DIY Christmas Cookie Mix in a Jar

 

This year Ally announced she wanted to make Christmas gifts for her friends at school.  Thrilled that she was thinking of someone and something other than her “Ideas of things to get me for Christmas” Google Doc, I happily obliged.   (We have reached the tween age of being very into clothes, shoes and beauty products… and in all honesty, the document was VERY helpful in my Christmas shopping!) 

 

I’m a sucker for anything personalized so any project giving me the excuse to order custom tags from Minted is a win in my book.  I figured Hudson may as well join in on our creative project and make a few for his own gifting, so I ordered them both a set of these adorable gift tags.

 

 

The cookie mixes fit best in 1 quart jars, so I picked up a case at our local craft store .  I also ordered these little snowman stickers  and personalized them with the additional ingredients and baking times for the recipe.

 

 

Like any recipe, I always suggest prepping ingredients before beginning.  To make it simple for the kids, I placed the correct measuring cup or spoon into each ingredient bowl so that there was no confusion on how much of each ingredient.  Since the flour was 1 1/3 cup, I put a 1 cup measuring cup and an 1/3 cup measuring cup into the bowl.  

*Recipe adapted from Bakerella’s Cowgirl Cookies 

 

Ingredients per jar:

1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup holiday m&ms
3/4 cup milk chocolate mini chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar

 

It’s important to layer the ingredients in the following order or they won’t turn out quite as pretty.  The brown sugar is a little thicker than the white sugar, so it holds the white sugar up and creates a pretty layered look! We learned this the hard way.

First: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
Second: oats
Third: holiday m&ms
Fourth: mini chocolate chips
Fifth: brown sugar
Sixth: white sugar

Be sure to pack each layer down really well to ensure everybody fits inside.  There was a lot of tapping the jar on my kitchen countertop during all the fun.

 

 

One thing that could have made the process a little easier would have been to use wide-mouth jars instead of regular canning jars.  It would have allowed a larger opening when scooping ingredients inside.  (See below for a visual of a few technical difficulties.. :))

 

 

We cranked up the Christmas music and filled jars!  My kids probably ate an entire bag of M&Ms throughout the process but ’tis the season right?

 

 

 

 

By the time we finished the last jar, my kitchen counter was COVERED in flour, sugar and oats.  Since we had so many extra ingredients, we made a batch of the cookies.

 

Use the same ingredients as listed above and add:

1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 cup butter softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients until incorporated.  Once everybody is mixed well, use a cookie scoop to ensure evenly sized cookies.  Scoop dough out on cookie sheet and then roll into balls.

 

Bake for about 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.

 

Also can we take a minute to gush over these adorable custom aprons from Minted??  I DIE over anything keepsake like this.  I’ll literally save these aprons until my kids have kids.  They are just so sweet!  They also make an amazing Christmas gift…hint hint.

 

Back to the cookies.  We set the clock for 10 minutes and came back to perfectly baked cookies!

 

Note Goldie in the photo below watching so curiously, hoping for a crumb to fall.

 

We baked two trays of 12 cookies (separately), making 24 cookies total.  By the time the second tray came out of the oven, my UPS man knocked on the door dropping off packages.  It was perfect timing!  I loaded him up with a dozen to finish off his nightly route.

 

I had been trying to stay away for sugar for a minute (and a minute it was).  I couldn’t resist eating one!  It was SO GOOD.

 

So there you have it friends!  Christmas Cookie Mix in a Jar, or Christmas M&M Cookies..whatever you want to call them, they are easy, delicious and UPS man approved!

 

 

And look how cute the jars turned out! The best part…we checked off Ally’s “friend” gifts two weeks before Christmas!  Get a head start you guys!! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

 

For another cute way to use these cookie jar mixes, check out Bakerella’s Cowgirl Cookie Mix.

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography