Edible Chrismas Gifts

I recently participated in an event called 'Recipe for Change', a campaign organised by 1 Million Women. It's about changing your lifestyle to reduce waste and pollution, save energy and save money. I'll do a post on it soon as I discovered some great ideas to live more sustainably which you can do too!

One of my suggestions was to make your own Christmas presents as this time of year can be very wasteful purchasing gifts, wrapping paper, decorations, food etc.

Here are two recipes of edible gifts you can make yourself without having to fight the crowds at the shopping centres, save money and recycle. I've been saving jars all year and have recycled them to make candles, marmalade, Dukkah and Granola.

There are many different versions of Dukkah, a very aromatic Egyptian spice blend, this is my take on it:

Egyptian Dukkah
2/3 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2 tbs coriander seeds
2 tbs cumin seeds
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp flaked sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Toast hazelnuts on a baking tray for about 15 mins, be careful not to burn.

2. Remove from oven and let cool, once cooled rub to remove as much skin as possible.

3. Place hazelnuts and pine nuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Transfer to a bowl.

4. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes. Add to bowl with nuts.

5. Fry coriander and cumin seeds in the same way as sesame seeds until aromatic. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and pound to a fine grind. Add to the rest of the mixture and combine. Transfer to jars using a funnel.

Dukkah can be served with olive oil and crusty bread or as a season for meat or vegetables.

Granola is fantastic with yoghurt and with all these nuts and seeds is pretty good for you. Thanks to my friend Bec for sharing this recipe with me:

Granola
2 cups rolled oats
5 cups puffed millet (this can be found in the health food section of the supermarket)
1 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup shredded coconut
1 1/4 cups maple syrup (good quality, not maple flavoured)
1/2 cup rice bran oil
1/2 cup water
1 tblsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg

1. Pre heat oven to 150°C and grease two baking trays

2. Combine, oats, puffed millet, almonds seeds and coconut in a large bowl.

3. Heat rice bran oil, maple syrup, water, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon in a saucepan until it boils, stirring constantly.

4. Pour over dry ingredients and mix.

5. Spread onto baking trays and cook in oven for 1 hour. You may need to swap trays and stir mixture intermittently depending on your oven.

6. Reduce temp to 140°C and continue cooking for another hour until golden.  Turn oven off and leave overnight in oven to dry out.

You can decorate jars with handmade gift tags. This is a very thoughtful gift that is kind to the environment.

Hope this inspires you to get creative this Christmas.x