How to make chili peanuts - edible Christmas gift

Looking for the perfect snack that’s bold, crunchy, and just the right amount of spicy? These chili peanuts are addictive in the best way possible – perfect for parties, lunchboxes, or an afternoon pick-me-up.

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• Recipe

I don't know whether I've ever told the story of how I came to be a blogger.

A very long story short, I was working in marketing in a regular 9-5 desk job and I was pretty miserable.

I didn't quite realise it at the time but I need to be creating things, doing new things and experimenting and being told what to do every day (one day it was write names on certificates!) was not up my alley.

Apart from the people, there isn't really anything I miss from those days, apart from good old Secret Santa.

Last year I had the genius idea of getting all my 'work friends' aka other food bloggers together for Foodie Secret Santa.

This year I cast the net a little wider and got some more Christmas-lovers involved.

I assigned three people to each person and we all had to make up a foodie gift and mail it out to our secret recipients.

Is there anything better to find in your letterbox than edible presents?

I'm trying to come up with a way that we can make this international so if anyone has ideas please feel free to suggest.

This year's inspiration for me came from my garden and the abundance of chilis (the one thing I have managed to keep alive all year).

These chili peanuts are so easy to make and you don't need many ingredients.

If you grow chilis then you'll just need some peanuts and the rest of the ingredients you'll already have.

They're pretty moreish though I have to warn you.

If you're really organised you can make the chili oil yourself (it's a bit late for this year but maybe next year) and chili flakes can be made by drying out some chilis in the oven then blitzing them in a food processor.

The hardest part is making sure they don't burn.

Just keep stirring and you should be fine. Now to the exciting part - check out all the other Foodie Secret Santa gifts below.

What about you?

Do you make Christmas gifts?

One of my favourite things to decorate them with is dried orange slices. 

More ideas for edible Christmas gifts: 

• Mulberry jam - this one is great because depending where you are (& when mulberries are in season), you can make it well in advance. 
• Onion marmalade - a great one for people to serve with their Christmas ham. 
• Mango butter - like lemon curd but mango. Perfect for an Aussie Christmas. 
• Milo biscuits - these are a favourite here in Australia. 
• Nigella Lawson Salted crunchie nut bars - if your recipient is a chocolate lover then these are sure to be a winner. They're quick and easy to make too. 

To add yours recipe to the hop please follow the instructions:

1. Somewhere in your post mention Foodie Secret Santa and link to this post.

2. Add your post to the hop.

3. If you would like to display all the other posts (you know you want to), click on the 'get the code' and copy and paste it into your post.

ps If you're a food blogger and you'd like to be part of this next year, send me an email to claire(at)clairekcreations(dot)com.

Recipe