It's the season of giving. Whether it's Christmas you celebrate, or Hannukah, or…?, this is the time of year we tend to focus on doing for others. I love that.

It's with this thought in mind-doing for others-that I thought I'd share some great ideas for some of the best gift ideas ever. Wouldn't you agree that the best gifts come from the heart (and the pantry)? Me too. There's just something extra special about anything hand made.

And that's why I say these are great ideas. With these suggestions you can please even the pickiest on your gifting list this holiday season. I found these suggestions on one of my favorite foodie sites, Food 52. What you have here are DIY food gifts, from granola to hot sauce that defy the perils of cross-country shipping!

First up, how about from-scratch caramel sauce. Nothing beats the taste and quality of homemade caramel anything! But as with any cooked sugar product, success is in the details. You gotta use the right pot and an accurate candy thermometer. But when instructions are exactly followed, the results are outstanding. Here is a recipe from chef Alice Medrich that tops everyone I've ever tried:

HOMEMADE CARAMEL SAUCE (yield: 3 to 4 cups)

1 cup light corn syrup
2 cups sugar
3/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the syrup, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture simmers around the edges. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. (Meanwhile, rinse the spatula or spoon for use again later.) Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once more. Attach the candy thermometer to the saucepan, without letting it touch the bottom of the pan, and cook, uncovered, without stirring until the mixture reaches 305° F. Meanwhile, heat the cream in a small saucepan until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and cover it to keep the cream hot. When the sugar mixture is at 305° F, remove it from the heat and stir in the butter chunks.

Gradually stir in the hot cream; it will bubble up and steam dramatically. Put the pan back on the burner and adjust the heat so that the mixture boils energetically but not violently. Stir until smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, to about 225° F (or 228° F for a sauce that thickens like fudge when poured over ice cream). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Serve the sauce warm or hot. Store in the refrigerator (it keeps for ages) and reheat it gently in the microwave or a saucepan just until hot and flowing. You can stir in rum or brandy to taste. If the sauce (after reheating) becomes too thick or stiff to serve over ice cream, it can always be thinned with a little water or cream.

And here's a food gift idea that's a little more unique. How about homemade granola bars? This is an especially nice gift because of the health side factored in. Sugar cookies, ooey gooey bars and candy, etc. etc. pour in during this time of year. Not that they aren't appreciated, but to get a food gift that's on the healthy side is a nice break and thoughtful idea.

See what you think of this recipe from Kim Boyce's book, Good to the Grain:

CHEWEY GRANOLA BARS (yield: 16 bars)

DRY MIX

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, plus extra to butter the pan

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

3/4 cup raisins

WET MIX

1/2 cup honey

1 tablespoon unsulphured (not blackstrap) molasses

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Generously butter a 9 x 9-inch glass or metal baking dish. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot that will hold 2 cups of oats with ample room for stirring. Adjust the flame to medium and stir the oats every minute or so for about 6 minutes. The oats need to be about two shades darker than they are raw; keep a few raw oats on the counter next to you as a reference point.

Pour the toasted oats into a large bowl. Wipe out the pot and set it aside to use again for the syrup. Add 1/2 cup of flaxseed meal and the cinnamon to the bowl. Toss the raisins with the remaining tablespoon of flaxseed meal and chop finely. (Tossing the two together keeps the raisins from sticking to your knife.) Add them to the oat mixture.

To make the syrup, measure the honey, brown sugar, molasses, and salt into the reserved pot. Place it over a medium flame, stir to combine, and cook the syrup until evenly boiling, about 6 minutes. Resist the temptation to remove it early -- boiling the syrup gives these granola bars real chew. Pour the syrup over the oat mixture, making sure to use a spatula to scrape every last bit out. Then use the spatula to coat every flake with syrup. This means going over and over, tossing and scraping the oats together. Scrape the granola mixture into the prepared pan.

Form the bars, butter your hands and press the oats firmly and evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The outer edge of the granola bars should be darker than the rest and the bars should have a beautiful sheen. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the contents of the pan into quarters, for a total of 16 bars. Remove the bars from the pan and let cool before eating.

The granola bars can be eaten the day they're made, or kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Then there's the granola bar that co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Food 52, Merrill Stubbs shares that her good friend Sara makes. It's even easier to make than the recipe above. I like this recipe as well. It is easy to improvise (just in case you may not have some of the listed ingredients on hand) and the results are consistently delicious!

SARA'S GRANOLA BARS

(yield: 30 2-inch bars)

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

1 cup raw sliced almonds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

3 cups brown rice crispies (you can substitute regular rice crispies or puffed rice)

1 cup dried apricots, sliced thinly

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup almond butter

1 cup honey

1 tablespoon sea salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Heat the oven to 350°F. Toast the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds. (Sara recommends toasting them all separately because of different burn rates -- I found that the pumpkin seeds took the least amount of time, at 7 minutes, and the sunflower seeds the most, at about 15 minutes.) When all the items are sufficiently toasted, toss them with the brown rice crispies, sliced apricot and cranberries in a large bowl.

In a small saucepan, heat the almond butter and honey just to get melty, not cooked. (This is your glue and if it boils or even comes close, it gets hard and yucky.) Stir in the salt and cinnamon, then pour over the oat and nut mixture and stir. You want to get everything incorporated and 'glued' together without crushing the tender crispies.

Turn into a 9x13 baking dish lined with parchment and press the mixture evenly and firmly -- again, try not crush the crispies too much. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours. Cut into 2-inch squares before serving.

Finally, if you're not wanting to go to all the work of making caramel sauce, why not your own hot fudge topping? Or how about making your own marshmallow topping (or your own flavored marshmallows, for that matter)? And can you see how folks will love getting a tin of homemade granola bars rather than the proverbial iced sugar cookies?

Gifts of food are limited only to the imagination. So happy holidays and happy baking, cooking, concocting gifts that will ship well and please the pickiest!

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