Different brands now have their limited-edition candy cane/peppermint stick pints and quarts in stores. There’s also peppermint bark ice cream, which includes bits of chocolate studded with peppermint.

If you want the fun of making your own at home, we’ve got some recipe options below.

The ice cream can be drizzled with hot fudge, packed into chocolate cookie pie crust, made into a trifle, added to hot chocolate or turned into a candy cane dessert cocktail.

This recipe produces white ice cream. If you want pink ice cream, add a few drops of red food color until the desired color is reached.

This recipe is from Williams-Sonoma, from their book Ice Creams & Sorbets.

Prep time is 20 minutes plus chilling and freezing.

RECIPE: CANDY CANE ICE CREAM

Ingredients For 1 Quart

1. WARM 2 cups of the half-and-half and the corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat, until steam begins to rise from the surface (3 to 4 minutes). Remove from the heat.

2. WHISK together the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a heatproof mixing bowl, until blended. Form a kitchen towel into a ring and place the bowl on top to prevent it from moving. Gradually add the hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly until fully incorporated.

3. RETURN the mixture to the saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring slowly and continuously with a wooden spoon or spatula, until the custard thickens and a finger drawn across the back of the spoon leaves a path, 8 to 10 minutes. Do not allow the custard to boil!

4. POUR the custard through a fine-mesh sieve set over a clean bowl. Stir in the peppermint extract. Add the remaining 1 cup half-and-half and stir to combine.

6. TRANSFER the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. At the end of the freezing stage, add the peppermint candies and continue processing just until they are blended into the ice cream. Transfer the ice cream to a chilled container, cover and freeze until firm, 3 to 4 hours.
 
MAKING AN ICE CREAM TRIFLE

Pair the candy cane ice cream with chocolate cake and whipped cream. The trifle can be made up to 1 week in advance.

Ingredients

 
For 2 Cups Whipped Cream

 
Preparation

1. CHILL the bowl, beaters and cream for the whipped cream.

2. PLACE a layer of cake cubes in the bottom of a straight-side glass bowl. Trim the cake as necessary to create an even layer.

3. SPREAD 3 cups of vanilla ice cream on top of the cake layer. Repeat process and top with a layer of cake cubes or crushed Oreo cookies. Top with candy cane ice cream.

4. COVER with plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Freeze for at least 1 hour, until the ice cream is re-frozen.

5. MAKE the whipped cream: Beat the cream, sugar, vanilla and salt to soft peaks with an electric mixer.

6. TO SERVE: Remove the trifle from the freezer 10 minutes in advance of serving. Drizzle with fudge sauce. Top with whipped cream before bringing to the table and add optional garnish.

But Breads from Anna Gluten is a gluten-free line that spares no effort to create delicious bread mixes to bake at home. We couldn’t believe that they were gluten free. (Nor could we believe that there were black beans in the brownies!)

Individual packages or gift sets.

The mixes are:

 
The breads have the same excellent taste and texture that one expects from a good piece of bread. The recipes can easily be made egg free.

The products are produced in the company’s dedicated, controlled, allergen free facility.

Choices include:

 
The products range from $5.99 to $7.99 at BreadsFromAnna.com.

There are also gift sets from $23.99 to $27.99, including:

 
If you’re thinking of reducing your own gluten intake in the new year, get some for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!

The better-for-you gift. Photo courtesy Zabar’s.

We like to send premium dried fruit gifts to people and families who focus on healthy living.

We like food gifts in the first place. Unless we know that someone really wants something specific, no one we know needs more stuff to fit into already jammed households.

If it’s an office gift, well, no office needs more cake, candy and cookies lying around during the holidays.

This 1-pound, 8-ounce tray is $24.98 at Zabars.com.

The fruits were picked at the peak of perfection, carefully dehydrated, then packed in a reusable wooden crate. The lucky recipient(s) will munch on dried Angelino plums, apples, apricots, kiwi, pears, prunes, yellow peaches and white peaches.

There’s a new egg timer on the market, one that’s purely visual.

We’ve been enjoying the new Taylor Egg Timer.

Simply place the timer into the water when cooking eggs on the stove top. The colors will change, indicating when you have soft, medium or hard boiled eggs.

Internal sensors in these 21st century egg timers calculate cooking stages precisely by temperature, not loosely by time. The timers heat up in precise synchronization with the eggs, and make automatic adjustments to accommodate the number of eggs, the amount of water and the altitude.

For people who make boiled eggs, it’s the new best thing. It takes the guesswork out of cooking eggs and you get perfect results every time.

And it’s a great stocking stuffer. It’s also a good for New Year’s resolutions: Make protein-rich hard boiled eggs for snacking.

Some background:

 
You don’t have to be a follower of the faith to participate in the feast. Adapt the tradition to your own celebration.

WHAT SHOULD YOU SERVE?

Anything goes. Italy has a wealth of coastline, so options were plentiful.

You don’t have to cook it all: Assemble a group of people to bring their favorite fish and seafood dishes (a curated potluck).

If you want to feast but don’t want to cook, check with local restaurants. For example, Chef Tony DiSalvo of the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica, California is presenting this tempting Feast of Seven Fishes menu at his restaurant, Cast:

Each course is half the size of a normal portion, and you can make easy-to-prepare appetizers for most of them. Here’s what we’ve served in past years:

 
For a kids’ menu, considera California roll, jumbo grilled shrimp, tuna noodle casserole, a seafood pasta dish and seafood-vegetable skewers.

Here’s more about the Feast Of The Seven Fishes.