DIY gifts for sweet and spicy holidays.
Let creativity flow with holiday parties that result in versatile food gifts.
During the winter holidays, there’s an instinct for friends and family to gather close, like chickens in a henhouse. Cooking together is one of the best ways for a group to bond, and you can check off two common holiday goals — party hosting and gift making — with a DIY food gift party.
Choose a food or drink “project” and invite friends over to craft it together. As the host, you provide the space and something to drink and snack on; your friends can contribute some of the ingredients so that you have plenty of materials, in a range of flavors, to work with. Guests will leave with an array of hand-crafted gifts, ready to distribute to their wider circle of friends or family.
We’ve come up with three gift party plans, each with a different appeal. Each plan offers suggestions for flavor combinations so that a single party could produce countless iterations of the simple base recipe. Note that each recipe produces a single batch that you can double, triple or quadruple, depending on your crowd.
A group of families could get together to make chocolate bark — those flat wedges of tempered chocolate sprinkled with colorful toppings like candied citrus, freshly roasted nuts or crushed candies. The homemade version tastes and looks so much better than the commercial kind, and if everyone brings a pound of chocolate and one or two fillings, you can mix and match for customizable treats that will last through the holidays.
Creating cocktail bitters, on the other hand, is a DIY party for the 21+ crowd. Channel your inner mixologist — or mad scientist — by infusing high-proof spirits with an array of spices, herbs, citrus and other aromatics for homemade creations. Just a drop or two of bitters in a cocktail can add subtle complexity and balance to your booze. With flavors ranging from coffee-vanilla to grapefruit-rosemary, they class up a home bar.
Making bitters is essentially like making tea, yet making hot sauce is possibly even simpler. At the core, it’s just two ingredients — chiles and vinegar — and in many cases barely requires any cooking. Because of its simplicity, however, it’s the perfect base for experimentation, whether by changing up the types of chile peppers you use, or throwing in extra flavors, like garlic, herbs or even fruit.
The three DIY party plans point out specialty tools you will need, but also be sure to double check that you have enough pans and cutting boards to create multiple batches at a time. Also, have plenty of containers and bottles for guests to bring home their creations. You may even want to designate the artist of the group as the official label-maker or gift-wrapper.
We’ve even offered suggestions for what to serve your crafters as they toil away. And if you don’t have the bandwidth to host a party this season, you can always choose a DIY project to make solo. The gifts will be appreciated no matter what.