For Coffee Lovers

The past few weeks, I’ve shared some edible Christmas gift ideas that you can make now to prepare for the holiday season. This week I am talking about treats that you can make yourself for coffee lovers. After this week, I'm going to switch topics a bit to talk about a made from scratch Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, I'll share a few more edible gift ideas and how to put it all together for a gift.

If you have a coffee lover on your list, or if you are a coffee lover yourself there are a lot of edible goodies that you can make to include in a gift package. You can make your own instant coffee mixes, flavor add ins, and treats like biscotti.

Instant coffee mixes involve only a few ingredients. Throw them in the blender and mix. Hillbilly Housewife has some of the best mix recipes I've tried. (There are hot chocolate and tea mixes too.) The Rich Vanilla Coffee Mix is my favorite.

Instant pudding is the secret to her coffee mixes. There is something in the pudding mix that helps the ingredients dissolve. I've tried other recipes without the pudding. They did taste good, but at the bottom of the cup there is a very unappetizing goo left from the ingredients that didn't dissolve.

For those who prefer a good cup of brewed coffee, you can make your own flavor ad ins. Last year I made Irish Cream. It was so good. I will be making it again.

Irish Cream
2 cans condensed milk
2 cans evaporated milk
2 1/2 C cream
12 oz milk chocolate
1 tsp instant coffee
Fifth of whiskey

Melt the chocolate with the condensed milk. Stir in the instant coffee while the mixture is still warm. Then allow it to cool. Mix together the remaining ingredients. Add the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix well. Store in bottles. Mix before filling each bottle. Store in the refrigerator. Shake before using.

I am also thinking about trying Coffee Liquer this year. The recipe was shared by Kathie at Women Not Dabbling in Normal. Of course you can also make non-alcoholic syrups. I have not tried these yet, but Slashfood has a couple of recipes in Make your own coffee syrup. Be sure to check the comments for several more recipes and ideas.

Another idea that will add flavor to coffee is to make chocolate spoons. Simply melt coating chocolate in the double boiler (or microwave, but be careful not to burn it.) Flavors can be added by mixing in a few drops of extracts. Dip spoons into the chocolate, coating about the bowl of the spoon, and place on wax paper to cool. These can also be decorated by drizzling white or colored chocolate over the coated spoon.

A sweet treat is always a nice addition to a cup of coffee. You could make cookies, muffins or other desserts to place in your gift package, but biscotti was made for coffee. It really is so easy to make too. I use a very basic recipe found at Allrecipes, Biscotti. This particular recipe calls for ainise. I substitute almond flavoring. After the biscotti is cooled it can be dipped or drizzled with chocolate too.

Hope this gives you some ideas for edible gifts for someone on your list. Or maybe just some ideas for frugal coffee treats for yourself!

Next week, Thanksgiving. Any recipe requests?

Coffee beans photo credit: DA photography