Delicious gift-giving ideas this holiday season
Make it a holiday season to remember for the foodie in your life, with anything from a specialty gift box of local products to sweet treats like cocoa or tea bombs, cakesicles or even chocolate candy-filled gingerbread “smash” houses. Whether you’re looking for something to ship and be enjoyed later, or a centerpiece to be the hit of your next holiday party, there are all kinds of delicious gift-giving ideas this season.
Enjoy it later
Great for colleagues, teachers, neighbors or perhaps a friend at an upcoming Yankee Swap, gift boxes and baskets are the perfect ways to discover all kinds of locally made goodies. Jessica Moores of the Manchester Craft Market, Mall of New Hampshire (1500 S. Willow St.), recently organized an entire table setup inside the shop featuring bundled gifts from many of her sellers, from jams and jellies to cooking spices, soup kits, salsas, coffees and more.
In Bedford, head to the Educational Farm at Joppa Hill (174 Joppa Hill Road, theeducationalfarm.org), where they are selling specialty gift boxes in two sizes containing a variety of New Hampshire-made and other regional products. According to farm stand manager secretary Mandy Underwood, they can be ordered through Dec. 22 for pickup, and custom gift boxes can also be put together if you’d like a certain theme.
Other local businesses have gift boxes available to order directly on their websites to be shipped. Salem’s Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery (cucinaaurora.com) has a gift set of its infused olive oils, featuring 12-ounce bottles of its roasted garlic and rosemary oregano oils packaged with a free recipe booklet. Owner Dawn Hunt, who is the author of Kitchen Witchcraft for Beginners, her newest cookbook, released earlier this year, also offers a larger gift set that additionally comes with a wooden cooking spoon, a risotto mix, a garlic and herb dip mix and an herb and seasoning mix. Both also have the option of including a holiday card for your gift recipient.
For the spicy food lover, The Spicy Shark of Portsmouth (thespicyshark.com) has a gift box containing 5-ounce bottles of each of its six craft hot sauces — they vary in intensity, ranging from products made with jalapeno and chipotle peppers to habanero, Scotch bonnet and ghost peppers, as well as Carolina Reapers, which were recognized in 2017 by Guinness World Records as the hottest in the world. Smokin’ Tin Roof (smokintinroof.com), based in Manchester, similarly offers gift boxes containing bottles of its ghost pepper-based sauces, sometimes also accompanied by products like a bacon stout mustard and a Buffalo-style sauce. They even now sell mango habanero cotton candy in collaboration with Sillie Puffs (silliepuffs.com).
And speaking of sweets, there’s so much to discover for those looking to indulge. Fabrizia Lemon Baking Co. of Salem (fabrizialemonbakingcompany.com) is offering holiday gift boxes containing all kinds of limoncello-infused goodies added to its product line since its late 2020 launch, from limoncello cookies and biscotti to truffles, blondies, lemon loaf, hard candies and even lemon popcorn. They can be picked up at Fabrizia’s Salem facility (2 Industrial Way) or shipped nationwide with the option to write up a personalized holiday note at checkout.
For other sweet tastes that are uniquely New Hampshire, Ben’s Sugar Shack of Temple (bensmaplesyrup.com) has gift boxes of its maple syrup and other assorted maple-infused products, from maple cream and buttermilk pancake mix to gluten-free maple kettle corn and pure maple candy. Specialty candy stores like Van Otis Chocolates (vanotis.com) and Granite State Candy Shoppe (granitestatecandyshoppe.com) have gift boxes of their own, featuring items like assorted caramels, nuts, chocolate bars and Swiss fudge in several different flavors.
Enjoy it now
If you’re looking for a tasty hostess gift to share with other guests at a holiday party or gathering, local restaurants, caterers and other businesses have you covered. Tilton’s Twelve 31 Events, for instance, which also recently opened a cafe in downtown Concord (100 N. Main St.), is taking orders for its scratch-baked Italian Christmas cookies. They’re scheduled to be available for pickup and delivery starting Dec. 8 and right through Christmas Eve, Twelve 31 owner Melissa Dolpies said. Visit twelve31.events/christmascookies to order a dozen or more cookies — flavors include anisette, soft gingerbread, pistachio macaroons, dark chocolate espresso and snowballs, or traditional butter cookies that are rolled in powdered sugar.
“The typical dozen that people can get is an assortment of all of the cookies, but you can certainly mix and match or request one or two of whatever combination you’d like,” Dolpies said. “They come in a pretty little box, and they make great gifts. I’ve had people get them for employees, for teachers, for co-workers. They’re really appropriate for any kind of occasion.”
The Traveling Foodie (jmcateringllc.com), a food truck and catering company based at Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Merrimack, also has cookie gift trays and mixed cookie platters available on its holiday catering menu. Chef and owner Jamie Mandra said orders can be placed until Dec. 18 for a free delivery to the Nashua and Merrimack areas on Dec. 22. Options will include mixed sugar cookies and chocolate chip peanut butter kisses, or you can order brownies.
For some savory hostess gift ideas, check out the appetizer to-go kits being offered by Local Baskit (localbaskit.com) — featuring your choice of a set of miniature quiches with a goat cheese honey filo and cranberry dip, or dumplings and vegetable spring rolls with a sweet spicy soy sauce, each kit’s items are ready to pop right into the oven. This year, in addition to her custom charcuterie and cheese boards under her Grazing Baskits line, Local Baskit owner Beth Richards also has “Season’s Eatings” hostess gift packages, which come with a bottle of red or white wine, cheese and crostini — the prices for each package vary depending on your choices.
In Manchester, Loon Chocolate (loonchocolate.com) and 603 Charcuterie (603charcuterie.com) are gearing up for a two-day holiday market inside their facility at The Factory on Willow (252 Willow St.) on Saturday, Dec. 17, and Sunday, Dec. 18, when more than two dozen local vendors will be showcasing their products. In the meantime, you can visit their onsite joint shop every Thursday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., which offers a variety of New Hampshire-made cheeses, jams, crackers, mustards and other artisan foods. You can also buy locally built charcuterie boards — courtesy of Andy Pearl of Souhegan Wood Designs of Amherst — in all kinds of shapes, sizes and designs, or even gift a custom-made charcuterie board, gift basket or class certificate, Theresa Zwart of 603 Charcuterie said.
Explosive flavors
Cocoa bombs were all the rage during the 2020 holiday season and, two years later, are continuing to stick around. A trend that originally went viral on TikTok back in the fall of that year, these small hollow balls of chocolate are most often created using silicone molds, and are usually filled with miniature marshmallows or flavored mixes. Pouring hot milk or water over the bombs causes them to “explode” with flavor inside your mug.
For Lindsey Bangs of I Whisked It (iwhiskedit.com), a home baker based in Raymond, cocoa bombs are among her most popular seasonal items. Hers is among the participating businesses at The Factory on Willow’s holiday market, where she will be offering cocoa bombs in traditional, caramel and peppermint candy cane flavors. She’ll also be at New Hampshire Audubon’s Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 10, at the McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road, Concord).
In addition to her flavors Bangs has played around with different types of silicone molds for her cocoa bombs, from those in the shape of Christmas trees to reindeer- and ball-shaped ornaments.
“I have a lot of people who are buying [cocoa bombs] from me this year because last year they had it on Christmas Eve with their family, and their kids are asking for it again, or people need something for a Secret Santa gift or a Yankee Swap gift, and so they are getting the nicer boxes. … I have little plastic boxes that have bows on them that I can put them in,” Bangs said.
Pastry chef Emilee Viaud of Milford started her business, Sweet Treats by Emilee (find her on Facebook and Instagram), at the height of the cocoa bomb trend. She has since branched out to all kinds of cocoa bomb flavors and even recently started dabbling in tea bombs, which you can get at the Manchester Craft Market, as well as at Junction 71 (707 Milford Road, Merrimack) and Locally Handmade (80 Premium Outlets Blvd., Merrimack). Find Viaud also at Great New England Holiday Shopping Extravaganza on Friday, Dec. 9, and Sunday, Dec. 10, at the Hampshire Dome (50 Emerson Road, Milford).
Tea bombs, Viaud said, are essentially a cup of tea’s counterpart to a cocoa bomb. They feature a sugar sphere that’s filled with a tea bag, edible glitter and flowers. She has more than 10 flavors, ranging from passion tea and Earl Grey to green tea, chamomile and more.
Another item Viaud is featuring this year includes chocolate candy-filled “smash” houses — similar to the breakable chocolate hearts she sold during Valentine’s Day, you simply take a small wooden mallet that they come with to smash open the house, revealing candy inside.
Cakesicles, or fun takes on cake pops crafted in the shape of a popsicle mold, are also having a moment as popular treats. Brianna Miller, whose mother, Lisa Lucciano, owns The Cake Fairy in Hooksett, said it’s likely a nostalgic factor that makes them resonate with so many people.
“It reminds me personally of the bars you’d get off the ice cream trucks as little kids,” she said.
In addition to lemon, funfetti and chocolate peanut butter-dipped cakesicles, The Cake Fairy rolls out a special peppermint dust-flavored cakesicle around the holiday season.
Featured photo: Cocoa bombs from I Whisked It, based in Raymond. Courtesy photo.
