This Cookie Mix in a Jar is the perfect way to give someone a shortcut to homemade cookies. A delicious and festive gift!
Simply fill a jar with pre-measured dry ingredients and give the jar as a gift along with instructions for baking. Choose from M&M cookies or chocolate chip cookies.
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Why make cookie mix in a jar
This is a thoughtful and affordable gift that is perfect any time of year. Who doesn’t love freshly baked cookies? These jars are made with pantry staples, making them cost a fraction of what you’d pay for store bought cookie jars.
I especially love this gift for kids! Kids can assemble them and give them as gifts, or you can gift them to kids and they can make homemade cookies with minimal effort.
Ingredients needed
- Flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- M&M’s and/or chocolate chips
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!
You can layer them in any order you choose. I like the flour, leavening, and salt on the bottom. I put some chocolate chips/M&M’s in the middle and some on top.
Assembly tips
- 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 add the M&M’s and chocolate chips. Don’t dump them in too quickly or they’ll sink.
- Use fresh ingredients to ensure the best quality cookies.
- Attach the printable recipe card with the jar for easy baking.
- Decorate the jar with fabric and/or ribbon. I use a 6.5 inch circle of fabric.
Prefer to bake cookies?
Skip the jars and make our M&M Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookies.
More holiday treats
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Recipe
Cookie Mix In A Jar
Ingredients
- 1⅔ cups all purpose flour, spooned into the measuring cup and leveled
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1⅓ cups M&M's and/or chocolate chips, see note
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar, firmly 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 roll up a paper plate to use as a funnel). After this you can layer the remaining ingredients however you'd like. I usually top the flour mixture with granulated sugar, followed by 1 cup of M&M's/chocolate chips, brown sugar, and remaining ⅓ cup M&M's/chocolate chips. Be sure to spoon the ingredients in gently so they stay layered. Seal with the lid and decorate with ribbon and/or fabric (see note).
Recipe to include with the jar (printable version in notes):
- In a large bowl, whisk ½ cup of melted and cooled unsalted butter, 1 large egg, 1 large egg yolk, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Add the contents of the jar and gently stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until combined. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Scoop 2-tablespoon portions of dough. Place the dough balls onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers of the cookies are slightly underdone. Place baking sheets on racks and cool completely. Tip: For prettier cookies, use the back of a spoon to shape the edges of the cookies when they come out of the oven.
Notes
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!
Julie @ Julie's Eats & Treats
Ooooo I love Cookie mixes in a jar especially when I’m on the receiving end!!
Kim Overholt
Thus sugars flowed down into the M & Ms showing onto the jar so it looked messy. Is there at trick to keeping that from happening? Thanks!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi Kim. It’s important that the brown sugar is below the granulated sugar, since the granulated sugar is finer. The brown sugar will go down into the M&M’s a little bit, there’s no avoiding it. You can try delicately spooning the brown sugar onto the M&M’s, being careful not to “drop” it in from the top of jar. The consistency of your brown sugar might be a factor too, some brown sugar is finer than others. Sorry it didn’t work for you the first time. Good luck!
Kim Overholt
Thanks for replying so quickly. I think I’m going to try putting the M&Ms on top since the contents of the jar gets dumped out together anyway.
Sarah Bennett
Hi what size mason jar do I need for these??
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Sarah. It’s a 1-quart jar.
Kelly
Thanks. I separate the M&M’s into a sandwich bag and place that on top and amend the instructions to include taking out the M&M’s and placing them on top of the cookies while they are cooling.
They are a big hit. Thanks for the recipe
Celebrating Sweets
Perfect! Thanks for sharing your adaptations. Happy holidays!
Genevie
Is this a quart size mason jar i assume?
Genevie
Just kidding i just read the instructions in more detail. 🙂
Celebrating Sweets
Ha! No problem. 🙂
richard
I have made these cookies following the instructions to a tee three times now and my cookies are coming out flat as flat can be.
All my ingredients are fresh and measured properly……any suggestions?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi Richard. Sorry about that, how frustrating. My first suggestion is to make sure you remembered the baking soda and baking powder (I’m assuming so since you mentioned that your ingredients are measured properly). Usually if cookies come out flat it is because the butter is too soft. You might have melted your butter to a higher temperature that I normally do. I would suggest chilling the dough longer and moving the dough to the back of your fridge where it stays cold. You could even pop it in the freezer for a bit to firm it up. Good luck!
Richard
Sorry……when you said melted butter in your instructions naturally I microwaved it. I have batched 24 of these jars before I perfected my skill. I will give more detailed instructions on my label for friends as thick as I am.
Thankyou for your guidance!
Celebrating Sweets
I’ll add more detail to the recipe instructions. I’m sure this could be a problem for others as well. Sorry for any trouble. Hope they come out well from here out!
Ann
Also make sure to chill the dough before making them.. if you don’t cookies flatten out during the baking process… just a suggestion
Celebrating Sweets
Yes! It’s important that the butter isn’t too soft (just barely melted) or the cookies will spread. A bit of time in the fridge will help, just as you suggested. Thanks for stopping by.
Lydia Johann
I use shortening instead of butter
Sawsan
Do you have any printable label to download ?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! No, I don’t. Sorry! Happy holidays!
Janis Mack
Are the jars supposed to be full?
Celebrating Sweets
The ingredients should reach close to the top (see photo). I used a 1 quart mason jar, if you use a different size jar yours might not look the same.
erica
We received these cookies in a jar as a gift- my 13 year old son made them and they were DELICIOUS! So good in fact, we sought out the recipe.
Yum!
Celebrating Sweets
Fantastic! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and share your experience. I’m SO glad that you enjoyed them. Happy Holidays!
Angelic
I accidentally put half cup of brown sugar. Should I not give them out? I’m giving them as gifts. ?
Celebrating Sweets
Uh-oh! It will probably be OK. The difference (between 1/2 and 1/3) is a couple of tablespoons so they should still come out.
Shauna Johnstone
Hi,
Is there a way to make more than one mason jar’s worth at a time? I guess I can just make it one time and measure the first set of dry ingredients and go from there? But wanted to see if you had any tips. I wanted to make like a dozen of these.
Thanks!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi Shauna! I would recommend setting up an assembly line and filling all the jars at the same time. Place the flour and leavening in in all the jars, then M & M’s in all the jars, then sugar in all the jars etc. I can’t think of any easier way to do it. Just make sure your measurements are correct so that the recipients cookies come out properly. 🙂 Enjoy! -Allison
Tyler
How far in advance can I make these? I’m giving them as gifts and would like to give myself time to make them but I also don’t want them to go bad sitting and waiting. Also how soon should the person I gift it to use it.
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! I would say you could make them up to a couple weeks in advance. The recipient should use within a couple of weeks of receiving for best results. The jars could possibly store a little longer but I can’t say for sure as I’ve never kept them longer than a couple weeks.