Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark
Melt chocolate, spread it out, and add your favorite toppings—that’s almost all there is to making bark. We added one important step, though: tempering the chocolate so the bark stays shiny and snappy.
Recipe: Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark
White Chocolate, Pistachio, and Apricot Bark
This bark recipes uses white chocolate, roasted salted shelled pistachios, dried cranberries, and chopped dried apricots.
Nutella Bark
Create a Nutella layer with white chocolate, topping with chopped hazelnuts.
Recipe: Nutella Bark
Caramel Bourbon Sauce
Your lucky gift recipients will be sampling spoonfuls of this sauce long before it hits the ice cream. The combination of deeply caramelized sugar plus cream, salt, vanilla, and a little booze is that good. (And unlike versions that contain butter, this one, made only with cream, stays pourable right from the fridge.) If you prefer, the sauce is also great without the bourbon.
Recipe: Caramel Bourbon Sauce
Sheet Pan Scottish Shortbread
There is shortbread, and then there’s this shortbread, ultra-buttery with a light crunch. The secrets are rice flour for the sandy texture and a slow-and-low baking process to develop the flavor. It’s a recipe that lends itself to easy, festive riffing (sprinkles! snowflakes!)—and one you’ll be happy to have in your back pocket for years.
Recipe: Sheet Pan Scottish Shortbread
Sprinkle-Top Shortbread Bites
Add colorful sprinkles to this batch of shortbread, and cut them into 1-in. squares to create these little bites.
Recipe: Sprinkle-Top Shortbread Bites
Shortbread Messages
Carefully cut hot shortbread with 2 1/2- to 3-in. chunky letter-shaped cookie cutters (we used 3-in. Ann Clark alphabet cookie cutters) to spell holiday messages such as fa la la, joy, or the initials of recipients.
Recipe: Shortbread Messages
Speculaas Snowflakes
With brown sugar, cloves, and a Nordic Ware snowflake shortbread pan, these little snowflake squares look almost too good to eat.
Recipe: Speculaas Snowflakes
Blenheim Apricot Liqueur
Be sure to get California-grown apricots, especially the Blenheim variety, which are head and shoulders above imported for flavor and color.
Recipe: Blenheim Apricot Liqueur
Chocolate-Dipped Apricots
A homemade dried-apricot liqueur infused in the dipping chocolate makes this an extra-special treat.
Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Apricots
Fruit Jellies
As joyful as the candies from childhood, this version explodes with fresh-from-the-tree flavor.
Recipe: Fruit Jellies
Candied Citrus Peels
Recipients can use these peels in all kinds of ways—in baked goods, on cheese plates—but odds are, they’ll eat them straight from the box.
Recipe: Candied Citrus Peels
Citrus-Infused Vodka, Gin, and Tequila
It’s almost too easy, given how good it tastes: Add zest to alcohol. Wait a week. Give.
Recipes:
Citrus Salt
Two ingredients—and about 15 minutes of your time—are all you need to make this zesty gift for your favorite cooks.
Recipe: Citrus Salt
Orange Bitters
It’s the holiday season, in a bottle: This sweet, spicy cocktail ingredient of the moment is as fun to make as it is to drink.
Recipe: Orange Bitters
Salted Chocolate-Pecan Toffee
Fill a gift tin with extra-crisp toffee with a tongue-tingling spark of salt.
Recipe: Salted Chocolate-Pecan Toffee
Savory Spiced Shortbreads
These buttery, curry-flavored shortbreads are perfect with cocktails ― particularly those made with whiskey, bourbon, or rye.
Recipe: Savory Spiced Shortbreads
Rosemary Limoncello
Italy's Amalfi Coast and adjoining Sorrento Peninsula are the regions most famous for this intensely lemony liqueur, traditionally served ice cold as an after-dinner drink. We've added a subtle note of rosemary.
Recipe: Rosemary Limoncello
Peppermint Layer Cookies
This tri-color cookies are fun, festive, and pleasingly old-fashioned.
Recipe: Peppermint Layer Cookies
Sweet-Hot Spiced Pecans
Fill a tin or pretty bag with crisp, lightly browned nuts tossed in sugar, cinnamon, and a touch of cayenne, allspice, and coriander.
Let the recipe itself serve as the perfect wrapping.
Recipe: Sweet-Hot Spiced Pecans
Quick bread in a bottle
Cool weather puts us in the mood to bake. So why not give a friend a head start? Layer the dry ingredients for this easy quick bread into a milk bottle or 1-quart mason jar.
Classic Cocoa
Layer the ingredients in a jar, add a ribbon and a tag, and you have a simple but stylish gift.
Our mixes will fill 1-quart jars (12 servings), but if your containers are different sizes, just keep the ratio of ingredients constant. On the back of the tag, write: "Mix contents in a large bowl. For each serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mix in a mug and stir in 1 cup boiling water. Store remaining mix in airtight container."
Recipe: Classic Cocoa
Mexican Cocoa
Make this version with cinnamon, brown sugar, and Mexican chocolate. Garnish the jar with whole cinnamon sticks.
Recipe: Mexican Cocoa
Peppermint Stick Cocoa
Top this version with a layer of crushed holiday candy and mini chocolate chips.
Recipe: Peppermint Stick Cocoa