Cookie Mix in a Jar

I have a friend that shares my love of cookies.  His slender wife, one of my dearest friends, appreciates sweets, but not like her husband.  He consistently exercises and keeps his weight to a healthy level, but definitely looks forward to a warm cookie on occasion.

Carolyn, his wife, recently shared with me a Sunday afternoon habit.  They are both busy people and empty nesters.  Ken, her husband, has driven a church bus for years.  As a result, he doesn’t get home from his route on Sundays until mid afternoon. 

After lunch, they settle in for a quiet afternoon together, sometimes alone, sometimes with a rambunctious grandson.  Part of their Sunday routine is for Ken to get one of those rolls of packaged cookie dough and bake cookies for them to enjoy together.

Doesn’t this give you a sense of a cozy family time?  It does for me. 

Ken has decided to forgo cookies for a time to get back to his pre-Christmas weight.  I had planned to give them cookie dough as a Christmas gift so they could bypass the packaged kind for a time, but I decided to take a different route. I made up cookie mixes in canning jars layering the ingredients so that they look attractive.  I add the recipe for making them up using fresh ingredients like butter, vanilla and an egg.  

The mixes make anywhere from 18 to 24 cookies depending on the size.  This is perfect for a small group of people without having a lot of leftovers to tempt the sweet tooth later.

I actually used my CC cookie recipe that I have shared on a previous segment, cutting the ingredients in half.  As long as you keep your dry ingredients under 4 cups total, they will fit in a 1 qt canning jar.  You can take your own favorite recipes and transform them into mixes that are shelf stable for 6 months. They can be made up in minutes.

I love to decorate the jars with fabric & paper labels that coordinate to the season.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

MIX IN A JAR

1/4 c. sugar                                                 1/2 tsp. baking powder and baking soda

3/4 c. brown sugar                                      6 oz. chocolate chips

1-1/4 c. all purpose flour                             nuts(opt.)

Layer ingredients in 1 quart jar as follows: sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder

and soda, chocolate chips, nuts.

To make cookies

1/4 c. butter                             1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. margarine                      1 egg

Melt butter and margarine. Add contents of jar, the egg and vanilla. Mix well. Preheat

oven to 350°. Form dough into balls about the size of walnuts. Bake 9-11 minutes

until lightly browned. Yield:1-1/2 to 2 dozen.

Note: Make a cute jar garter by tearing a strip of cotton fabric into 4" strips. Cut

length to 16 ". Sew ends together. Fold in half, press, then sew a casing in fold edge a

little wider than 1/4", leaving an opening to thread 1/4" elastic through. Cut a 9" piece

elastic, thread through casing, then pull to gather and make double knot to secure.