The sweetest gifts are always homemade! Gift your friends and family with a homemade cookie mix that they can use to quickly and easily make a warm batch of homemade cookies. I’m also including two free printable tags: a holiday version and a non-holiday version.
Soft and chewy once baked, these are similar to my favorite chocolate chip cookies and make a great holiday gift! Make sure to make yourself a jar, too, for anytime you get a cookie craving!
A Sweet & Simple Homemade Gift
Before I jump into today’s post I need to say a huge THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all the kind email and comments about Baby Luke’s arrival. I’ve read every single one of them and Zach and I appreciate it so much 💙
I’m so obsessed with these adorable, gift-able cookie mixes. Hopefully none of my family members are reading this right now because I’ve made so many recently that there’s a good chance everyone I know will be getting one of these this Christmas. And how adorable would these be as a party favor for a baby shower or bridal shower?
Too cute.
How to Assemble Cookie Mix in a Jar
Sure, you could just mix everything together and toss it in the jar, but what makes this gift so adorable is those pretty layers that you can see through the mason jar. Fortunately, it’s easy to assemble. You will need quart sized mason jars to make this cookie mix. To assemble:
- Start with your dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make sure to stir these together very well! Layer this into the bottom of your mason jar.
- Pack it in! Your flour will be all fluffed up, use a spoon to tamp it down until you have a nice, firmly packed even layer.
- Top with brown sugar. I actually like to use dark and light brown sugar. It gives us an extra pretty layer and adds to the taste and chewiness of the cookies. First firmly pack down your dark brown sugar, then repeat with the light brown.
- And then more sugar! Top your layer of brown sugar off with granulated sugar.
- Have fun with mix-ins. You have some options here! I used a blend of Christmas-colored M&Ms, semisweet chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. Festive and delicious. You can use all chocolate chips, all candy, or use your imagination and use something else you know the gift recipient will love. Sprinkles? Toasted nuts? Toffee bits? I do recommend sticking to traditional cookie mix-ins as not all ingredients will necessarily keep well in the jar.
Don’t forget your tag!
You can simply write out the instructions for your gift recipient if you’d like, they are included in the recipe below.
However, I made some cute gift tags that you can print out here (here is a holiday version, and here is a non-holiday version if you’re viewing this post after the holidays). Print them on card stock and then use baker’s twine or ribbon to secure them to your mason jars.
So you have your cookie mix… Now what?
The idea of this cookie mix is to give a gift that makes making homemade cookies easy. As the gift card will tell the recipient, all you will need to make cookies out of this mix is:
- 12 Tablespoons of melted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Melt the butter and let it cool. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract. Now add the contents of the jar. Stir really well (make sure to break up any clumps from the brown sugar). Bake on 350F on an ungreased cookie sheet for 9-11 minutes.
Voila.
How Long Will This Cookie Mix Keep?
How long these cookie mixes last will mostly depend on the freshness of the ingredients that you’ve used. For best results, make sure your baking powder and baking soda are fresh and recently purchased. Generally, I recommend using within 3 months of making.
Enjoy!
Let’s make this recipe together! Follow me on my YouTube channel where I’ve already uploaded over 200 recipe videos that you can watch for free!
Cookie Mix in a Jar (giftable)
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (265g)
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup dark brown sugar¹ firmly packed (100g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar¹ firmly packed (100g)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1-1 ½ cups mix-ins I used a blend of Christmas-colored M&Ms, semisweet chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips.
To be added by gift recipient:
- 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and whisk until well-combined.
- Use a large spoon to spoon the flour-mixture into the bottom of your mason jar. Tamp down to pack down the flour as much as possible. Use your spoon to create a straight line of flour directly against the glass (so you have nice, even layers) but don’t worry if some of the flour in the middle is uneven or mounded. If you happened to get a lot of flour on the sides of the jar, you can use a paper towel or pastry brush to wipe down the excess flour.
- Add dark brown sugar to the jar and use your spoon to firmly pack over the flour. Again, aim for clean straight edges against the glass.
- Top with light brown sugar and firmly pack over the dark brown
- Top with granulated sugar.
- Top sugar with add-ins, filling to the very top/brim of the mason jar. You want all ingredients to be tightly packed in so they don’t shift during any transportation.
- Top with mason jar lid and seal tightly. Print off printable instruction tag (find link to printable in the "equipment" section at the top of the recipe) and attach to jar with baker’s twine or ribbon.
Instructions for Gift Recipient:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Let butter cool until no longer warm to the touch. Stir together cooled butter, large egg, and vanilla extract. Add all ingredients from jar and stir well until completely combined (make sure to break up any clumps).Drop by rounded 1 ½ Tbsp-sized scoops onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet and enjoy!
Notes
Jeanine
These are the yummiest, soft and chewy cookies I have ever made! My only recommendation is that the receiver promptly make the cookies after receiving the ingredients in the jar. From the time I received mine, I maybe waited about 1 1/2 weeks. By then, I was doing everything possible to try to pry the brown sugar layer out of the jar. I tried multiple utensils before I could finally get through that layer. Will definitely be making more of these in the future, just not from a jar. 🙂
Sam
I’m glad you still enjoyed them, Jeanine! 🙂
Emma
Super cute and easy to follow instructions! Making 9 this year as gifts for friends, super excited to see how they turn out. Thank you!