Mark Hix: Shows you how to make edible gifts

And they taste all the sweeter if you get the children to help out, says Mark Hi

I don't want to press the panic button, but Christmas will be upon us before you can say Santa. As well as getting ahead with the cooking, I'm a great believer in making edible gifts, and it's certainly something to get out of the way before the real panic sets in nearer C-Day. If you devote a little time to binge cooking from now on - Stir Up Sunday, on the last weekend of November, was traditionally when puddings were made - you can make the whole process really enjoyable. You'll do away with the need to rush round the shops buying pointless presents no one really wants, and you can make preparations a family event and offload some of the work. I'm all for a bit of child labour - in the comfort of home.

I've chosen an alternative to the traditional Christmas cake; black bun is a Scottish fruit loaf with a pastry casing and, like all the tastiest fruit- and booze-packed cakes, it's best made weeks in advance. In past years I've put together posh-looking hampers with a mixture of homemade and bought food treats for friends and family members. They still talk about them. Maybe that's because some of the goodies in their hampers were a bit obscure - that stick of bottarga, or dried mullet roe got tongues wagging. But it persuades friends to try unusual delicacies. And even if they do it only to be polite, they might find they like it and have been missing out all their lives.

I'll be doing the same this year but now I'm back into gardening I won't be able to resist adding the odd packet of seeds - for herbs, salads or weird veg, probably - and a ball of old-fashioned garden twine as well.

You can spend more on the container for your hamper than on the contents if you're not careful. But if you're ingenious you can pack almost anything with food. I save bits and pieces such as interesting boxes that once held posh chocolates, or old bits of china and ceramics - those terracotta dishes that ready meals sometimes come in, ramekins, jars and bottles all come in handy. Try charity shops if you haven't got anything you want to get rid of.

Ideally, the contents of these home-made food parcels should be a mixture of bits and bobs you can eat immediately, and some to be kept and savoured at the right moment. I'd include an artisan cheese such as Stinking Bishop (if there's any left after Wallace & Gromit fans have discovered it), or a good chunk of Parmesan with a Parmesan knife, chutney or preserve, either home-made or from a Women's Institute market so you know it's handmade in someone else's home.

The herby salt below is dead easy. It's also something children could easily make for that difficult-to-buy-for uncle. So is the rum butter.

The children need immediate rewards, too. That's why I've included cheese straws, cranberry and white chocolate biscuits and something for lunch if they haven't lost their appetite after all that nibbling at the chocolate and dried fruit for the cake.

You could enlist the children's help making cheese straws in advance for a party, but you'll have to make it worth the little helpers' while by letting them eat some straight out the oven. And the biscuits are just deliciously Christmassy, but if you make them any time soon it's unlikely they'll make it to the big day.

Scotch black bun

Makes 12-18 squares

I'd heard about black buns long before I ever set eyes on them. When I finally saw them in the deli at Loch Fyne, they looked like giant Garibaldi biscuits. Maybe the Garibaldi was the snack-sized version for carrying around in your pocket, because you certainly wouldn't want to carry this hefty cake around with you. Our photographer Jason Lowe was with me at the time, and happily munched on them after we'd finished the shoot. Which seemed apt, though it's more conventional to eat them after shooting game rather than photographs.

Black bun is now also at feature of Hogmanay but originally would have been eaten on Twelfth Night. It makes an interesting variation on Christmas cake, though, and should be made several weeks before.

For the pastry casing

250g plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder
125g butter, cut into small pieces
Cold water to mix (about 80-100ml)
1 small egg beaten to glaze f

For the filling

330g raisins
500g currants
85g flaked almonds, chopped, or nibbed almonds
120g plain flour
80g soft brown sugar
1tsp ground allspice
1/2tsp each of ginger, cinnamon and black pepper
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp cream of tartar
2tbsp whisky
50ml milk

To make the pastry, sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter with your fingers until it is a breadcrumb-like consistency. Mix to a stiff dough with the water. Divide the pastry into two and roll out the first piece on a lightly floured board to about 1/3cm thick and large enough to line a rectangular 16 x 26cm sponge tin, 3-4cm deep, allowing for a little overlapping. Roll the second piece large enough to fit the top.

Pre-heat the oven to 140C/gas mark 1. Mix all the ingredients for the filling together and press into the pastry then fold any excess pastry over. Place the rest of the pastry on top and prick all over with a fork and brush with the egg. Bake for 31/2 hours, leave in the tin to cool then cut into useable squares. Store in an airtight tin for up to six weeks.

Chocolate and orange truffles

Makes 80-100

Chocolate and orange have an affinity, especially at Christmas. I got the kids making these last year for their grandmas and aunts and they wrapped them up in little Cellophane packages with coloured ribbons. Ellie and Lydia were very excited and proud of their home-made gifts, and the recipients were thrilled. Of course the children like to eat quite a bit of it as they go along so this may seem like a large batch, but if you're going to the trouble, you may as well make plenty. They'll never go to waste.

You can mould these naturally with a teaspoon, roll them into neat balls with your hands, or a melon baller, or pipe them into lengths on silicone or greaseproof paper and cut them into 3-4cm sticks. You may find that you need to melt some more chocolate for dipping as you can never quite tell how much will stick to the truffles as you dip.

750g good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped (reserve 250g for coating)
350ml double cream
200g unsalted, softened butter
Juice and finely grated rind of 2 oranges
100ml orange liqueur such as Cointreau
60g good-quality cocoa powder

Put the orange zest in a pan with the juice and simmer it until the juice has more or less evaporated. Bring the cream to the boil in another pan. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the 500g of chocolate with a whisk until it has melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the butter, orange zest and liquid and the Cointreau. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool in the fridge (about 1-11/2hours) until firm enough to spoon into rough shapes.

Line a tray with clingfilm and spoon the mixture into roughly shaped blobs on the clingfilm. Leave to set in the fridge until firm and solid. Then melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring every so often. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes. Sift the cocoa powder on to a tray and have a third clean tray ready for the finished truffle. Using a thin skewer or cocktail stick, dip them quickly into the melted chocolate, ensuring as much excess as possible drains off, then put them into the cocoa powder, shaking the tray so they become coated. When you have about 10-12 coated, shake off the excess cocoa with your hands and transfer them to the clean tray. Store in the fridge in a container lined with kitchen paper until required, and bring them out of the fridge half an hour before serving. Don't keep them for more than a month. As if.

Cumberland rum butter

Fills a 500ml jar

This makes a nice change from brandy butter for your warm mince pies, Christmas pudding or the black bun. You can make this well in advance, keep it in a Kilner or airtight jar and just spoon it out when you need it. Use the darkest treacly looking sugar you can find, such as Billington's unrefined molasses cane sugar, sometimes known as Barbados sugar. I also use Mount Gay dark rum for this, which gives this a real extra kick. In fact I can't think why it's called Cumberland rum butter and not Caribbean. This also makes an excellent Christmas gift nicely packed in a Kilner jar, ceramic pot, or even rolled, or wrapped in f greaseproof paper and tied with some garden twine with a handwritten tag. Although if children are making it for their relatives you'll have to stop them tasting it.

150g unsalted butter
350g unrefined molasses cane sugar, or the darkest sugar you can find
1/2tsp of freshly grated nutmeg
A good pinch of cinnamon
100ml dark rum

Melt the butter in a pan, add the sugar and beat it in with a whisk or wooden spoon, adding the nutmeg and cinnamon as you are mixing. It should be almost like a sticky caramel. Mix in the rum and beat again until well mixed. Store in a sealed container in the fridge until required.

Sea salt with herbs

Makes enough to fill a medium jar

On a recent trip to France we visited Château des Erles in Fitou where the eccentric Marie José, business partner of the Lurton brothers and founder of that château, treated us to a delicious and simple lunch of garbure, the meal in a bowl: cabbage, vegetable and duck soup. We also had a great chilled tomato soup, one of the best I've tasted and totally different from a gazpacho. Sitting in the middle of the table throughout lunch was a big bowl of fleur de sel, the Atlantic sea salt. Madame had dried some herbs from the garden and mixed them with the salt and it was like an edible pot pourri, a beautiful, natural table decoration ready to be used as seasoning.

Needless to say I stole the idea and now have a lovely stone bowl - once the mortar part of a pestle and mortar set - filled with herb clippings from the garden and sea salt from Camargue. The children could make this as a gift, presented in a bottle with a cork, or a Kilner-type jar. Just don't let them go dipping their fingers in the salt - they get plenty from all those crisps they eat. You can dry the herbs in a very low oven as I've suggested, or leave them on a radiator overnight.

A couple of handfuls of herbs such as rosemary, tarragon or thyme
250g or more of sea salt

Pre-heat the oven to the lowest setting possible. Place the herbs on a baking tray and put them in the oven for an hour or so until they are dry, but haven't lost their colour. Break the herbs up and mix with the salt. Store them in a Kilner jar, or, like I have, just sitting in an old bowl in the middle of the table waiting to be used.

Cheese straws

Makes about 30-40 straws

You can't beat cheese straws as a party snack. In a recent survey by Waitrose, they came out top of all canapés. I've had shockingly boring cheese straws at parties and the secret of a good one is obvious from the name: lots of cheese and a thin straw-like shape. To get them thin and thoroughly cheesey the cheese needs to be as strong as you can get it. A mild Cheddar just ain't going to do it I'm afraid. You need good strong Cheddar that's almost gone too far and turned a bit farmyard, or even a hard old lump of Parmesan. I used the piece that's been in the fridge for a few months and is a struggle to grate on to pasta. If children are doing the grating, make sure they watch their knuckles.

200g puff pastry
100g freshly grated Parmesan or strong Cheddar (reserve 1 tbsp for dusting before cooking)
1 small egg, beaten
Flour for dusting

Roll the pastry to about 1/3cm thick, or thinner on a lightly floured table. Scatter with 1/3 of the Parmesan and roll it firmly into the pastry, then fold the pastry in half and roll out again to about the same thickness. Repeat the process twice more with the other 2/3 of the Parmesan then roll out finally to about 2mm thick. Brush with the beaten egg and scatter with the reserved tablespoon of the Parmesan and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Cut the pastry into strips 1/2cm wide x 18-20cm long. You can use all the pastry up by just cutting it on different angles - some will just end up a little shorter, or longer.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 5. Take each strip of pastry and twist each end in opposite directions until the whole strip is completely and evenly twisted, then lay on to a baking tray lined with greaseproof or silicone baking paper. Repeat with the rest of the strips of pastry. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

Makes about 12 cookies

If you can't find dried cranberries, chopped-up dried cherries would work equally well, although cranberries do have that sharpness as well as sweetness to them. And of course they're incredibly Christmassy. I included this recipe to keep the kids happy after they'd been making so many things for other people to enjoy. There was no chance these would be given away.

125g butter, softened
120g soft light brown sugar
A few drops of vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
150g plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder
A good pinch of salt
80g dried cranberries
80g good quality white chocolate buttons

In a food processor or by hand, mix the butter with the sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the egg until well mixed then sift in the flour and salt with the baking powder and mix until a smooth dough is formed. Spoon small amounts of the mixture on to a non-stick, or lighly greased baking tray and flatten them slightly with a spoon, leaving space between them to spread.

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until pale golden and slightly soft in the middle. Leave to cool on the tray then transfer on to a cooling rack and leave until cold. Store in an airtight jar if there are any left.

Maison Berteaux's tarte Dijonnaise

Serves 4-6 as a snack

I quite often pop in to Maison Berteaux in Soho for a slice of this tart if I've missed a lunch-time menu-tasting at our restaurants. I sometimes get that craving for the tangy mustardy tart, especially if I've had a late night. After the first two or three slices I sort of worked out what went into it, but for me that little kick of mustard really makes it.

After you've had a morning's baking with the kids you may well find you have some puff pastry left and this certainly fills the lunch time gap. The children may not like the idea of the mustard, so you could make it half and half, or just risk it.

250g puff pastry, rolled to 1/4cm thickness
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 red peppers, seeded and cut into rough 1cm dice
2tbsp olive oil
80g grated medium cheddar
2 eggs, beaten
2tbsp double cream
2tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Lay the puff pastry on a 1-2cm deep baking tray and prick it all over with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly coloured, then remove from the oven. Meanwhile gently cook the onion and red pepper in the olive oil for 4-5 minutes with a lid on, stirring occasionally until soft. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Mix the cheese, eggs, cream, mustard and cooked peppers and onions, and season.

Carefully turn the pastry over in the tray and spread the mixture over. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly coloured and serve preferably warm on its own, though you could have salad with it. I always offer the kids carrot sticks. After all those chocolate truffles they'll need healthy food.