2 Quick, Easy and delicious neighbor gifts

Can you believe it's just over a few days until Christmas? It's probably because I just started shopping a few days ago, so the thought of adding something like neighbor gifts is sometimes daunting. We have awesome neighbors and friends. It's nice to show them how much we appreciate them.

I like to give gifts that don't have to be eaten right away. Both the ideas I shared on Good Things Utah last week are quick, easy, delicious and the supplies are readily available. They are also gluten free!

(Be sure to be aware of the dietary needs of your friends and have an alternate gift or two available)

Link to Good Things Utah segment

I have seen a few versions of hot chocolate mason jar gifts. Most of them use a homemade hot cocoa mix. Our family loves the Stephen's Peppermint Hot Chocolate Mix so we decided to go in that direction. Costco stores around here sell a large 4 lb. container for about $8.

Then we added chocolate chips! Yep, we just bumped up the chocolate to maximum deliciousness levels.

(I had an awesome taste tester. He's a hot chocolate aficionado!)

We began by testing out the ratio of water to mix and chocolate chips. The Stephens Peppermint Hot Chocolate recipe says to add 3 1/2 heaping Tablespoons to 3/4 cup water.We figured out that 3 1/2 heaping tablespoons is equal to 1/3 cup.

We added the mix to a half-pint jar and figured out that 1/4 cups of chocolate chips looked good in the jar. When we mixed 1/3 cup peppermint hot chocolate mix, 1/4 cup chocolate chips to 3/4 cups water as suggested. It was delicious, but too rich for our taste.

Too bad for us, we had to try again!

Next we mixed 1/3 cup peppermint hot chocolate, 1/4 cup chocolate chips to 1 cup water. It was delicious and was just rich enough, without being too rich.

Then we tried mixing both milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips and we had a WINNER!

(Half-pint proportions)

(Doesn't it look delicious?)

To add some festive garnish, we added peppermint marshmallows, smashed candy canes and sprinkles.

(1 package candy canes, unwrapped and smashed. I like larger chunks.)

(Tip: My favorite place to buy sprinkles is Home Goods. $2.95 a bottle!)

We then figured out if the proportions worked for pint and quart sizes. We found the following proportions worked best:


	Half-Pint Jar (Serves 1)	Pint Jar (Serves 3)	Quart Jar (Serves 6)
Hot Chocolate Mix	1/3 cup	1 cup	2 cups
Chocolate Chips	1/4 cup	3/4 cup (handful)	1 1/2 cup (larger handful)
Marshmallows	single layer	double layer	triple layer
Crushed Candy Canes	handful	handful	handful
Sprinkles, optional	garnish	garnish	garnish

(Our favorite method to mix hot chocolate: immersion blender.)

Instructions: Warm 1 cup of water per serving on the stove, remove marshmallows, candy canes and sprinkles, add mix and chocolate chips to warm water, use whisk or immersion blender (our preferred method) to mix. Separate into hot chocolate cups, add marshmallows and sprinkles.

Supplies: