Cookie Mix in a Jar – A Mason jar filled with pre-measured dry ingredients for M&M cookies. Give the jar as a gift, and all the recipient has to do is add the wet ingredients and bake.
We’re in the thick of the holiday baking and gift giving season. I always think that sweets are the way to go when gifting something edible. This Cookie Mix in a Jar is the perfect way to give someone a shortcut to homemade cookies. And who doesn’t love freshly baked cookies?
My Soft and Chewy M&M Cookies are one of my most popular recipes, so I decided to make a few adjustments to turn them into this delicious and festive holiday gift.
How to Make Cookies in a Jar
To assemble the jars, all you do is measure the dry ingredients and layer them in a jar. It couldn’t be simpler!
Flour, Sugars, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt and M&M’s – that’s it! Feel free to swap out some of the M&M’s for chocolate chips.
Don’t have M&M’s? Just use chocolate chips instead!
Tips for Making Cookie Mix in a Jar
It is important that your ingredients are layered into the jars carefully so that the layers don’t mix too much; this makes for a prettier presentation.
- Roll up a paper plate to use as a funnel to cleanly add the bottom layer into the jar.
- Use a spoon to carefully place the M&M’s on top of the flour. Don’t dump them in too quickly or they’ll sink into the flour.
- Make sure you have a nice even base of brown sugar (lightly packed in) so that the granulated sugar doesn’t sink down into it.
- The cookie mix will be a couple inches shy of the top of the jar. You can increase the M&M’s by ¼ cup or add some tissue paper to the very top if you want the mix to reach all the way. Note: If you’re decorating with fabric (like I did) it will cover the top of the jar.
- Decorate the jar with fabric and/or ribbon. I use a 6.5 inch circle of fabric.
Be sure to include instructions on how to turn the contents of the jar into a batch of cookies (see my recipe for details). The recipient will love having this jar on hand to whip up a batch of homemade M&M cookies with minimal effort.
↓LOOKING FOR REGULAR M&M COOKIES? THIS RECIPE IS MY FAVORITE!↓
More holiday treats
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Recipe
M&M Cookie Mix In A Jar
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Holiday M&M’s or chocolate chips, see note
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1-quart Mason jar
Instructions
Assembling jars:
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Pour into the bottom of a 1-quart mason jar (I rolled up a paper plate to use as a funnel). Top the flour mixture with M&M’s, dropping them in lightly, so that they don’t sink into the flour. Top the M&M’s with brown sugar, and then granulated sugar (use a spoon to carefully scoop the sugars into the jar). Seal with the lid and decorate with ribbon and fabric (see note).
Recipe to include with the jar (see note):
- In a large bowl, whisk ½ cup of melted and cooled unsalted butter, 1 large egg, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Add the contents of the jar and gently stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until combined (dough will be crumbly). Chill for 30 minutes.
- Form golf ball sized portions of dough, pressing firmly as you form the ball. Place the dough balls onto lined baking sheets. Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers of the cookies are still slightly underdone. Place baking sheets on a rack to cool.
Notes
- I used a 6.5 inch circle of fabric to decorate each Mason jar.
- This cookie mix comes just short of reaching the top of a 1-quart Mason jar. I decorate the top of the jar with fabric which covers the inch of open space at the top of the jar. If you would prefer to fill the jar all the way, you can increase the amount of M&M’s to 1 ¼ cup.
- The color of the M&M’s will bleed slightly into the cookie dough (once prepared). It is inevitable with this type of recipe. If this is concerning, you can swap the M&M’s for an equal amount of chocolate chips.
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Sue
Is it possible to create a cookie jar gift from any cookie recipe?
Allison
Not necessarily. The recipe has to be written for everything in the jar to be added at once and most cookie recipes require the ingredients to be added through different steps (butter creamed with sugar, then eggs, then flour, then “mix-ins”, etc).
Bella
I find that this recipe us too small to adequately fill a quart-size jar. There’s still a good 3 inches of space at the top of the jar which doesn’t look good for presentation. I’ll have to go with a different recipe next time.
Rachel
What happens if you skip the step of refrigerating before baking?
Allison
The cookies will spread too much while baking.
Jess P
I made these as little Christmas gifts for my family and everyone loved them! And the cookies are delicious, I’ve been using this recipe for a few years now and everyone always raves about them!!
Allison
I’m so glad! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂