Hey guys!
In today’s post I am sharing with you super easy and quick Diwali gift ideas. You can gift these singularly/ all of them in a little gift basket or even keep them for your self! hehe! I would personally love to gift all of them together in a little basket since they all compliment each other so well. We have some cinnamon scented diya’s, vanilla and coconut body scrub, salted caramel sauce and sweet & spicy mixed nuts. I just love how every single one of these DIY’s turned out! If you try any of them out, please do let me know and tag a picture of them on Instagram. Happy Diwali lovelies 🙂
1. Salted Caramel Sauce
I absolutely love salted caramel and what can be better than having a whole jar of it at home? This makes for a lovely gift since the sauce has a fairly decent shelf life and can be put to many uses. Whether it’s just drizzling it over vanilla ice cream for that amazing butterscotch flavour or pouring it on cakes, breads, brownies…anything really!
Time: 10 mins
Yields: 1 cup/small jar as shown
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons of butter/ butter cut into 6 cubes
1 cup sugar/200 grams of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
Recipe:
1. Heat the sugar over a saucepan on medium heat constantly stirring it with a wooden spoon. The sugar will start to clump and turn into a brownish liquid. Just make sure to keep stirring so that nothing burns.
2. Once the sugar is melted, add in the butter. The liquid will bubble really rapidly but don’t worry. Keep stirring for about 2 minutes till the butter is completely melted.
3. Very slowly stir in the heavy cream. Keep in mind that the cream is colder and the liquid so it splatter/bubble rapidly.
4. Let the mixture boil for a minute and remove from the pan.
5. Add in the salt and stir.
6. Cool the salted caramel a little and pour into a jar.
Each time before re-using, simply put the jar in the microwave.
It lasts for 2 weeks in the fridge. If kept at room temperature, it’s okay for a day or so, so you can make it, pack it up and gift it. Just tell the guest to keep it in the fridge.
Sweet and Spicy Nuts Mix
These sweet and spicy nuts are as addictive as it can get. I don’t have a pure sweet tooth so these are perfect for someone like me who lives that hint of spiciness. These nuts are amazing to even munch on during drinking at a party or simply can be served with tea.
Time: 25 minutes
Yields: 3 cups of mixed nuts
Ingredients:
1. 3 cups mixed nuts (You can use as many or as little.Just modify the recipe accordingly I used 3 cups according to my jar size). I used Almonds, Walnuts and Cashews in equal proportions (about 1 cup each)
2. 1 teaspoon Salt
3. 1/4 teaspoon ground Cumin (Zeera Poweder)
4. 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper. I used Kashmiri Lal Mirch Powder. If you dont have either of them, you can use normal Red Chilly Powder
5. 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6. 1/4 cup water
7. 1 Tablespoon Butter
8. Cooking spray/a teaspoon of oil
Recipe:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking tray with butter paper/parchment paper and lightly coat with cooking spray or a teaspoon of oil.
2. In a large bowl, combine all the nuts with salt, black pepper, cumin and cayenne pepper/red chilly powder/Kashmiri Mirch powder. Mix all the ingredients together.
3. In a saucepan, heat sugar, water, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Cook for 1 minute and remove from heat.
4. Slowly pour this mixture mixture over the bowl of nuts and stir to coat. Make sure all the nuts are equally covered.
5. Transfer nuts to the prepared baking tray and spread into a single layer. Bake nuts in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
6. Take them out of the oven and stirn them around in the tray to make sure that nothing is burnt and the syrup is evenly coated. Spread into a single layer, return to the oven, and bake until nuts are sticky and roasted, about 5 minutes.
7. Take them out of the oven and place the nuts in a cooling tray. Don’t cool them in the same tray that you baked them in or they will continue to cook. Once they’re cool, put them in a pretty jar and they’re ready to eat/gift.
Sugar and Vanilla Body Scrub
If you love soap and glory scrubs, you would absolutely LOVE this one. Vanilla is one of my favorite scents so of course I had to make a body scrub using the same. This scrub is super cheap to make and works really, really well! It’s also really safe to use since you know you’re not putting any chemicals in.
What you need:
