Consumable (and EASY) holiday gifts

First off, if I may give you a holiday gift, STOP READING as this will spoil the surprise.

I like to give consumable gifts to friends for a myriad of reasons, some of which are green and other of which are not. Mostly, homemade gifts are what I would like to get, they are easy to make in bulk, and they might be something the recipient would not make for themselves.

So this year, everyone is getting Beer Bread mix. It is surprisingly easy and so yummy! I have been making it for a few years now and my kids always jump for joy (figuratively, of course, they are too cool for actual jumping) when I make it.

It started with me getting the beer bread mix from Tastefully Simple. For those of you wondering what that is, Tastefully Simple is a home party-based business, like Tupperware, whose products are convenience food products.

Anyway, I thought, I should be able to make it myself. So I did some digging and found a great recipe that I LOVE.

Last chance - if you know me and might get this (kids' teachers, etc) STOP READING NOW.

The mix could not be easier. It is 3C self-rising flour and 3T sugar. That's it! I did not have self-rising flour, so the conversion for all-purpose flour is 1C AP flour + 1.5 t baking powder + .5t salt. Easy-peasy, as the Naked Chef would say. I put the mix in a quart jar with a nice label with directions, fancied it up a little, and called it a day!

When you want to bake it, you add 1 can beer (or a bottle or whatever - 12 oz) and stir it up. It is lumpy and that is OK as long as it is moist all over. Then bake it for an hour at 350F. You can add up to a stick of butter, melted, to the top during the last 15 minutes. The recipe I have says 1 stick, but I never use that much!