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
SUBSCRIBE to our free NEWSLETTER – LIKE us on FACEBOOK – Follow on INSTAGRAM
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!
Becca
Hi! My jar was a little smaller than the one needed, so a little less than 1/4 cup of the flour mixture didn’t fit in the jar. Do you think that will be okay or should I hold off on gifting them?
Allison
You can leave out some of the mix-ins (M&M’s/chocolate chips) but all of the other ingredients should be in there in order for the cookies to turn out properly.
Jordan Campbell
Why is my jar so much larger than the ingredients in it? I have so much extra space I wasn’t hoping for ! Almost went with the 24 oz jars wish I did…
Allison
This is in the notes section of the recipe: 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.
Courtney
What is the wet ingredients I should be putting on the tag for them to Mix ins for the wet ingredients?
Allison
Hi, Courtney. It’s in the recipe card.
Recipe to include with the jar:
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.
hj
There is much more than 1 inch space at the top – I have about 3 inches of space, which looks pretty sparse. Suggestions? Adding 1/4 c. m&m’s isn’t enough.
Allison
Are you sure you measured everything correctly?
Hannah
Is this recipe per mason jar ?
Allison
Yes.
Phoebe Ervin
Hi! Allison! Thank you for sharing the recipe! I finally found 24 jars after searching everywhere! However, I was unable to find the holiday colored m&ms. I could only find the holiday peanut version so I grabbed six bags. Do you think it will make a difference in the end result? I don’t want them to not look or taste great when prepared. Any advise would help. If I need to omit the m&ms, I picked up a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, just to be safe. Thoughts? Thank you and happy holidays!!!!
Allison
Hi, Phoebe. That should be fine. I would recommend half M&M’s and half chocolate chips.
Jessica
I would really love to see a recipe for a pint size mason jar. Is that possible? Thanks.
Allison
That means there will only be about 2 cups of dry ingredients, which will make a small batch of cookies. You could try adapting this recipe: https://celebratingsweets.com/small-batch-chocolate-chip-cookies/ Good luck playing around with it!
Vie
How long do they keep in the jars?
Allison
I recommend baking within 2 months (assuming all of the ingredients are fresh).
Heidi Frank
I made several jars of cookies and was very disappointed to find that you did not include printable labels with baking instructions with the gifts. I can’t seem to find fillable labels that I can put the instructions on and am not sure what to do with the jars at this point except to make the darn cookies myself and give them as gifts. I had already baked my heart for the season, not to mention that it wasn’t what I wanted to give and I had already spent so much time putting together 18 jars!
Allison
Heidi, you can print the portion of the recipe that needs to go with the jars. Simply attach that to the jars with a ribbon or tape.
Marion Elizabeth
Love this gift idea!
Selena
Perhaps put the brown sugar down after the flour mix, the m&m’s sink regardless & putting brown sugar on top buried them.
Misti
Can this recipe be made gluten free by using gf flour?
Allison
That should work. Just be sure to use a 1:1 gluten free baking blend (not almond flour/coconut flour etc).