Homemade Christmas gifts

Truffles are a perfect Christmas gift. These ones combine delicious, flavnonoid-packed raw organic cacao powder with lovely, creamy organic coconut milk to create something dark, smooth and luscious. There’s a sprinkling of pretty pink Himalayan salt mixed with dates and wonderful unrefined, caramelly organic coconut sugar to create a lip-smacking salty-sweetness that’s a real wonder to behold!

The perfect gift for vegan friends, these fantastic cookies are made with Orgran’s Natural Egg Replacer to keep animal involvement out of it! The mixture of the virgin coconut oil and the vegan chocolate makes them wonderfully creamy and moreish, while the crunchy chunks of Brazil nuts are full of health benefits like having excellent anti-inflammatory properties, being packed with selenium and boosting the functioning of your heart and brain.

Bark, the herald angels sing! And so they should: this gift is certainly worth singing about. It’s surprisingly easy to make, and produces results that look absolutely fabulous. It’s a fantastic recipe for the kids to pitch in with (under supervision), and contains no refined sugar at all, as it’s sweetened with organic coconut blossom nectar syrup. The real beauty of it is that once you’ve put together the chocolate element, you can add pretty much whatever other ingredients you like. Here, we’ve used almonds, cashews, freeze-dried apple cubes, freeze-dried plum pieces and Christmas-friendly cranberries, but you could make it more exotic by adding mango and pomegranate, or go down the Olde English route by adding delicious black mulberries and pear pieces – or maybe add some spice and crunch with crystallised ginger and puffed rice!

This is one of the most simple recipes we know, and there are only a few ingredients – but the results look like something you’d find in the finest chocolatier! We’ve made these using organic Brazil nuts coated in rather special 80% single origin dark chocolate made by Chocolate and Love with Panamanian cocoa, which has a deep, complex, fruity flavour. They are then brushed with melted creamy vanilla rice milk chocolate made by one of our very favourite vegan chocolate producers iChoc. A dusting of fine pink Himalayan salt makes these awesome delicacies sweet, salty, dark, creamy, crunchy and full of flavour all in the same bite!

Here’s a treat which releases wave after wave of pleasure in your brain as soon as you put one in your mouth – a dense, gooey, sticky, chewy, sweet’n’salty joy which will have your neurons exploding in ecstasy like fireworks! It’s the condensed coconut milk which gives these squares of bliss their heavenly texture, and the deep, resonant sweetness of the delicious maple syrup mixed with the crunchy saltiness of the gluten-free pretzels make this recipe such an instant free-from classic that it’ll be tricky to actually give any away at all!

These lip-smacking chocolates look like they came straight out of a fancy selection box – so much so that it’ll be hard convincing your loved ones you actually made them yourself! These bite-sized, chocolatey pieces of wondrousness are a sinch to make, and are sure to delight anyone who receives them. And, of course, the recipe can be adapted to include whatever fillings you like – why not try it with this super-delicious coconut butterscotch or this deeply-flavoured organic roasted hazelnut butter? Or you could try a tropical taste with Biona’s delicious Coconut Bliss, or even go down a more fruity road with some refined sugar-free black cherry fruit spread.

Ginger is one of the flavours most closely associated with Christmas. Whether in its powdered spice form or crystallised in chunks, it’s a warming, cosy flavour which not only delights the taste buds but also, evidence suggests, can help fight migraines, osteoarthritis, muscle pain and even menstrual cramps very effectively. These traditional biscuity treats bring a smile to the heart, and with some proficient decorating skills can very easily be customised to represent angels, shepherds, wise men, Santa and other characters from the Christmas story.

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without cake! And this fantastic example is a must-bake for anyone who wants to avoid making one with gluten, cane sugar and dairy but doesn’t want to miss out on that wonderful mix of dried fruit and nuts that we associate so strongly with the festive end to our year. The addition of tofu stops the texture from being too dense, and the whole orange provides a lovely, zingy fruitiness. It’s full of the Yuletide flavours of ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, and given as a gift in a nice fancy tin will prove to the recipient how special they really are.

Nearly everyone loves nuts at Christmas time. Unfortunately, people also go a little nuts, especially when it comes to calories! Estimates differ widely, but it’s thought the average person in the UK eats up to a whopping 8,000 calories on Christmas Day, when the amount needed by the average adult is less than a third of that figure. Luckily, although chocolate is often associated with weight gain, its main constituent cacao (or cocoa) contains polyphenols, flavanols, and catechins, which work together to promote fat burning, feelings of fullness and the regulation of our metabolism, which may all lead us to actually reduce the calories we take in, as well as dealing more swiftly with them. That aside, these beautiful truffles taste astounding, look lovely, and have a whole hazelnut in the middle of each one – a stunning gift for choc’n’nut lovers!

Here’s a splendid idea for the ultimate fruit and nut delicacy – colourful, nutritious truffles with no ‘choc’ element at all. These delicious treats are made with creamy, heart-healthy organic ground almonds and bright, tangy freeze-dried raspberry powder. So as well as getting a boost from all the health benefits of almonds, you’re also benefitting from all the magical nutrition found in berries. A little gift bag of these colourful, tasty baubles is bound to brighten up anyone’s Christmas!

Here’s a gift that’s almost as fun to make as it is to pull apart and eat! It’s a wonderful recipe for kids to help with too – anyone who’s a fan of Lego should be up for constructing a gingerbread house, and it’ll make a fantastic centrepiece for any Christmas spread.

We’ve used unrefined organic coconut sugar to give an extra-treacly sweetness that combines fantastically with the blackstrap molasses, which is an awesomely healthy ingredient.

If you wanted, you could easily customise this house for a more Christmassy feel by turning it into Santa’s Grotto, or even the nativity stable!

Whatever gifts you’re giving this Christmas, come and peruse our excellent range of quality ingredients and Christmas products here!

[1]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30658187/