placed on a board. When firm, arrange in pairs, one row bottom side up and the other row top side up.

On the lower mint press with bag and tube a small circle of bitter chocolate melted over hot water and made a little heavier by the addition of a small amount of confectioners' sugar. Quickly place the top mint in position over the bottom one, pressing it slightly to show rim of chocolate between the two mints.

The popular fondant flavors are: Wintergreen, colored pink; peppermint, uncolored; lime, colored green; orange, colored yellow or orange; and cassia or cinnamon, deep red.

Icing may be substituted for chocolate.

Chocolate mints are put together with marshmallow paste, which if too soft to go through the bag and tube, is made firm enough by adding confectioners' sugar, and if too stiff may be thinned with simple syrup.

1 lb flour, 1/2 lb butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 teaspoon salt, molasses.

Mix flour, sugar, ginger, and salt. Work in butter, using tips of fingers, and add just enough molasses to hold ingredients together. Let stand overnight to get thoroughly chilled. Roll very thin, shape, and bake in a moderate oven.