Homemade Christmas Gifts From My Kitchen to Yours!

[Music] good morning every everyone I am so happy to see you again Christmas is around the corner so today I thought it might be fun to make some homemade holiday gifts now these gifts could double as host or Hostess gifts too for instance if you're going to a cocktail party you might like to bring your host a stack of homade English muffins that's what we're going to make first and for the English muffins the first thing I need is one cup or 240 Ms of warm water and a half cup or 120 MLS of whole milk and I'm going to be doubling this recipe let me grab my water and my milk I I need to warm this to about 100° F or 40° C going to do that right in my microwave and we can pour the warm milk and water into a large bowl I should add that this recipe is on my website and I will link the recipe in the description below now I need some yeast 2 and 1/4 teaspoons although I am doubling this recipe so I'm adding more going to give the yeast mixture a quick whisk I know that my yeast is viable so I do not need to let it proof first the next ingredient is 2 and 1/2 cups or 340 G of all-purpose flour I'm adding more because I'm doubling the recipe and then we need salt 1 and 1/2 teaspoons for just one recipe double for a double recipe trade my whisk for a spurtle then I'm going to stir this mixture 100 times in in the same direction I don't know if you need to stir exactly 100 times or if you need to stir in the same direction but this is how I was taught to make English muffins and I know the recipe [Music] Works 97 98 99 100 making bread including English muffins by hand is always great exercise then I want to cover the batter with a damp towel and I'm going to set this in a warm location until the batter becomes very bubbly and about doubled in volume that's going to take from 90 minutes to 2 hours while the English muffin batter is rising going to clean up my workstation and then we can get cracking on another recipe the next recipe we are doing is organic cinnamon Maple granola this is my own recipe and I am going to use all of the ingredients save for one that are in this gift basket from Tiara Farm this is the Kevin Lee Jacobs make your own granola gift basket and I know many of you have already purchased this basket thank you so much but I thought you might like to watch me actually make the granola I can put more information about this Basket in the description box below if you are interested I always buy my granola ingredients from Tiara Farm because everything is organic and fair trade and the quality is superb so I need my oats unsweetened coconut hazelnuts pumpkin seeds coconut oil maple syrup organic ground cinnamon and organic very berry mix the one ingredient in that gift basket that I'm not using for the granola is the Kevin Lee Jacobs blend of Fair Trade coffee this is incredibly delicious coffee but we don't need it in our granola mix all of these bags are compostable four cups of rolled oats [Music] I've decided to double this recipe because granola makes a fantastic gift I just I put it into jars and gift them to [Applause] friends now I need one cup or actually two cups of the unsweetened shredded [Music] coconut hazelnuts or you could use sliced almonds [Music] here now the recipe comes with that gift bag I also have the recipe on my website so I will link it in the description below I need one cup of pumpkin seeds or two cups since I'm doubling the [Music] recipe going to give everything a quick [Music] stir then I need 34 cup of coconut oil I need to melt this in the [Music] microwave I added 1 and 1/2 cups of the coconut oil because again I'm doubling the recipe and I'm glad I'm doubling the recipe because homemade granola does not last long in my house we really love it 1/3 cup or 2/3 if you were doubling the recipe a pure maple syrup 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or 3 teaspoons if you were doubling the [Music] recipe and a half teaspoon of salt or one whole teaspoon for me I will add the dried fruit from The Very Berry mix after this is baked in the oven speaking of which my oven is preheating to 325° F or 170° C this smells wonderful already and we haven't even baked it now we can divide this among two baking [Music] sheets when my oven finishes preheating I'm going to pop these baking trays into the oven and I will let the granola bake until it turns golden brown that's going to take from 40 to 45 minutes possibly a little longer than that while we wait I'm going to steal one of these hazel nuts [Music] yum and while the granola is roasting let's have a look at our English muffin batter oops I would say this has doubled in volume and it is turning nice and bubbly so now I'm going to deflate this dough look at how the gluten has developed in here now normally at this point I dissolve some salt in some warm water and then I add it to the batter and then I stir in One Direction 25 times but today I decided to add the salt initially so no need to add it now but I am stirring just to deflate the batter and then I'm going to cover this again with a towel and let it become bubbly once again that will take probably 30 minutes and the reason we're doing this this way is to develop some flavor as fate would have it our English muffin batter and our granola are both ready at the same [Music] time I need to pour the granola into a bowl so that it can cool [Music] we can set this aside to let it cool for about 1 hour and here is our English muffin batter I wish I had used a larger Bowl since I doubled the recipe this one is almost ready to Billow over the sides but I want you to have a close look at this it is very much active very much alive [Music] going to set this aside for a moment and I like to bake my English muffins in an electric skillet although you could certainly use any Skillet just set it over medium low heat I'm going to heat my electric skillet to 300° F and here are my English muffin Rings these Measure 3 in in in diameter and they are 1 in deep I can link them in the description below if you are in the market for English muffin Rings all of the bubbles in the English muffin batter will turn into the nooks and crannies that we want in our English muffins It's nook and cranny Nirvana I need to grease my English muffin rings and then the goal is to fill the Rings only about half full then I cover the skillet and and let the English muffins cook until their tops appear dry that will take 8 to 9 minutes it's very easy to overfill the muffin rings I certainly overfilled mine on the first batch These are nice and golden brown on the underside once again cover the skillet to cook the other side that's going to take 4 to 5 minutes so I guess we are doing big batch baking today since I doubled the recipe for the English muffins and also for the granola we still have some cookies to make I will try not to overfill this next batch I'm going to split one of these English muffins a little later so that I can show you the nooks and crannies inside and then we might toast that muffin and enjoy it with I don't know tea or coffee and I know I'm going to give six of these to my friends Victoria and Alburn later [Music] today our English muffins are made our granola is made and and the Granola has been cooling for about 1 hour so now all I have to do is stir in some dried fruit and this is the dried fruit that comes in the klj gift basket everything is is organic in here it's raisins blueberries cranberries Goji berries mulberries and golden berries it's very colorful it's What's called the very very mix I really need six cups of berries for this double batch or just three cups which I think is what is in this bag for a regular recipe but I have some extra dried blueberries from Tiara farm that I bought the other week so we can go ahead and add those these are wild blueberries this looks very colorful I think it will be great for giftgiving now all I have to do is pack this into jars but we will do that at the end of this video right now I want to get cracking on some Ginger Snap cookies I think you have seen me make Ginger Snap cookies before but we need to make them again because they are a terrific gift they're great for Hostess gifts host gifts Christmas presents I've already measured out most of the ingredients so all I have to do is weigh the flour so I need 1 and 2/3 cups or about 240 G of allpurpose flour and to the flour we need a half teaspoon of baking soda a half teaspoon of salt 2 and 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger because these are Ginger Snaps this a brand new jar of Ginger I I always take off the little Shaker cap cuz I like to measure a half teaspoon of ground cinnamon that ginger smells terrific and a/4 teaspoon of ground cloves whiskey whiskey just to mix all of these dry ingredients and for the wet ingredients I need a/2 cup or3 G of melted butter my butter is obviously not melted so I'm going to melt it in the microwave here's my melted butter and I'm putting this in a large is Bowl then I need a half cup or 100 G of regular granulated sugar and a/4 cup or about 50 g of packed dark brown sugar now we can beat these ingredients with a spatula or a spurtle I think these spurtles make terrific holiday gifts they're not expensive and I know I get a lot of use out of them and I know that some of you have purchased spurtles you said you love them too and I can link the ones that I bought in the description below if you are interested next we need a half teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and speaking of vanilla extract this too makes a great holiday or anytime gift it's a wonderful host or Hostess gift if your host or Hostess likes to bake you and I made a lot of pure vanilla extract together a few months back and later in this video I will show you what that extract looks like today then we need two tablespoons of unsulfured molasses [Music] [Music] then I need the yolk from one large egg beet that in and 2 tbspoon of whole milk this may not be the easiest cookie recipe in the world but it is certainly one of the easiest now we can add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and I will stir this just until a soft dough develops let me clear the decks here and then we can form the cookies this cookie dough freezes perfectly well so I sometimes form the cookies and then I roll them in sugar and then I freeze them and bake them off I'm in the mood for ginger snaps which quite frankly is most of the time quite frankly it is all of the time I'm using a 1in diameter scoop here cookie Scoops also make terrific holiday or host gifts before we form any more cookies I want to roll these and pop them into bag of sugar you don't have to put the dough into sugar but you'll be very happy if you do you can toss four or five of them at a time when I was a kid my mother routinely made Myriad sugar cookies around Christmas time that she would bake in all kinds of different shapes like candy cane shapes and whatnot and then she would decorate them to the nines with different colors of royal icing that she made was a lot lot of work these cookies are so easy to make and they are just as delicious I'm going to make two trays of the these cookies but I may only bake one of them off today so my oven has preheated to 315° F which is 160° C this tray is for the oven this tray is for the freezer and into the oven they go 18 minutes for cookies that are crisp at the edge 20 minutes for ginger snaps that are crispy throughout while the Ginger Snaps are baking I wanted to show you the eight bottles of pure vanilla extract that you and I made together in a video in September these should be ready for gift giving now because the beans have been seeping in their vodka all this time and let me explain how I made the extract pure vanilla extract is very easy to make I take Madagascar vanilla beans and split them down the middle to expose The Fragrant seeds within then I put five beans in each glass jar and fill the jar to its top with inexpensive vodka the extract is ready to use in about 3 months and now I want to open one of these bottles as I have not smelled this at all oh it is absolutely wonderful you cannot beat homemade vanilla and it is such a delightful thing to give as a gift really any time of the year to a friend or a loved one who likes to bake and the bottles I bought which I can link below came with these black labels and this white marker so let's see I'm going to give one of these bottles to my friend Paul because I know he likes to bake [Music] and there we have it a holiday or host gift all ready to go now if you are going to make vanilla extract right now which is during the holiday season you might want to write on the label the date you made the vanilla extract and the date that the extract will be mature enough to use which would be 3 months from now and our cookies are done I gave them 18 minutes these smell incredible I'm going to let them cool for about 5 minutes and then I will transfer them to the cooling rack while the cookies are cooling I'm going to jar up some of the granola so I know I'm going to give a jar of this homemade granola to my friend Tessa I meet her most mornings at the dog park her dog whose name is Caper and my dog Avery love to play together [Music] when granola is sealed in an airtight container it can last for weeks at room temperature otherwise I would vacuum seal it for longer storage so this is a leak proof lid and I buy these Lids by the box I use them all the time they fit on all Mason and ball jars so this is Tessa homemade granola I don't think there's room on this card to write homemade cinnamon Maple granola so just homemade granola hugs Kevin [Music] there we are a tag tied with a red ribbon and of course you could always slap a bow on the top and of course I will jar up the remaining granola some I will keep for myself and some I will give away I'm going to give a stack of six English muffins to my friends Victoria and [Applause] Albin and on this card I'm going to write to Vicky and Albin or to V and a save room fresh from my kitchen English muffins love Kevin I don't know to whom I'm going to give these cookies so while I think about it let me eat one crispy on the outside tender on the inside after 18 minutes in the oven and loaded with great Flav flavor from the molasses and the cinnamon and the ginger and the cloves truly spectacular cookies I'd be happy to receive them earlier I told you that we would split one of these English muffins toast it and taste it so let's do that right now and when I split the muffins I like to use a fork Rob than a knife with the fork you preserve all of those wonderful nooks and crannies as I said nook and cranny Nirvana I'm going to toast this muffin in my little toaster oven over here and while we wait for that to happen let's go light a fire [Music] I'm also going to brew some coffee and here is our toasted English muffin with some butter then I want to add some of the strawberry jam that you and I made together back in [Music] June into the [Music] Parlor we had a nice big batch baking day today and frankly I need this little coffee break here's the English muffin these homemade English muffins are so yeasty and fresh tasting and again filled with nooks and crannies they are nothing like store-bought English muffins I hope you will give them a try I should probably mention that this arrangement of roses and greens and winter berri I think this is Winterberry was a gift from my friend Margarita she's a flower arranger and she made this for my recent birthday I just love it and there are little ornaments in the glass beneath the arrangement thank you for hanging out with me today as we made these ginger snaps and this pure vanilla extract which truly is amazing and we made a huge batch of granola plus the English muffins I'm going to give this package of English muffins to my friends Victoria and Albin later this evening I think any of these baked goods or this vanilla extract would make a fine fine holiday or host or Hostess gift especially when they are made with love again thank you for spending time with me today and if you enjoyed today's episode I hope you will subscribe and be sure to tap the little bell icon to receive notifications every time I upload a new video in the next episode we are going to make some holiday cocktail appetizers and I hope you will watch until then please treat yourself well and I will see you in the next episode bye friends [Music]