Gifts for Coffee Lovers

Gifts for Coffee Lovers
By Kim Tilley

Have a friend or relative who is hard to shop for but loves coffee? Give them a gift basket full of goodies that will keep them happy for months. If they don’t like coffee, substitute tea or hot chocolate. Here are some inexpensive ideas and recipes for a Coffee Lover’s Gift Basket.

The Basket
Find these at yard sales or thrift shops (or recycle your own). You can spray paint them and/or spruce them up with ribbons, paint pens, fabric paints, or rubber stamps.

Customized Mugs
You can now get mugs at craft stores that are designed so you can insert cross stitched or printed decorations underneath the outside plastic covering. The result is a customized mug that looks laminated. You can also paint old mugs with Delta Ceramcoat paints. Delta also makes easy rub-on designs if you want something nice, but are not artistic. Paint pens are another option. Go wild!

Coffees
I’ve tried the cheap, homemade mixes and I don’t like any of them. They all call for instant coffee granules and come out tasting terrible. Instead, I like to buy small samples of various kinds of coffee. Put 2 or 3 in each basket. Or, put in regular coffee and add a nice creamer. You can also substitute hot chocolate for coffee. If you are dividing up loose coffee or creamer, make it look festive by putting in a decorated brown bag or wrap in colored plastic wrap, tie off with ribbon and set inside the coffee mug. Those cheap Ziploc plastic food containers work well too.

Flavored Coffee Stirs
Make some delicious, flavored coffee stirs (recipe below) to go in your basket. If you don’t have the time to make them, why not use those old-fashioned stick candies that you see in gift shops? They come in a variety of flavors, including butter rum, berry, and other interesting flavors. Just remember that some flavors don’t go too well with coffee- such as blueberry or green apple. However, these flavors would go great with tea. Peppermint sticks would go great with hot chocolate.

Coffeehouse Spoons

6 ounces semisweet chocolate pieces
4 ounces milk chocolate pieces (or white, mint, etc. chocolate) flavorings of your choice (extracts, such as rum, almond, mint, etc, or spices such as cinnamon)
20 plastic spoons

1. Place a piece of waxed paper on a cookie sheet large enough to hold 20 to 24 of your plastic spoons. Place semisweet chocolate pieces in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate begins to melt.

2. Immediately remove from heat; stir until smooth. Dip spoons into chocolate, tapping the handle of the spoon against the side of the pan to remove excess chocolate. Place spoons on waxed paper; refrigerate for 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.

3. Place milk chocolate (or chocolate of your choice) in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until chocolate begins to melt.

4. Immediately remove from heat; stir until smooth. Place the melted chocolate in a small, heavy self-sealing bag. Using scissors, make a small cut in the corner of the bag; drizzle on or both sides of the covered spoons, making a decorative pattern. (Small dots, zigzag lines, circles, etc.) Note: The above 2 steps can be reversed if you like! Get 6 ozs. of white chocolate to cover the spoons and 4 ozs. of chocolate of your choice to use to decorate the spoons. Also, don’t rule out various flavored chips- raspberry, butterscotch, etc.

5. Refrigerate spoons for 30 minutes to allow chocolate to set. Wrap each spoon separately in clear or colored plastic wrap. Use ribbon to tie off plastic wrap. Store in a cool dry place until ready to give as gifts.

6. Place chocolate covered spoons in a new coffee mug and give along with other homemade goodies.

Biscotti

To cap off a wonderful gift basket, make some biscotti in various flavors! You can really make it look fancy by dipping part of the biscotti slices in melted chocolate, just like the coffee houses do. You can make wonder flavors that blend well with the flavor of the coffee. Whatever you do, these Italian dunking sticks are a wonderful treat!

Note: You’ll notice that most of the steps are the same, making it very easy to make batches of various flavored biscotti all at the same time.

Cappucino Biscotti

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 egg white
Vegetable cooking spray

1. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine coffee granules and hot water in a small bowl. Stir in vanilla and next 2 ingredients, and add to flour mixture, stirring until well blended.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Shape dough into a 16-inch long roll. Place roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and flatten roll to 1-inch thickness.

3. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the roll from the baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the roll diagonally into 30 (1/2-inch) slices. Place, cut sides down on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 more minutes.

4. Turn cookies over and bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in the center but will harden as they cool). Remove cookies from the baking sheet and let cool completely. Yields 2 ½ dozen.

Note: Biscotti looks beautiful fanned out in baskets or wrapped in plastic wrap and tied off with ribbon.

Almond Biscotti

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
½ cup slivered almonds, chopped and toasted
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 egg white
Vegetable cooking spray

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine vanilla and next 3 ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring until well blended (dough will be dry).

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the roll from the baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the roll diagonally into 30 (1/2-inch) slices. Place, cut sides down on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 more minutes.

Gingered White Chocolate Biscotti

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger (found in spice section of grocery store)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 (4 oz) bar premium white chocolate, finely chopped (about ¾ cup- you could also use white almond bark)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 egg white
Vegetable cooking spray

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the vanilla and next 2 ingredients, and add to the flour mixture. Stir until well blended (dough will be dry).

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the roll from the baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the roll diagonally into 24 (1/2-inch) slices. Place, cut sides down on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 more minutes.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup semisweet chocolate mini morsels
1/3 cup sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white Vegetable cooking spray

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine water and next 3 ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring until well blended (dough will be dry)

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the roll from the baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the roll diagonally into 24 (1/2-inch) slices. Place, cut sides down on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 more minutes.

Kim Tilley is the mother of three boys, ages 9,6 and 2. She is also a tightwad at heart. Her interests include cooking, crafts, gardening, computers, and saving money! When not typing away at the computer, she entertains herself by chasing kids and finding ways to create something out of nothing! Visit Kim's website at
http://frugal-moms.com